I now present to you {in no particular order}… my happy list!

•  mountains
• sunshine
• my kids and foster baby
• my husband
• my family
• trees
• coffee
• candy
• photography
• margaritas
• chickens
• the bunkhouse
• friends
• chex mix
• a clean-ish house
• exploring
• fresh air
• kickboxing
• animals
• pinterest
• naps
• magic shell
• stickling
• doing good for others
• magazines
• thunderstorms
• music
• flowers and nature
• feeling accomplished
• laughing

How about you? What makes you happy?

It’s not much of a surprise that I have sort of lost my way on this whole fitness and weight loss journey. I could have a million excuses, but mainly I think it all boils down to the fact that I GOT LAZY!

My life has been filled with change lately – I am now a mother to a little baby -a 7-month-old baby girl! If you lost count, that makes five kids! The thing about foster care, I am not allowed to have my kids babysit. Apparently, you have to be 21 or older. That kind of blows my gym days out of the water. I am going to have to stay motivated and find ways to workout at home with the baby.

I have joined a new challenge {for money!}! I have an incredible team made up of my fellow Shrinking Jeans writers -Christy, Heather, Mary, and Nancy- and we are going to give some fierce competition in the fight for $10,000! We are Team Shrinking Jeans for Healthy Wage. Speaking of, we are trying to win our first mini-challenge. So, *cough*, GO VOTE FOR US! Shameless plug! We are the cute stick figures in dresses!

VOTE!

I verified my weight at my gym yesterday, and they had me at 227. *barf* Not that it matters, but my home scale is 5 lb under that.

I am not setting a weight goal for this challenge, my plan is to track my eating with MyFitnessPal and to up my workouts (which have been like, none).

I am excited for this challenge! I have an awesome partner *hey, Misty!* and am off to a good start! I have started using MyFitnessPal to log my foods and it is a really great app. One of my favorites! I’m lissajoy14 if you want to add me!

I started off this challenge at 217.2 lbs.

Today, I am 216. Not a huge loss, but I will take it!

On Sunday, I finished my fourth 1/2 marathon! Definitely wasn’t my best performance, but considering I was an epic fail on the training end of it, just finishing was a miracle in itself! I could barely walk afterwards, and the following day, but today I am feeling great! Just some squishy blisters covering the bottom of my foot –my muscles are feeling awesome! I am motivated to keep on working out and eating well!

The big test will come next week… we are heading to Florida for a family vacation. The Island Cow and fried pickles and margaritas are going to be calling me. I know it. Hopefully, I can offset the delicious food by exercising and enjoying the goodness in moderation!

post-race celebration!

How was your week?

Today’s weigh-in was 218… which I believe is 11.8 lbs lighter than when I started. Not too bad!

I haven’t been working out like I should, but I have taken some huge leaps with my eating. I have been practicing plant-based nutrition for the past two weeks and it is going pretty awesome! Except for a few little slip-ups over the weekend while hanging with Christy in Chicago, I have been doing well. I feel good and my appetite has taken a nose-dive. Not feeling like I want to eat everything in sight? I’ll take it!

That’s all for now, the car is running and my daughter is awaiting her ride to dance!

How did you do?

The weekend was packed… a foster care class, which included getting home late on Friday night and 10 hours of instruction on Saturday.

My plan: Wake up early on Saturday, eat breakfast, pack healthy snacks and lunch.

The reality: Pushed the snooze button a few too many times. Got up. Made coffee and breakfast. Hurriedly showered and got ready. Woke kids up, gave instructions, and rushed out the door yelling good-byes and i-love-yous at 8:20 to be at class 15 miles away by 8:30.

Forgot snacks.

Forgot lunch.

Remembered coffee and water bottle. Priorities, people.

When I arrived, there was an assortment of pastries, donuts and fruit set out. I stayed away. Four hours later, my stomach was grumbling and I knew that I would never be able to stay awake through the next six hours of class if I didn’t eat. I hoped for a south-beach acceptable lunch.

What I got: Lasagna, a small portion of cooked vegetables, and a ice-cream dessert. I ate it. It wasn’t even GOOD.

And then I had two beers that evening when I got home. And two beers Sunday evening when I went out for supper with some family. In my defense, however, I did order naked chicken wings instead of breaded, and a side salad. I should get some brownie points {minus the brownie} for that, right?!

Yesterday, I was back to the plan and doing well.

Now, I just need to rev up the exercise!

How was your week? Are you still motivated and kicking butt?

Oh, yes I am.

I actually started my eating plan on Monday, the 2nd, for the fact that I anticipated having hangover munchies on New Year’s Day.

I have had 2 perfect days with very little sugar or carbs. I’m quite proud of myself, because those two days are the absolute hardest for me. You know, the kind of days where if I saw you eating a bag of Swedish fish, I might do a flying leap with a head twist and a high-kick and knock them out of your hand and inhale the whole bag. I’m sure you know just what I mean, right?

Sunday’s Weigh-In: 229.8 lbs

Today’s Weigh-In: 223.6 lbs

Loss: 6.2 lbs. OH HAPPY DAY!!!!!!

I feel good! Hopefully, this will keep my lazyass motivated to stay on track!

My fitness plan could be going better…

On Monday, I started out with my #lissadaily routine… only, I have had back issues for a few years and I should have totally skipped the burpees. I have had a really sore lower back since and haven’t done it again. I need to re-evaluate the exercises and make them something I can really attempt every day. That is one of my goals for the week.

We went out for a family walk/bike/run later that afternoon, only it was VERY, VERY COLD. Hats, scarves, coats, and gloves could not keep the bitter cold out. The windchill was about 10 degrees! Brrrr. We made it a mile, total.

