The weight is coming down

I've been exercising consitently and eating pretty clean and went to weigh myself Saturday morning and I weighed in at 252.8 lbs. That's 3.8 pounds down from last week. That's a good thing!! I usually weigh myself in at the beginning of the day and that was the weight that showed up. Then after cleaning the house and moving around alot I jumped back on the scale and it read 250.3 But I'll accept the higher weight right now. There's only one problem Today is Memorial Day and there are many BBQ's going on that my family was invited to and it's that time of the month. AHHHHHH!!! What's a girl to do. I am praying for God to give me discipline for the opast two days because we've been running around so much I've only eat once a day and that's it, so today I know that I need more small snacks instead of one big meal. I've been doing my workout tapes and dvds instead of running the past 3 mornings but atleast I'm staying active right? I still feel a little guilty because I haven't been running but tomorrow morning it's gonna be on like popcorn. I'm gonna run to my hearts content then tell you about it LOL. Well until then pray me blessings from God on eating discipline.

excuse me while I do my victory dance LOL

Guess what?!?! i ran the WHOLE 1.6 miles today in 21:39 yippee yahoo!!!! I was so ecstatic that I could actually do it. It was still early about 5:58am when I went out and the moon was still high in the sky while the sun was rising and it was beautiful! I was just watching the moon while I ran and taking in my surroundings. Oh yeah my father drove past me running on his way to work and I waved at him. I know he was looking like, " okay when did she start running?" LOL Not alot of people know that I have been running. I don't tell everybody cause I don't like to look like I'm bragging about it. But I am sooooo happy I did it!1 I ran the WHOLE thing. I remember someone telling me a while ago that after you've hit your first mile the running gets alot easier, your breathing evens out and your muscles loosen up and your body is relaxed, I actually felt that today. In the beginning I run uphill so it is kind of hard but once I get past that 1 mile mark I'm easy breezing, floating through the run. I want to keep working at the route that I have for atleast another 2 weeks and see if I can up my time or maybe go a little farther as I keep going. All i could think about was information that I got on 3fatchicks.com about running and you only need to stop running when two things occur: when your legs are about to give out on you, or when your lungs feel like they will shut down. I remembered that and for the times when I was going to stop running and start walking I thought about that and as far as I could see my lungs were working just fine and my legs were going strong. I just put one foot in front of the other and repeat, lift those knees to pick up speed. That's what i did and I felt great I have been feeling great since I got up this Morning. Shoot God is good and anyone that denies that is crazy, my personal opinion. God has brought me so far in my life I don't know where I would be right now if it weren't for his amazing grace. Thank you Lord for the fruit of Self-control Galatians 5:22-24 NIV. Discipline and devotion to the Lord has brought me this far now all I can say is, "Whatcha gonna do today Lord?"

Wow check me out.

Okay so yesterday I got up early in the morning and worked out because it was my off day. I run one day and do aerobics and weight training on my inbetween days. I got a good work out in that I am actually feeling the effects of today LOL. I got up to get dressed and pulled out a size 18 skirt that a family member that lost weight had given me back in November and surprisingly it slid right up over my hips and my awful saddlebags and it looked great on me *smiling hard* I went to throw on a once too little shirt that fits just right now to go with it and I just stood in the mirror and looked at myself. I am finally getting my hourglass shape back!!! woohoo I just stood there and smiled. My face and neck are going down. I am actually starting to get a neckline yippee!! I just look in the mirror sometimes and wonder how in the world did I let myself go to that extent? Oh well no need to cry over spilled milk. Time to keep on moving. I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me because I was able to fit into a size 18 skirt so I went through my closet pulling out old size 18 clothes that I have and guess what they all fit!!!! Woohooo. Just to be safer I do still have a couple of size 22 clothes and 20 clothes around but I got rid of most of my size 24 and 3x clothing. I went to get a shirt from walmart to wear to be in uniform this past friday and picked up a 16/18 shirt just to see how it fit and it fit well, it was a little snug on my rolls but that's okay I'll be there in no time. I made a resolve that I would be back this week when I got paid to get the size 18 version of that shirt. I thank God because now that I am losing weight I can start buying more solid shirts. I'm so sick of buying patterns I just want a normal shirt. The shirt showed off my curves and everything. Also I think i was accidentally in big girl denail because I went to kmart to get a nightie and I bought a strawberry shortcake oversized pajama shirt in a 2x instead of the regular one size fits most cause I thought it wouldn't fit me and I bought some 2x pajama pants. Those things are falling off of me!!! woohoo The oversized shirt gives oversized a whole new meaning LOL.

