On the Eve of my 34th Birthday

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Here I sit on the eve of my 34th Birthday…. What 34? I think someone messed up the math on that. Any who it is happening I will soon be rounding the bend to 40 (old people are 40, I’m not close to that age!) Apparently the dementia is starting… ok, ok where am I going with this post…. Birthday Resolutions (kind of like a make up for New Years)

Weight loss is always at the top of my goals and I would really like to get it out of the running and be done with it once and for all. My goal is to lose 100+ pounds in the next year, there I said it, it’s out in the world. My license still has the same weight on there from when I was 16 and I want it to be correct when I go to renew it!

For my birthday I bought myself a new scale and a new pair of walking shoes (I’m no runner and don’t plan on ever being one) Not sure what the plan is for this weight loss but I have a stack of workout DVD’s and my Fitbit. I would like to find a class to go to once a week since it sounds like my Zumba class won’t be back anytime soon 😦

Goals, I like goals and I’m a visual person so I have my Bloom Daily Planner: Vision Planner marked up with some mini goals and I created a spreadsheet to show me where I should be at to meat my goal by the deadline.

Along with this blog I am want to be more open on my instagram and post pictures, gasp! Doubt I will be posting any skin showing pictures right away but I will have them in my phone for when I am ready to make it public. I am always looking for people on weight loss journeys and it seems like they never post until they have lost the bulk of the weight and I want to document the whole journey so when I have those days that I struggle I have something to look back too.

It is out in the universe, now time to start working!!

Love Always … Tam

SW: 258 CW: 258 GW: 145

That one time I tried to make a Unicorn Cake 

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So this last weekend we had some family over for Vivian’s birthday. My kids always get amazing cakes made by their grandma for their birthday just like she did for us growing up (who am I kidding she still makes me a birthday cake!) While browsing through Pinterest Viv and I decided on a Unicorn cake for this years birthday.


Since this year’s cake looked relatively easy I decided that I wanted to do most of the work, with my mom by my side of course.

Sunday morning we headed over to my mom’s to get decorating, she had already baked the cakes for me (Thanks Mom!) we layered the cakes and and added the white frosting.


And made the horn and ears. Since I’m only semi-crafty I made the horn out of an ice cream cone painted gold (edible gold spray I found at Wal-mart) and the ears out of marshmallows. I used the square marshmallows,cut them diagonally, then sprayed some of the gold onto wax paper and painted that on.


Viv picked out the colors that she wanted and we mixed up little bowls of each color. Once again since I’m only semi-crafty we used the pre-made bucket of frosting from Wal-Mart, it taste good, cost is decent and cuts your time in half!  We then loaded the frosting bag alternating different colors (this worked well except green+orange make brown, avoid putting those together) I then began to swirl and swirl and things started to come together….

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The cake looked really good, like better then I had imagined!

And then disaster started the strike!!! The frosting in the back started pulling away from the cake!! What do we do?!?! Quick snap a picture with the birthday girl….


Put the cake in the fridge so maybe the frosting will harden. Open the door two minutes later and find this!!! Well actually this picture is of when my mom took the frosting and pieced part of it back together!! I was too busy cleaning the frosting off the fridge shelves to get a picture of it before she started fixing it.


Thank goodness for my mom, she saved the cake and made things right in the world like mom’s do!!


Lessons learned- 1) Leave the fancy cakes for the professional. 2) I guess there is such a thing as too much frosting on a cake 3) Always have mom close by

Love Always … Tam

Wake Up!

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Why is it that sometimes (ok most the time) your kids just know how to pull at your heartstrings….
Viv is on Spring Break and yesterday she spent the day with me at work aka Grandma’s house. She had been playing on the swing set and asked me to come watch her new trick. I said just give me a minute.  She responds with “Mom you are always busy. Why can’t you spend more time with us? Can’t you come out and play with us?”

MY. HEART. SANK.

I know that she is just a kid and that she doesn’t understand all the grown up stuff … like money doesn’t just appear in your piggy bank and the clothes don’t wash themselves, but she is right. After she called me out she went over the ways that I could be home earlier at night to play with them… Can’t you go to work before I get on the bus? But who will watch you and brother? We can go over to Grandma’s house. Or why don’t you and brother leave for daycare right after I get on the bus? Yup, that would work…
But that would mean I would have to Wake Up Early!!

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I am not a morning person! Like many others, I so foolishly thought that once you became an adult or parent you magically became a morning person, in reality its just the opposite. And I know that I really should get up earlier and that it would probably make my life easier, but who wants to crawl out of that nice, warm, comfy bed to be an adult! Fine kid you win, I will try and be a morning person. This morning was a test run, I was up early and out the door (yeah!) Except there was no school and dad was home to get the kids ready, next week is the real deal. But today, today I promised a little girl a bike ride and dinner at the park. So I’m leaving with plenty of daylight and sunshine left to spend some time with my kids.

Love Always … Tam

Just Keep Moving Forward…

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So it has been a few months since I was on here, New Year’s resolutions are still in the works…. my pop consumption has been cut in half, I did not complete my 200 miles in January- only got 3/4 of the way there- but I am still on the move to ONEderland. I’m actually losing weight! Which is what I want to talk about today, those pesky numbers on the scale. I know that the numbers on the scale don’t always matter, I get that, but when you have as much weight to lose as me- they have to move down.