I am headed to muscle work class this morning, aka death by Barb. My husband is leaving for work for two weeks tomorrow, so I should be able to get back in my “routine” of going to the gym. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be around SIXTY {in North Dakota! in Winter!}, so I think I will head out for a few miles!

I am also following the 52 small changes plan and have been consciously trying to up my water intake.

I hope to check-in next week below 220!

Have a great week, friends!

Hello, dear weight loss blog. How I’ve missed you. I have been avoiding you, in case you couldn’t tell!

It’s January 1st, 2012. A new year, a new chance. A lot of people think resolutions are ridiculous, but I view them as hope and change. I love resolutions and this year, I plan to do a great deal of work on myself.

First, read about my year in this post. I’m guessing you can probably imagine that my weight and fitness have not been one of my top priorities.

I stepped on the scale this today and pretty much cried.

Last year, this time, I was at my lowest weight in years. 201 pounds.

Today? My weight was 229.8 pounds. Holy hell, people. What have I done to myself? I am absolutely disgusted that it has come to this and I am trying not to be overwhelmed at the sheer magnitude of it all. I know if I look at the big picture and how much weight I want to lose, I will get discouraged and quit. Instead, I am going to break it down into smaller goals.

Shrink Yo’Self Challenge

I am totally excited for our new challenge at the Sisterhood. I NEED A CHALLENGE! I plan on participating as a shrinker, as well as in the fitness challenge that is being unveiled tomorrow!

Weight loss goal: 209 by February 29th. That’s a 20 pound loss and is perfectly attainable if I stay focused. I plan to follow the South Beach diet again because it seems to be what really works for me. I need sugar-detoxing in a major way. I NEED to get through the first two weeks of complete strictness, then I know I can stick with it for the duration of the challenge and on.

Along with the fitness challenge, I plan on doing the following exercises each day. YES, EACH DAY WHEN I WAKE UP. Want to join me?

• 50 jumping jacks
• 5 pushups
• 20 sit-ups
• 20 mountain climbers
• 30-second plank
• 7 burpees
• REPEAT.

I have huge hopes for myself in 2012. This year is mine.

What are your hopes for this year?

This boy.

This little, blue-eyed boy with a BIG heart.

He steals MY heart.

His wish this Christmas is not for an iPod, Pokemon, or Legos. The one item on his Christmas list?

WATER.

To raise $10,000 for clean, safe water for 500 people.

It takes a village, friends.

Can you help?

Will you help? Will you share his story on your blog, on Facebook, and through email? Or place a Pig with a Purpose at the center of your family gatherings this week?

Let’s harness the power of OUR VILLAGE to help another village thrive. We can do this, I know it.

Clean Water for Christmas.

reposting from wherever i may wander. merry Christmas, friends!

Maybe it’s my obsession with magazines? I get so excited when a new issue of Real Simple or US Weekly arrives in my mailbox. For real.

Or possibly my addiction to Pinterest?

I could admit that I watch the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders show, but it’s most certainly DVR’d for my daughter. Of course.

That ice cream I bought from the Schwans man yesterday during a weak {hungry} moment? It was so delicious that I had to have two bowls.

This might be a good time to admit that I am LOST on my health(ier) life journey. Eating right and exercising have not been a priority in my life this year. Granted, I think about it every.single.day. but then I make the wrong choices. I wish I could say that it makes me happier, but I am pretty sure we all know how I feel. I look back at last year around this time, and I felt GREAT! I was at my lowest weight in years, buying smaller jeans, and LOVING IT! I want that feeling back. I want to get there again. I’m just too lazy to do anything about it. I get overwhelmed when I think about it. I start the day by eating a healthy breakfast, but that’s as far as it goes.

HELP! I think I need a swift kick in the ass. Or ten.

CLEAN WATER FOR CHRISTMAS!

We finally got to our 5K yesterday after the kids got out of school! I know, I know, I organized the freakin’ race and I can’t even get it done on the actual race day? Fail! Turns out we were visiting my husband at the rig, you know, in the middle-of-nowhere. Which is fine, because I was planning on us just hitting the dirt roads, but he put the kabosh on it because of the heavy (and deadly!) oilfield traffic around there.

So, Monday it was. Cool, breezy, and drizzly, we broke out the hats and gloves. Perfect running weather, though.

We thought about going to the middle school track to avoid our hills, but in the end we just went around our development. We drove our planned course twice, so that the kids would know where to go in case we weren’t all together. We set the Garmin and the iPhone and took off. Bridger was fast right out of the gate, as always, and quickly ditched the rest of us.

BB taking off, Ash stopping to look at something on the road.

I had been training for this 5K for the past two months doing the C25K program. Confession: I only got to the middle of week 8. UGH. So close. I ran as much as I could, but did have some walking intervals as well, too.

Midway turnaround:

As usual, Ashton overdid himself at the beginning and got a sideache and fell way behind. I tell him and tell him to pace himself, but of course, I know nothing.

Bridger made it back to the house first and waited for the rest of us to make our way to the finish line. His time? 36 minutes. Averie came in second with 38 minutes, I was close behind at 38:58, and Ashton was 46:10. This 5K was actually a PR for ALL of us! Wooot!

All in all, I loved planning and hosting this event. I think there will definitely be more races in the future! I would love to hear your feedback!

P.S. My twins are raising money for charity: water, and would be so happy if you could help:
Ashton’s Thrilling Drilling Campaign
Bridger’s Clean Water for Christmas Campaign