I was tripping because I went to use the restroom before hopping into the shower and noticed that my skin looks like zebra stripes!!! Yikes i didn't even know I'd had strech marks in certain areas. My skin is justa hangin but I know with exercise it will tighten up, I pray. My neck even has strectch marks how weird is that? The dark spots in between my thighs are lighting up and they don't rub half as much as they used to. Great!! I'm just in awe of the changes that my body is making but I also need to find a remedy to cover up all of these stretch marks quick. i also have dark spots in particular areas too. I have heard something about scrubbing dark spots with lemon juice and it will lighten the spots I sure hope that works. I 'll do some research on it and check it out. and let you know if I come across anything. Oh yeah I'm currently reading Diary of a Fat housewife by Rosemary Green and she has me in stitches this book is great!

I just made a milestone in running!!

Okay so i went out for my normal morning run and because I'd been running a particular route for about a week i wanted to switch up and run up the hill first. I ran up the hill and it was hard believe me but I just had to keep telling myself that all you have to do it put one foot in front of the other. I run extremely slow because I am overweight for one and I don't want to run out of energy really fast i want the runs to last. Well guess what? I ran almost the WHOLE route!! I usually try to run one mile of the route and sometimes I make it and sometimes i don't/ I usually run out of gas at about 9 to 11 minutes. Today the Lord must've been in my ears pushing me cause I ran for 17:30!!!! Woohoo my whole route usually takes about 23 minutes. I finished today in 22! I am soooo happy yall I really am!!! Glory to God this weight is coming off in Jesus name!! I just cannot believe that I just ran outside pounding the pavement for a whopping 17 minutes. On the treadmill I can run for about 30 minutes but outside I had no endurance whatsoever. Thank you Lord I can run! My morning route is about 1.6 miles.

I passed the test

Yesterday when i got home from work I only had time to cook for the family and get ready to leave to get to church for prayer service. I am on the praise team so it's good for me to get there early.

Well I went into the house and for a change I turned on the cd player popped in Papa San and started washing dishes and preparing the food. Usually when I get home from work I'm too tired to clean and cook knowing I only have 1 1/2 hours till I leave to go to church. But while the music was playing I left the TV off and danced around my living room cleaning and preparing dinner. Dinner was excellent. Homemade tacos and burritos(no bean) and tossed salad. Well I made every ones plates and by the time I got to my own plate I only had about 5 minutes to eat it. I got pretty full and by the time I finally sat down I turned the tv on so everyone could watch and I ate. Well I couldn't finish my salad as a matter of fact I only took 2 bites. of my salad then put it up and rushed out of the door. I ate 3 tacos and 2 burritos. I know that was alot but I was really hungry and I didn't do any pinching or tasting while I was cooking which is a absolutely AWESOME!!!! I was sooo disciplined. I told myself that I'd put my salad up and eat it when I get home and be satisfied. Well we didn't get home until close to 10:30 and I put the salad up until todays lunch...YAYYYYY FOR ME!!!! I resisted the temptation and I drunk a large glass of water. My DH was of NO help. On the way home he decides to stop at wendy's and get everyone a frosty. I told him that he could have mines Kudos for more discipline :D i didn't give in to the fast food. I am trying to stay away from fast food as much as I possibly can. Thank you Lord for giving me discipline :D. I can't wait until my weigh in tomorrow I pray it's good. I got up this morning and jog/walked my 1.6 miles in 22 minutes and because I did a strength workout on my legs my inner thighs are a little sore but no pain no gain right? Okay until we meet again see ya!

