Day 112, 113, 114 & 115: Fabulous Christmas Break!

First, let me start by saying three things. (1) Thank you all for your kind, motivating words about mine and Austin’s progress. I can’t say enough about how great it is to have your support and to be ‘in this together!’ And thank you for asking me to post the progress pictures – I never would have done it – too scared! But now I’m glad I did. I feel like I’m a pretty open book, especially now, but if there’s ever anything you want to know that I’m not sharing – let me know! I’d love to help in any way I can, or just share ideas, tips, etc. (2) This is going to be a LONG post filled with lots of pictures. I’ll TOTALLY understand if you can’t make it through! Haha (3) I hope you all had amazing, relaxing, fun-filled holiday breaks!! I know I enjoyed mine… K – time to look at these last four days!! Ah, self-analysis…

Day 112: Tuesday – Last Work Day!

So Tuesday started out slow… literally, I was on a doughnut (from the flat tire)! And my weight was up another half pound to 119. I worked hard, dropped my car off to get the flat plugged (or get a new one depending on the issue), and went to a fabulous lunch with my co-worker! Back to Chequers seafood grill – YUM! I went to pick up my car and imagine that – it needs a new tire…. and TWO OTHER new tires AND the alignment is off. So… $400 later (so glad my car’s tires are tiny aka cheap!) I’m back at work for an hour until I head out at 4! Not bad! I went to the gym for 5 miles, abs, back and biceps – GREAT workout. Listened to a lot of Second Chances and only have one disc left! I got home to yummy pizza muffins and family night with Austin and Reuben!! At the end of the day I had 1,492 calories, 158 carbs and 59 fat grams. Wow - fat is over for the first time – random! Well I earned seeing that I helped myself to fudge TWICE that day! So good… and come on, when ELSE will I have fudge? Never. Such a holiday treat. Here’s what I ate!

Construction update: Basically – they’re all on vacation. Lovely. So nothing has been resolved about the letter, the lamp/end table, additional $ off of our rent, etc. They’re back Saturday…. I officially let it go, ready to be with my family and have fun and not complain!

Day 113: Wednesday – Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was fabulous! I got up early, weighed 117.5 (down 1.5!), took the progress pictures, went and walked 3.5 miles, hopped in the shower and headed to Van Michael for a haircut. She took off so much and did a fabulous job thinning it – I love it! It feels SO light! I swung by the liquor store for more citrus vodka (huge fan now) and went home to Reuben! We hung out, wrapped presents, ate lunch, packed for my sister’s house and headed out around 2 p.m. for Decatur! (only 20 minutes away) She had done an AMAZING job decorating (as per usual). Her tree, table linens, everything down to name tags was so cute, perfect and Martha fabulous! I hung out at her house blogging, watching TV, visiting, and taking TONS of pictures – love it. We had a family dinner with me, Austin, my sister, her husband, my parents and my sister’s husband’s parents and sister and her husband – great group! Later, we played wi and opened presents. I got the most wonderful, thoughtful gifts from my family – I can’t wait to use them! And – because me and my sister are who we are – we got each other the same gift! I kid you not. She did hers more cute & creative because she’s so much better that way – but we each got each other cereal dispensers! (she did parts 1, 2 & 3 – the first part being 4 adorable white, footed Ikea cereal bowls, the second part was two gifts – my favorite cereal and Austin’s favorite; the third was the dispenser…. I just gave her the dispenser… I’m such a loser!) What a super, super fun evening! And no, I didn’t worry about what I ate at all! I dug into my mother’s fabulous lasagna, garlic/butter bread, cream cheese/wheat thin appetizers and coconut square desserts – FAB! For spark people I just estimated (high – just in case) and ended up at 2,108 calories, 248 carbs, and 93 fat grams – eek! Highest fat grams in a day ever! Here’s what I ate.

Family Photo


Reuben & his Uncle Momo the Maltese


Me and Devie with our matching cereal dispensers!

Her ADORABLE wrapping and numbering of the gifts

My sister's handmade placecards!

Reubey - festive as always.... love it!

Close up of her fab tree!

Me and Austin - big cheeseballs in front of the tree!

The FURNITURE even has a Christmas feel! Love it.

One of the tables!

Day 114: Christmas

Christmas was great, too! I weighed 118 (up a half from yesterday but not bad!). We headed up to Austin’s grandparents house early in the morning for breakfast, dirty santa, spades, gift giving, lunch, etc. It was a great time! So good to see his family, spend time with them, play with Reuben in their huge yard, meet his Grandpa’s new Jack Russell pupper – awesome! Did I eat good? No. Was it worth it? Of course! People very much noticed our weight loss and were super proud of us so that was nice. One of his aunt’s is a big time walker so she was very interested in our progress. We left there around 6 p.m. and got home and CRASHED. I had to estimate the homemade dishes from dailyplate.com and calorieking.com – but at the end of the day I estimated at 1,896 calories, 204 carbs and 78 fat grams – WOW – lots of bad food, all day long. Again, when do I get Austin’s mom’s lasagna? Or his aunt’s hash brown casserole? Once a year – YUM. Here’s what I ate.

Reuben made a new friend in the baby Jack Russell (To Be Named). Yes, Reuben has a freakishly large head... but we love him!

Me & Reuben runningn around in Austin's grandparents' front yard!

Oh how pupper loves grass!

Austin & pupper running around!!

hehe - our little bunny

Reuben's grandma got him an 11-piece American Kennel Club set! The toys are these little lifelike woodland creatures. His current victim? The rabbit.

Reuben & one of his Christmas prezzies - a turtle.

Day 115: Mom’s Birthday

I woke up early Friday morning AKA my mother’s birthday feeling fabulous! And I weighed 116.5 – YES –lowest yet! I was at Pottery Barn when the doors opened to buy some items I’ve had my eye on (waiting for the sale). My mother gave us a generous PB gift card so I ended up getting three pillows and two birch vase sleeves – would have cost $250…. Got it all for $130! Yesssss. I raced to the gym, walked 3 miles, then my mom, sister and stepsister picked me up for a fun day of shopping at Swoozies, Limetree, Rooms to Go, Macy’s, William Sonoma, Anthropologie and Ann Taylor Loft. Yes, I’m still doing my ‘no random spending/shopping’ thing, but I did end up with: three clearance, adorable Christmas stockings (for me, Austin & Reuben), a big Thanksgiving bowl, a Buckhead Betties brown tote bag, and more CUTE PJs (Hue – on sale of course – 2 nightie dresses, a shirt and a pair of pants). Successful day! Not so successful on the food front though – eek again! I ended up at 2,145 calories, 270 carbs and 59 fat grams. Here’s what I ate. It’s official – 3 high days in a row! I’m going to get back on track soon!!

Mom's dinner at Ted's Montana Grill in downtown Decatur- so cute.

Followed by family game night with me, my sister, our husbands, my mom & Mike and our stepbrother & stepsister Philip & Jill. Gotta love Apples to Apples!

Me, my mom and my sister pre-shopping (yes, the pictures are out of order - I had no patience with blogger today!)

That's it!! I know I’m still a little behind…. But I’m on it! and I’m ready to get back to normal and get back in the gym! I hope you’re all doing great – can’t wait to catch up with you!