Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I love Halloween, it's one of my favorite times of year. Although I won't be eating my fill of candy this year, I ended up indulging in a different way.

After I finished with the Nice Girls Don't series, I had this need to buy more books to fill up my spare time. The problem is whenever I have unread books around my free time seems to increase till all I do is read (I'm a big book worm, but embrace it). So I ended up going shopping on Thursday and bought two more books, along with some makeup and body shop items. That same day I decided to clean up my night table and book basket. Happily I added a few more books that were lying around unread (nothing bothers me more then not finishing a book or series...unless it's just that bad).

The books I ended up buying were The Grave Witch by Kalayna Price, and Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick. I've read them both already. Crescendo is the second book in a series about fallen angels and a romance between a 16yr old girl and her guardian angel. The story has some pretty cool twists. It's a YA book (Young Adults) and I tend not to like YA books too much (sometimes I cringe with all the teenage angst going on). Still I thought it was pretty good and can't wait for the third book called Tempest to come out next year. The Grave Witch was a fantastic book. It was very original in the types of magic and the overall 'world' the book is set in, a long with all the rules that follow. The characters were pretty solid and it's very open ended for a sequel or a series (I'm pretty sure there will be, but no official word). I'm a little in love with both the men in the heroines life, and that always gets me back for the next book.

The other books that I found lying around unread (don't judge), I decided I need to finish reading before I allow myself to buy anymore. I finished one called Walking Dead by C.E Murphy which is book 4 of The Walker Papers. I actually enjoy the series, but sometimes there's something that makes me want to put it down and forget it. This book I found to be really good, I think it was more the last one that kinda put me off a bit....Needless to say I got over it and finished this book and I'm planing to buy book 6 called Demon Hunts. I still have about 5 more books left to read from my 'temporary forgotten' pile.  Thinking back all those books were pretty appropriate for Halloween. Till next time *waves*

Weigh-in Today, Plus Finished my Books.

Just finished week #6 today on JC. I ended up losing 2.4lbs this week, which means I'm down to 217.8lbs. (Pause for a small celebration). So I'm officially out of the 220s, yeah! Weight loss wise this was a strange week. I didn't really have any challenges, ate on plan, didn't really get all the exercise I wanted to, but I felt really 'ho hum' about it all. I can feel the difference, it feels like the fat is coming off evenly all over the place, which is very exciting. But I'm just not as excited as I was the last few weeks. I think this might have to do with other things, I was really not motivated to go to work all week (still went). Also I feel the need to go out and spend a ridiculous amount of money on things I don't really need. Hopefully I feel better for next week.

Some other and equally exciting news, my book order arrived way sooner then I thought it would. I placed the order on Tuesday last week and received it on Friday. Um also I already finished my books(all three of them) yesterday lol. Just to recap the books were from the Nice Girls Don't series by Molly Harper. I gotta say I really enjoyed them. Ever since the whole Twilight series(I read them all and then deeply regretted it, I will say that I was impressed by the first book but the others that followed just ruined it for me) I get suspicious around vampire books. The books have a sassy-smart mouthed-former librarian-recently turned vampire for a main character, and some interesting support characters with their own special kind of quirks. There's a lot of sarcasm and dry wit used, which I loved. The only thing that bothered me was at times I felt some more descriptions could have been used to ease transitions to new places or subject conversations. All in all I loved them and loved the characters and really hope that there might be some more books coming for this series. Now I just need to find something else to read while I wait for all the other books on my wish list to come out....

Moments of Zen

I'm having a moment......Not a bad one, a moment of zen.

Being on a diet or thinking a lot about nutrition and just eating right is pretty overwhelming. You constantly think about portion sizes, what you can eat vs. what you shouldn't eat? Even exercising becomes a hassle, how much should I do, how long should I do it for????

Stop...breathe....