New Weightloss challenge for june

Okay so i went to NP.com and there is a new challenge so I'm taking the plunge and by June 18th I want to lose 10 lbs. That would take me down to 246lbs. Saturday marks the last day of my past 90 challenge I took back in Feb to lose 25 lbs by may 21st. Well I was 10 lbs shy of losing it. I had to put my scale up because I was jumping on it everyday it almost became complusive so it's back to Saturdays only. I'm a little perplexed as to why it took me 3 months to lose 15 lbs My weight should've been coming off faster than that, but since it's not i have taken to journaling my food which I absolutely hate doing but since I know it will pinpoint the difficulty I'm gonna stick to it. It's on fitday.com and today I ate 1594 cals today. I didn't want to go over 1800 because that is my gage for my weight. So I figure if I can stay at this rate for the next 4 weeks i can reach my 10 lb goal shoot I'm hoping to go over it. I have to get a kick in the rear about exercise.....I've been consistent in calisthenics (crunches, side bends, squats, push ups) but I haven't been as consistent with aerobics or atleast I don't feel like it. I've been running 1.6 miles in the mornings but I missed my run today. When I weigh in this saturday i will post results. I pray that I have lost some weight. I am so tired of fluctuating around 256-254 I pray I stay consistent in weighin. Pray me luck guys.

Time for a new blog.

I was wondering are we supposed to write in this thing daily? Because if so I am soooo off LOL. I am gaining some perspective on all of this and balancing out my spiritual life and making time to workout is a challenge but it has to be done.

I have found myself going through a vicious cycle that I feel if I blog about it I will have to face it and make a change. My weekend eating is absolutely TERRIBLE. Sunday after church is the day that it all goes downhill!! We have these big sunday dinners and even with me cooking healthy I still end up overeating what is the deal? I'm usually not a breakfast person so on Sunday mornings I don't eat breakfast and if I do it's a fruit, oats, flaxseeds, and maybe yogurt or milk mixed in smoothie. I try to conserve my calories. But when I get home and start cooking I'm taste testing, I'm pinching here and there, and I eat and sometimes I do really good but sometimes....Like this past mothers day, I was very very BAD. I made an 8 x 8 Pan of bannana pudding and my husband bought a cake and no one wanted bannan pudding so guess who ate it all? "raising a guilty hand"
Then starting monday I am in the process of consecration and although I don't mention this to many this is my personal blog and I know that I need to talk about this. Well with the consecration I don't eat anything until after I get off of work plus I'm broke until payday(tire incident is the cause) so it works out alright. Except for one thing. I workout on my lunch. Well I don't have any fuel to workout on so by the time I get home it's over for the food, it's demolishing time.
I know that fasting leads to bingeing I'm not stupid or ignorant to this fact but my fasting is not about depriving myself of food it is really about spiritual enlightenment and hearing the Voice of God and seeking his face. So I'm stuck with a dilema.
I incidentally have my scale in the restroom so ofcourse everytime I go to pee I jump on it and I have been fluctuating between 256-258 back and forth it depends on what time of day that I get on. Well this cycle has to come to an end. I am becoming so burnt out that I have no energy to excerise when I get home. I'm not lazy or anything, Lord knows with 2 kids and a husband always asking for stuff I never have time to be a couch potato LOL. Plus I am active in alot of church activites, have a son in tee ball and my daughter is a girl scout. Sounds like I should be about 110 lbs right HAHAHA yeah right!
Anyhoo While working out I came up with this wonderful Idea.......because I am trying to run for my life to be healthier and I've gotten the basics down of cooking healthier and eating healthier and I'm striving to spend my mornings all up in Jesus's face stank breaf and all I might as well start working out early in the morning. I always read about and hear about the wonderful early morning jog that skinny and fit people do and I actually tried it once for about 2 or 3 months about 3 years ago and then just quit because of my work schedule and Quincy's work shedule and leaving the kids home alone and all. But NOW Quincy doesn't leave to go to work until 7:00 am because he is working at a new job aha!! I can get up at 6:00pm and instead of rolling around and whining cause God woke me up that early to pray and instead of snoring during my morning prayer I can hit the pavement and pray and meditate on the goodness of God all at the same time!!! Wooohoooo sounds like a winner to me. I think I'm on to something....Ok OK I can't take all the credit for this the Holy Ghost told this to me when I was coming back to work from a lunch workout and I took all the credit for this wonderful idea LOL. Sorry Holy Ghost I know I will not do it again *smh* LOL. Okay so now that I'm coming to a head with what I want to do about combining physical fitness and my spirituality, How do I control this stupid dangon overeating!!! I guess I need to go back to my Good Book, My instruction for living book the Good ole' Bible to find out about it. I was in 3FC forum and there was a woman names funniegirl that gave excellent insight on how to stay not only motivated but determined to get this weight off.
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56850

