So, tomorrow I'm off to celebrate Christmas #1. It's someone elses home and usually I can be pretty good about not eating too much (cuz I never feel comfy shoving my face when it's someone elses home). BUT, the downfall is that I can't CHOOSE exactly what I want to eat. But, I'll try to keep my portions small. You have my word on that. THEN, I come back on Sunday and my family arrives. FIRST thing they want to do is take me and the family out to dinner! So, IF I ate bad already this weekend, I'll be in that "all-or-nothing" mind-frame and things will go downhill from there. THEN, next day is Christmas Eve, and following in my family tradition there will be soup and cookie making. I can't resist cookies. There's something in my DNA for the last 6 months. I wish I could fix that....but then the next day is Christmas, where we have a yummy Christmas breakfast after the opening of gifts. (I am being SMART and getting fresh fruit to make for breakfast, pineapple, melon, grapes, etc). But then the "feast" begins. So...we'll see what happens. Last time my parents were here I did GREAT at eating really well, so hopefully I can remind myself that a hundred times over the next few days...lol. Either way, if I induldge, oh well. There's always tomorrow. And with EVERY fitness/health lifestyle, there will be on days and off days. If "Christmas" happens to be my off day, I think we can all agree, that's not the end of the world. :)
Love you, have a Happy Holiday! Those of you getting newsletters, it should be any day now. Hope you like them...
Ash

weight: 144 (gained 1/2 lb from yesterday cuz I had a potato before I went to bed. My body hates me sometimes. lol)

This may have been one of the busiest weeks I've had in a REALLY long time! I STILL managed to hit the gym a few times, but this week was ROUGH! I've been eating pretty well the last few days, and the weight is starting to come off again, so that's good. The reason I've been SO busy, in case you're curious is I've been working on Christmas cards/Christmas newsletters/Christmas shopping and Christmas cleaning. lol. This whole week when I wasn't at the gym/sleeping/shopping I was trying to make my little dinky family newsletter. This time I wanted to do something a little different and I chose to include friends AND family instead of just family. This may've been too ambitious. Not only am I mailing this off to more than 50 people, but I wanted everyone to feel good about the pics I chose for their "section" (if they didn't send me one) so I was scouting though HUNDREDS of pictures for many people. If you know me, you know I take a ridiculous amount of pictures, and I wanted everyone to have a good one! Then I resize them, figure out different fonts and colors for their section and blah, blah, blah. My ink ran out not once, not twice, NOT three times, BUT 4!! AND I STILL need to fill it RIGHT NOW! There are a couple people on my mailing list that I chose to NOT send newsletters to because I didn't want to go out and buy MORE ink AGAIN. I just wanted to be done and over with these newsletters and so I just sent cards to a couple people. ...Enough about my rant though, lol. Things are good. I'm getting on the lower end of the 140s, which is ALWAYS a good thing. I remember when I was in the mid-130s.....sigh...that lasted what a week? hmm... One thing I'm happy about is I'm not rushing it anymore. When it comes off, it comes off. Eventhough I got a couple weight-loss competitions going, I'm not putting too much pressure on myself because I know if I do too much then I'll get that "i can't do it mentality" and just gorge on food! We don't want that! lol. So...my next big challenge will be making it through Shane's Family's Christmas (next weekend) and then my family comes for the actual Christmas days and there will be MORE food. I don't want to overdo it, and as far as food goes, I know I'll be fine. My ANNOYING weakness will be the blasted Christmas cookies!!!! lol. AHHHHH. Why do I have to like sweets lately?? I never cared THAT much before. Salty food was my weakness. Not anymore...boo.
Okay, well, i'm just mumbling on and on. I'll write more later. I am proud that although I haven't written in a week I didn't do terrible...I've just been busy. Hopefully this coming week I can continue to do well! love ya'll!
Ashley

weight: 144.0

p.s. OH, my very sweetest friend EVER has started a blog, too. So, if anyone likes reading these sorts of things for motivation and wants more, here is her addy for it:
http://flab2fabfat2phat.blogstream.com/

So, it's December. Wow, huh? This has been one of the fastest years of my life. Scary... some of you might be proud to know that I have had my first successful monday through friday this week. I hit the gym nice and hard Mon, Tues, and Weds. Couldn't on Thurs (yesterday) cuz I had a blood draw for Pracs and we can't do that the day before unless we want to have a REPEAT draw if our liver enzymes are outta whack...and I don't want to drive 5 more hours there AND back if I can avoid it. But...I will be hitting the gym tonight (after a nap). I haven't slept since Wednesday night, and 2 energy drinks later I'm losing my second wind. Last weekend I caved and did badly. Chocolate chip cookies called out to me, not gonna lie. And they were delicious. I KNOW I should ignore the cravings, but sometimes I just don't care. That brings me back to the comfort level thing. I look at my body and say, "who cares if I eat bad today? If i gain a pound or two I'll still look the same, so who cares" and BAM then i eat bad for a couple days straight and gain 5-6 and then spend the next week correcting it. (as i've been doing this week.) I woke up on Monday weighing in at 153.something...this is after being 146 just a couple days before. Here I am 5 whole days later of eating super clean and working out and I'm still 147.8. Oh well, can't change it now, but it's good to know that i DONT want all my hard work to go undone. If i were to eat bad THIS weekend ALL my hard work NOT eating bad and being at the gym for 2 hours this week would've been for NOTHING...so that'll motivate me to not be a jackass. Hopefully. LOL.
Nah, I think i'm good now. I got 2 dozen krispie kreme donuts today (glazed original are DELICIOUS) and I gave them to my inlaws when they watched the kids for me during my return draw. Then I gave some to Shane to give to his work people. It feels better to give OTHERS bad food more than it does to give to myself. I KNOW if I'd of eated a donut I'd of been annoyed at myself immediately afterwards and then probably thrown away the whole weekend. I didn't, I survived the temptation AND I feel good about it. Hopefully that's enough to pull me through the weekend. lol. Okay, i'm tired and going on and on about who knows what cuz I'm SOOO tired it's like being drunk for me. Have a great weekend everyone.
Ash

weight: 147.8