Last year I adapted the motto of “If you just keep moving forward, you will amaze yourself” and it is something I try and tell myself everyday. Oh you ate an entire sleeve of cookies…just keep moving forward, you haven’t been on the treadmill for a week, just keep moving forward….and that is what I have been doing and guess what, I have been amazed! I have been documenting my weight and measurements oh for about 14 years (I just found an old tablet that I used to write them down in, eek!) Last March I saw the highest number ever on the scale (one day I will include that number here) now I’m not sure if that was my highest weight ever because I stopped stepping on the scale for quite sometime, but I wrote that number down.

I wish that I could tell you what all happened in the next few months but I really don’t remember.  I do remember I started using my Fitbit more, I paid attention to my steps and tried to reach 10,000 steps a day. I would make a point to park a little further away, not to sit in front of the TV as early and even just get up from my desk and walk in place for a min or two-just to get in some steps and quite frankly so I didn’t have to work out to get them. I started stepping on the scale again and kept writing my numbers down. Towards the end of the summer I noticed my pants were loose, but I just figured that they had worn out their stretch and it was time for a new pair. Not that I had actually lost weight because all I had lost was a pound or two here and there. Funny thing is, is when I looked back to that number I had written down back in March those pounds added up to 20 pounds lost! What!? I lost 20lbs and didn’t gain it…this was a new concept to me.

So here we are a year from when I recorded my highest weight of all times and the scale didn’t scare me when I stepped on it. Even though that number is high I can see that a year ago I weighed 39lbs more then I do now and I am ok with the number I see today because I know that number is me moving towards ONEderland!

I always had the mind set that to really lose weight I had to do it in a year, why I’m not sure and before I would look at a 39lb loss in a year as a failure because I could’ve lost so much more. Now I look at that number, give it a nod and just keep moving forward.

 

Love Always … Tam

Cancelled My Gym Membership!

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So I sent in my cancelation for my gym membership this week. I joined the gym in October (or so) when my Zumba lady had to quit teaching classes at a near by school. I had been attending her classes on & off for the last 7 years and loved them! Since it looked like she was not going to be starting up classes anytime soon I decided to join a local gym, they also had Zumba and a few other group classes. But there classes just weren’t the same and I found it harder to make it to these classes, so I decided to cancel my membership.

I’m taking this stuff old school now with at home Workout DVD’s! Jumped on good old Amazon last night and ordered myself some walking themed workouts. I have been really into my Fitbit so I decided to start out with ones that will help up  my step game 🙂 The two I decided on are
Jessica Smith: Burn Fat & Have Fun

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Dance That Walk

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I have decided that I will never be on of those who love to work out and lift heavy weights. I’m just trying to make it tolerable and something I look forward to everyday. Now the wait for them to come in the mail!!!

Love Always … Tam

Happy New Year!

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Ahhhh we are already 3 days into the new year and I can say that I have stuck with two of my resolutions!! I think that is the longest I have made it 🙂 What are those two resolutions you ask, you didn’t but just play along with me….

#1 Give up Drinking Pop!
For a long time I didn’t consider my self a pop drinker, I rarely bought a 12 pack to keep at the house and usually only drank it when I went out to eat. But then slowly I started drinking more and more and then I would stop at the gas station almost every morning to buy a bottle (or two if we are being honest) and it just got out of control. So to better my body & my wallet I have resolved to give up drinking pop in 2017. I asked a group that I am part of what they suggested to kick my habit and there were lots of good suggestions. I have decided to try an alternative “fizzy” drink, teas and just more water.

#2 Get to ONEderland!
Onederland is the magical place of being in the 100’s on the scale. It has been some time, about 7 years, since I have been there and I can’t wait to be back. For the month of January I have decided to try and get in 200 miles, tracking with my Fitbit I figured I need to do about 13, 000 steps a day (2000 steps = 1 Mile). I recently upgraded to the Fitbit Alta and love it, my favorite feature is that it displays text messages & phone calls. To help me track my miles I have this paper hanging in my office to mark off my miles every day. You can print off one for your home too, just click 200-miles-january

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I am a visual person, so I finally created a vision board. So far I have on there my 200 miles tracker, my spirit animal Skinny Meg and some drawings from my daughter. If you haven’t heard of Skinny Meg I recommend checking her out and ready some of her old blog post, I have been reading her blog for a few years and truly is an inspiration for weight loss, healthy eating and just all around a good person.

I do have a few other New Year’s resolutions and to keep me on track for the year I have assembled the dream team my Vision Planner, Daily Planner & Goal Book, like I said I am a visual person. This is my second year using the Bloom Vision Planner it is like a normal planner with your monthly calendars and weekly views but then they have Monthly Vision Boards. The Daily Planner I use a few times a week, sometimes I just keep a running grocery list on it, but I find that when I just need to write things out and put them into perspective for the day this really helps. And last I have this little Goal Book that I picked up at Michaels, this one is new to me so I will see how it works out pretty much it has a place for your top 10 goals, weekly goal planning and goal motivation. I’ll let you know how helpful this is later on.

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Here is to the New Year and making 2017 one to remember!

Love Always … Tam