Monday, September 22, 2008

Ten Wonderful Things About You

A few days ago a friend of mine gave me an excellent piece of advice. She said, "Make a list of at least 10 exceptional qualities that you possess, and put it on your bathroom mirror. Then say them out loud to yourself every morning. That might sound hokey, but women don't hear often enough what they do well, or what is good about them. That means, sometimes we have to say it about ourselves."

Being the happy-go-lucky person that I am, I said, "yeah, I need to do that!" So I did. You don’t have to limit your list to 10 things, though, I ended up with 11 and over time will probably add a few more.

Now, I would like to emphasize the importance of two things:

1. Put Your List On a Mirror
To be exact, putting your list on THE mirror, you know, the one that you look into the most often, the one that you endlessly criticize yourself in- that mirror. And don’t say you never look in a mirror because I won’t believe you… unless you’ve removed all mirrors from your house and then I would highly recommend getting psychiatric help.

Also, placing that list of all the marvelous, amazing, extraordinary things about YOU on your most popular mirror will make it always visible to you. This way it will remind you how great you are! And that you need to do the following:

2. Say the Words Out Loud
Every morning when you see your list say every item out loud. Yep, it feels silly, yep, it may feel like you’re lying, and yep, it’s uncomfortable, but that’s the whole point! Saying the words out loud is to over come all those negative thoughts that are trying to control and eat away at your self esteem. You are a wonderful, beautiful woman! You have amazing qualities, talents, and features. Believe in yourself!

Hearing ourselves actually say the things on our list triggers something inside us that says, “Yeah, I am all that, AND a bag of chips!” But just when we accept this truth the wicked witch of negativity swoops in and starts blasting a load of evil spells at us. Some of the common spells she uses are things like:

“Biggest Nose, Ever Spell”

“Major Fat Butt Spell”

“Spell of ‘If Only…’” (i.e. if only I weighed less, then I’d look good; if only I was taller, then I’d be thinner; if only I didn’t yell at my kids, then I’d be a great mother)

These spells have devastating effects because they are spells of mass destruction! They wipe away our feelings of self worth- so take a stand for yourself! Defy the witch by rejecting her evilness and then embrace all the wonderful things about yourself. That means repeating your list at least every day, better yet, every time you see it: when you’re doing your hair, make up, or brushing your teeth- okay, that might not be the best time to say your list out loud, so think it in your head.

Also, when you’re saying your list out loud look yourself in the eye. I know it’s hard and will take some practice, but you can do it! Don’t you want to feel better about yourself? Then become a true self patriot and give yourself what you need, which is praise. When was the last time you praised yourself (and not in a sarcastic way), meant what you said, and then accepted it!

As a special note, several of the items on your list should be about your wonderful, physical traits because, as my friend advised, “so that you can make sure your brain is not saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about....’”

Now go do it right now... you know you wanna!

Updated: Oh! And I think every woman should have in spot #1 or #2 "I am a beautiful woman!"

Monday Review is tired, so very tired...

So, it's Monday again. Where the heck did last week go? I had a disappointing week. I tried to give up the Coke habit and did ok resisting it, but was curiously lethargic until about midweek, when I realized that the only thing that had been keeping me from being comatose by noon was the regular and massive doses of caffeine I was accustomed to. Bleh. As for exercise, well, it's hard to exercise when you are mostly asleep all day. So, no weight loss. But no gain, either. Silver linings and all that, I suppose. My plan for this week involves a slow weaning off of the caffeine, clearly cold turkey just doesn't work for me. I just need to find a source with less sugar. Also, I'm going to try this 'most important meal of the day' that everyone keeps raving about. We'll see...

Goal: 1/2lb

How about you guys? Good, bad, or ugly week? New goals?

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Because Coke is the new Crack

Sometimes I want to go back in time and find the guy who invented things like, oh, I don't know, coca-cola, and just punch him in the throat. Anyone else? Anyone? No? Just me then? Alright, I jut wanted to put it out there. It would be kind of a fun little field trip, I think...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Behold!