In the end I thought about it this way. If I maybe don't eat all the foods I'm supposed to( like miss a fruit serving), is it the end of the world? Nope. Will it really effect my over all efforts of losing weight and getting healthy? Nope. You can say the same about exercising. As long as your doing something it is beneficial to you. If you missed one day, it's ok. If you worked your butt off and then didn't lose a lot, it's ok.

I guess I'm just learning to let certain things go. This is not my first weight loss attempt. I've done at least two other programs(with little to no success) and gone it alone(with very little success). So whats different this time that makes me feel more optimistic? My mindset. I finally understand a lot of things about myself and how I see and deal with food. I have forgiven myself for past 'failures', so I'm not dwelling on them anymore. I also understand what I was doing that WAS my fault and caused a lot of my weight gain. Before I blamed a lot of my weight issues on genes, slow metabolism, and anything other then me. I can see now that I was eating all the wrong foods, in way too big portions, and getting no exercise. Then eating when I get stressed or bored or just because it was there. That math adds up to an unhealthy body and lifestyle. I'm here because of the choices I made.

One more thing I want to say. Sometimes I do wonder why any of this didn't click before, why I didn't try JC before, why I didn't do something sooner? Surprisingly I have an answer to all those questions. That's just the way it was. I'm doing something now, I understand now and that's all there is to it. See, pretty zen if you ask me.  :)

5th Weigh-In, and New Books for Me.

So first a update on my weigh-in today. I wasn't expecting much of a loss today, I wasn't good with doing my exercises and its my 'special time'. Happily I still lost 1.4lbs and had a good talk with my JCC( Jenny Craig Consultant). We talked mostly about this realization I had earlier today. Before coming into the center I went to deposit a check at my bank, there is also a Subway right next to it. After I was done at the bank and got back into my car I ended up face to face with the Subway right in front of me. Now pre-diet I would have popped right in and got a footlong without even thinking about it because it was there. Today however I thought to myself "I could go in and get a sub, but I'm not really hungry and I don't really need it." That might not sound like a big deal, but it is! She was very proud of me for realizing this and told me I was doing good if my mindset is already like this.

On to book news! I placed an order online at Chapters for the Nice Girls Don't series(there's three books in total) written by Molly Harper. I can't wait to start reading again. Also I ordered 100 Days of Weight Loss by Linda Spangle, according to everyone on the JC forums it's a very good read for helping aid weight loss. Should be receiving my books by the end of next week, hopefully.

One last bit of new's that makes me happy.

There's this.....book(sigh).

After reading the description I was hooked. I got all set to pre-order only to find out that it was no longer going to be published. I was upset, and can't imagine how the author felt. After some digging around though, I found a blog the author contributes on and kept checking back for any updates.

Well.... are you ready....

Turns out as of yesterday some good news popped up. An update from the author shows that not only did that book get picked up, but two others from the same series are going for the ride too! I'm super excited! Wait maybe I should tell you all the books name now. The book is called How to Lose a Demon in 10 Days by Saranna DeWylde.  Congrats Saranna on all your hard work! Can't wait for the books to come out and my bumper sticker lol.

Very First Blog Ever!

When I started JC I also started a journal. While writing my journal part of me wondered if maybe starting a blog would be better. I'm nervous of putting myself 'out there' but also would love feedback along the way. Part of me wants to share and part of me wants to hide. If I've learned anything this far though, it's that by sharing you also open yourself up to learn along the way. I've been participating in the JC forums and found out how much putting yourself 'out there' can help.

I started JC on September 15 2010, weighing 232.5 lbs(my all time high) and set a goal weight of 150 lbs(plus 10-20 lbs more once I get there). I've since been on this plan for almost 5 weeks, my 5th weigh-in is tomorrow, and have lost 10.9lbs and 14 inches total.

I also want to use this blog as a place to ramble about other things such as books and any other interests. Or I might just end up using this as a place to vent and share some laughs.
 
Well that's all for today, I will post my results from tomorrow's weigh-in next.