Create a plan and execute. Eating is 60% of the battle of the bulge so I'm trying to concentrate on eating better. Heck exercise is not the problem.

Goals

I think the first thing that i want to do once I get maybe abot 20lbs down is buy a REAL work out joggin suit. I mean like a girlie workout attire a cute top and bottom warm up suit cotton or something to that effect. I always where my big boy clothes to work out in. I have 2 and 3x shirts and jogging pants or jogging shorts. no matching sets or anything. As a matter of fact I put on a brand new 2x t shirt to work out in and I have a little bit of room yayy for me Thank you Jesus! I measured my waist and unbelievably my waist is down to 43 inches can you believe it?? That may actually be alot to most of you normal people but for me it took atleast 2 months just to get down to 44 inches and passing that mark is awesome!! See when I started this journey mt waist was 51 inches, and I teeter tottered down to 47-48 inches for a long while then when I made it to 46 inches I was on top of the world because I went down in clothing sizes and was feeling so much better. WEll i made it down to 45 inches and stayed there FOREVER and my goal was a 44 inch waist and when I made that mark I was sooooo happy. Then I'd read about folks waists being like 29-35 inches and that goal just seemed so unattainable to me but I am slowly but surely making my way there. I think when my waist gets down to about 40-39 inches I will go out and buy that two piece girlie slightly form fitting workout jogging suit or warm up suit or whatever you call it.

I was able to fit into a pair of queen sized pantyhose the other day and thought I would faint LOL I know it's crazy and yes once again that is not a small size but so what? I was having to get just my size pantyhose in 3x and 4 x or lane byrant, or ashley stewart panythose paying all that extra money for something that should never be a strain financially to get. Don't get me wrong as a big woman I have always thought I was the BOMB there was never any self hate----there was denial but never self hate. So shopping in the bigboneded women stores was never a shame for me cause I got some outfits that were too cute. I know how to work my size no matter what it may be and still be gorgeous, Thank ya Lord ;)

But these little insignificant things to most people mean so much to me really they are milestones. i came across a wonderful site and joined the forum it's called http://www.3fatchicks.com the people there are so supportive and the articles thatthey have are so helpful i recommend this site to anyone that is serious about losing the poundage. Well I must be leaving for now but until then stayed stuned good people and thank you for sharing a part of my life with me.

He's a wonder in my soul!!!

I tell yall today within the last 3 hours have been a wonderous occasion I was up at one second and so so the next then i look up and there's an opportunity for me to give God some Glory.

Okay so I had to go to my son's school to sign some paperwork for him to go to kindergarten so that meant that I couldn't go to the gym and workout for lunch. But ta daa there is a walking trail close to my son's school that is about a mile Long so I figure hey why not jump on the trail and test myself. I can run on a treadmill for 30 minutes but I used to not be able to run for 4 minutes none the less 1 mile on the ground. Why is that so . I grab trhe duffel bag and head off to the restroom in the walking park and change just as if I'm going to the gym. Lace up my shoes and hide my bag over in the corner of the stall and attempt to run one mile. I kept telling myself " girl please, you can run 2 miles on the treadmill so what's gonna stop you here?"
I continue to run.....there are hills and small valleys and I notice that the trails are not straight and flat but some curve and bend. Then I realize that as I run my breathing gets uneven and I'm huffing and puffing. Then I hear this little voice(holy ghost) telling me, " Unnt unnn you have to pace yourself, slow down and relax your body this is not a race and you have built plenty endurance so you run easy" So i get my rhythm down.
Then I continue to run and I stop looking at the little meter markers on the ground and how far I have to go and I take a look around me as I run/jog (I call it jogging because I am Sooooooo Slow LOL)
Then as I run That same little voice on the inside of me saying, " You go girl Nikki is a DAWG you are running this turf like you own it. You can make it your almost there, There you go work it girl!!!!" And the next thing you know I have made it around the trail. Hallelujah Woohoooooo Yay for Nikki!!!!! I was rejoicing so much so that I was walking lifting my hands almost out of breath Praising Jesus Jumping up and down and saying thank you Lord.