Look what I made!



I'm trying to figure out how to share the code so you guys can add a clicky guy to your blog if you like, but I can't figure out how to write it without generating the stinkin' picture. So, if anyone understands my babbling and knows how to help me, please do!

Edited to add: I figured out an easy-peasy way to add it! Woohoo! Anyway, if you use new Blogger and want to add our linky, add it as a picture in your layout gadgets. There's an option to add a link in the picture, so just pop in our url. The url for the pic is at http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn137/freedomcows007/button.jpg
Hope that works

Monday, September 15, 2008

Monday again

So, at one point last week I was down another half a pound. . .and now AF has reared her ugly head and I'm up again today. To make myself feel better, I'm going to ignore today's numbers and go with the better numbers from last week.

I'm been a little hormonal and hate it! I'm so done with having kids that I'm looking forward to this phase of my life being over.

Until next Monday :-)

Monday Review eats Chicken Soup

Happy Monday, everyone! How was your week? Since I got to spend most of the last two days in bed with a fever, a sore throat, my hubby and the laptop watching season 4 of House, I'm calling it a win. Alright, so I didn't lose any weight and I did drink my body weight in Coke before realizing I was so tired because I was sick and should probably just rest instead of trying to trick my body into being productive, but I can't remember the last time I felt as rested as I do today. And I still managed to work out a few times. Enough rationalizing, on to new goals:
This Week: 1/2 lb
Drink water, not Coke (or at least more water than Coke)
No take-out
How about you?

Monday, September 8, 2008

Checking in

So, I've lost a total of 6 pounds and have about 30 more to go. In some ways, it feels overwhelming but I think the important thing for me to remember is to break it down into reasonable and realistic increments.

I've been much better at watching what I'm eating but trying to find time to fit in regular exercise is hard. I know that I spend too much time online and should trade some web surfing for exercise but I get sucked in way too quickly and for too long.

One thing that is helping is that we made a decision to no longer leave our dogs in the backyard so a few times a day, we've got to take the 3 of them for a walk. And we're doing it family style so we're all out there walking which makes it more fun and not such a chore. It's cute to see an excited 4 year old hold a leash :-)

Anyway, one pound at a time is what I keep reminding myself.

Monday Review is totally on top of things!

Happy Monday everyone! How was your week?
Mine was pretty good. I lost one pound, which is great and remembered to drink lots of water. I did kind of slack off a little last week, not doing quite as much as I should have and snacking more, but not too badly. Only about 20 lbs to go! Of course, that's not how much I have to lose to be at my 'ideal weight', but I'll worry about perfection when I've conquered normal:)

Goals for this week: 1/2 lb
Stop snacking on junk
More time exercising

How about you?

Friday, September 5, 2008

More Links

Hey guys, I ran across this site and this one as I was tirelessly wasting time. I know, I'm amazing. I do it all for you:) Anyway, these might be helpful for logging calories and exercise. Check them out and let me know what you think. Also, if there are any websites that you find useful, throw those in the comments as well. I would love to check those out.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Feeling Rested?

About the sleep thing: I am a lifetime insomniac. So when I read about a sleep study preformed at a college in Conway, AR where participants ate considerably less and lost weight when they got an extra 2 hours of sleep every night for 2 weeks, I was intrigued. So I did some research and found this article and this website. Check it out and make getting a better night's sleep a priority!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Monday Review takes holidays off...

Sooo, how was your week? Mine was...different. I'm having a hard time re-aligning our schedules and routines to fit into school. Getting up early is not something I relish. Other than stressing myself out for no apparent reason about every aspect of our daily routine, I did really well this week. I've lost 2 more pounds. I've been walking Pippi to school in the morning, which I think is really helping, and working out with the Wii, which I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing me rave about. Also, I didn't really snack a lot this week, which has been kind of a big deal breaker for me. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with my progress thus far. Now if only I can get the rest of my life in some semblance of order...

Goals this week: 1/2 lb weight loss
Get more sleep (more on this later)

 
template by suckmylolly.com