**Days 421 - 424**

Guess what?  I am no longer sick - FINALLY!!  I woke up today with no nose issues, and no coughing!  I'm so relieved!  It was a long weekend of feeling like crap, and my poor hubby ended up getting sick, too. He's not 100% yet, but he's getting there.

My dad is out of town for a week, and I know I'm going to have a hard time getting to the gym by myself - I already skipped this morning, even though I had planned on going, but I did workout here at home.  I did an upper body workout using dumbbells that I found in Shape magazine, and I did the 30 DS, Level 1.  Tonight, I'm going to attempt a 1.5 mile run.  I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to run 1.5 miles without stopping, so I will keep repeating Hal Higdon's 5k week 1 training until I can do the whole 1.5 miles, and then I'll move on to the week 2 training.

Can you believe it's almost March already?!  Seriously?!!  This year is already flying by, so I need to keep my butt in gear - my plan is to show some great weight loss for this year, and I'm terribly behind, right now!

**Day 420**

Still sick, but getting better.  My stuffy nose is much less stuffy!  The cold is trying to move to my chest, but I'm trying to fight it off with medicine.

So, I hadn't done a weigh-in for awhile.  I skipped Feb. 3rd and 10th because I was in Florida on vacation, and then I skipped the 17th because I wanted to stay in denial about how much I had gained, but I weighed myself on Monday the 20th and it wasn't good - 230 pounds.  Terrible, BUT even though I was sick this week I worked hard - exercised Mon., Tues., & Thurs., tracked my food, and drank lots of water, and it paid off.  This morning I weighed:

So, I lost 5 pounds this week, and I know it was, probably, mostly, water weight, but that's okay.  Like I said in my post on Monday,  I feel like everything is clicking again, and I'm going to continue to do good.

Have a great weekend!

**Days 418 & 419**

Still sick.  Still!  There's been one kind of sickness, or another, going around here since Christmas!  My nose is so stuffed up, which causes a headache, and I can't blow my nose, but, yet, somehow my nose is running like crazy - I feel like a snotty three-year-old!  So gross!  Anyway, I didn't work out yesterday, but I wasn't going to miss another day of exercising, so I forced myself to go to the gym today.  I did 33 minutes on the elliptical (3 minute cool down), and  20 minutes on the treadmill.  I took a pic of my elliptical workout:

That's my dad in the white t-shirt on the treadmill!  We don't talk, at all, while we're at the gym, but I'm still glad we go together - it's important, for both of us, and I'm glad we're working towards getting healthy.

I hope you're all doing well!  I'll be spending the rest of my day doing this:

And eating good, and drinking lots of water, too, of course!

**Day 417**

I was back in the gym this morning at 8am - I did a couple weight machines for my legs, 30 minutes on the elliptical, and 15 minutes on the treadmill.  I only did 15 minutes on the treadmill because I planned on doing my 1.5 mile run outside tonight, but, unfortunately, I've been looking like this for the last couple hours:

My cough is gone, but now my nose is all stuffed up, and I'm sneezing, so I decided to skip going out in the cold to run.  I just wish this cold would go away already!  Anyway, I'm going to the gym in the morning, so I'll get a good workout in, and then I'll do my 1.5 mile run outside, at some point tomorrow.  It's going to be 50 degrees outside, so I need to take advantage of the nice weather!

I tracked all my food today, and I drank 96 ounces of water.  I'm feeling really good about how I'm doing!

**Days 414 - 416**

At the very beginning of last year something in my brain clicked, and I was able to change my bad habits and start losing weight.  I started eating good and I started exercising - I was on a roll, and it felt great! But then the month of July hit, and, for some reason, I started to fall back into bad habits, and I've been struggling ever since. For the last eight months I've been up and down, up and down, up and down.  I give myself little pep talks, and I come on here and say stuff like - I'm back, stay tuned, I'm gonna kick butt - and I do okay for a few days, but then I crash and burn.  Last night in bed my mind was racing about how I'm 40, and nowhere near where I want to be physically, and when you're not where you want to be physically then you're not where you want to be mentally and emotionally either - that's the way it goes for me anyway.  So, when I woke up this morning something had clicked, once again.  I haven't had this feeling in a long time - I'm ready to get on with this journey, and lose the rest of the weight.  I feel it in my brain, my body, and my soul.

Today was a good day.  My dad and I went to the gym, and I did the elliptical and the treadmill for a total of 50 minutes.  I tracked everything I ate, and I drank 96 ounces of water.

My dad and I have a firm commitment to go to the gym Mon - Fri.  In addition to my gym time I've decided to do Hal Higdon's 5k training program:

I'm going to do this training outside because that's where I really struggle with running, so we'll see how it goes!  Tomorrow calls for a 1.5 run - with all the slacking off I've been doing I don't even know if I'll be able to run the whole 1.5 miles, but I'm going to try my best!!

Have you heard of the Dirty Girl 5k?  If not, check it out here:  http://www.godirtygirl.com/
I'll be doing it with my sister and my friend, Julie, and, maybe one other friend on June 30th, and I can't wait - it's going to be an awesome time!!

**Days 411 - 413**

This is what's been going at my house this week:

I got sick on the last day of our trip, and it got worse as the week went on, and now both my girls are sick.  One is hanging out with her bag of snotty tissues, and the other is hanging out with her bowl for puking. :(  My husband is the only one not sick, so I'm hoping he'll be spared, and won't catch it.  I'm feeling a little better today - my headache is, finally, gone (thank goodness), but my cold and cough are lingering.  I'm going to hold off exercising for one more day.

I promise this blog will get back to reporting on eating healthfully, and exercising soon!

Have a great weekend!

**Days 399 - 410**

We arrived home late last night from our 11 day vacation - it was a wonderful time, but I'm happy to be home!  I ate more than I should have on the trip, but, on my, the walking we did!!  I have never walked so much in my life!  We went to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Sea World, so there were many 10+ hour days of walking!  By the time we got home at night I could barely move from the pain in my bum heel, but other than that I didn't have any problems with all the walking we did, and that made me very happy.  I know if I hadn't lost the weight I did last year, and started exercising, I wouldn't have been able to do all that walking on this trip.  Also, I fit into the plane seat with ease!  AND I rode every ride with my kids - every single one!!  It's the first time I've ever been able to do that, and the girls were so happy!  For the first time I wasn't on the sidelines watching my family have fun - I was able to join in, and it was such a great feeling!

I'm ready to get back into a routine of eating well, and exercising....ALOT!  And I can't wait to catch up on all the blogs I read!!  I missed reading about everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

**Days 397 and 398**

I've been such a bad blogger!  I've been busy with getting ready for our Florida trip (we leave tomorrow at 5:30am!), and yesterday I was busy enjoying my 40th birthday!  I can't believe I'm 40 - I swear, on the inside I don't feel a day over 21!!!

So, my Florida trip.....I plan on having a great time, BUT I don't plan on gaining weight.  I'm going to enjoy myself, but not go crazy with eating too much, and I will be exercising!  My sister is going on the trip, too, and we already have a plan, so I know she won't let me slack off.

We'll be gone for 11 full days, and I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing, or if I'll be able to get around to reading blogs - I will miss reading up on how you are all doing!

Be back soon!