I check my watch, My goodwill running watch that would normally cost $50. + dollars that I purchased for $3.00 and I have ran 1 mile in 11:42 Hallelujah. This goes down in the record books sisters and Brothers I have did 1 complete mile running in 11:42 minutes God is great!!!

So i rush to the restroom change clothes hop in my car and take off for my sons school. I get there and it's nap time so I'm tiptoeing around and I sign the paper work. Check my watch and Oh Lord I'm coming back late from lunch and for some odd reason my car is shaking something terrible then I pull up to the stop light and pray for it to change because I want to get back to work on time and POOOOOPPPPP!!!! my tire bursts right there, atleast 1/2 mile away from my job.

What's crazy is I don't even freak out. I look up and catacorner to me is a marathon gas station with a autoshop in it. I thank the Lord and roll my busted tired baby on into the parking lot. Thank God I didn't have to sit in the middle of the street right. So As I pull over I think, Man am I glad that I saved a little bit of money from last weeks check. But how do I get to the bank to get it. I talk to the technician and explain the incident and ask how much will it cost to replace the tire. I called my boss and told him the situation and told him I'd just walk up to the job since it wasn't far at all. As I'm walking it's cold outside but I have this little song in my heart and as the cars are whipping by me and the cold wind is blowing in my face I just began to sing:
"This joy that I have, The world didn't give it to me, This joy that I have the world didn't give it to me, This joy that I have no the world didn't give it to me, No the world didn't give it and the world can't take it away, This peace that I have..........." So as I'm singing I get back to the job.

I get to the Job and I'm wondering who I can ask to take me to the Bank to get my money out to the pay the technician. I find a boss to take me and we conversate on the way there talking about the kids and all and I'm just so thankful that God gave me the strength and put me in the right spot ya know? So I go to the bank and the lines aren't that Long and I thank God because my boss is on his lunch break and he didn't have to take me and the last thing I wanted to do was take up his time. Well I get in and out of the bank in a hurry and we get back to the gas station and as I am standing there in the lobby waiting to talk to the guy about my tire, this lady walks in and asks me am I in line and I tell her yes and she tells me she's waiting too then she starts talking to me, I mean like really telling me somethings that are going on in her life how she just lost her job, just got a divorce, she feels like she is ready to give up and The Holy Spirit that is within me nudges me to say something. In my flesh I didn't want to really comment on it because I didn't want to say anything to offend so I let the hly Spirit within me do the talking. And I noticed that really all she wanted was someone to just listen to her. So I listened. Then I told her that the Lord will sometimes shut one door to open another one for her and the technician comes out and takes my keys. As she walks away something within me tells me to stop her. And so I stopped her and asked her since she has moved to Cincinnati has she found a church home and she says yeah she's found one but she's really not into this church it's something that rubs her the wrong way about this church. I told her well I have been called to be an intercessor and the Holy ghost is trying to do some things with you so if you don't mind can I give you my number or atleast have you come visit my church sometime and no matter what we'll pray about these things. she stopped dead in her tracks and almost started crying and said here you take my number and please call me cause I need alot of prayer.

Yall i could've done a backflip at that moment right there because in all of my tests that happened today I could've shook that woman off and treated her like her problems were just that.....her problems but you see in the Body of Christ we are all members fitly joined together in which the head is Christ. We NEED each other to survived the bible says to let the strong bear the infirmities of the weak and I believe that God will bless that women for reaching out and I know that he will bless me for being obedient. So when I got back to work I was on cloud 9 I went to the break room to pop my popcorn and just started praising the Lord and I started praying for that woman in the breakroom I didn't care who would've walked in on me neither. I'm still on a spiritual high that I have gained a sister to pray for and I ran 1 mile. I eman does it get any better than this?