tamcam10

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

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!!

Wake Up TamCam10

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

Shower Organization

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About 5 years ago we decided to remodel our bathroom, best thing ever! We went from a tiny, tiny bathroom that you could litterly sit, shut the door & wash your hands all at the same time, to a very spacious bathroom with a large soaking tub!

Yes, there is a TV in the bathroom.

I did have to sacrifice moving the laundry room to the basement but that was ok. Also with getting this grand tub it meant the shower would be separate, we used to have the tub/shower combo. That was all fine and dandy until I realized that I had no room to put all my shower necessities! I tried to persuade my husband to get a fancy shower with a built in shelf, but all he needs is soap and a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner and he good, lets just say he didn’t see the need for the shelf.


He doesn’t undstand what all goes on when a women takes a shower, I need my shampoo, conditioner, hair mask, face wash, face mask, body wash, body lotion, shaving cream and a razor at the very least! I suffered for years with the two tiny shelves that each held one bottle, a suction cup basket that fell down every other day and vast array of products scattered around the floor of the shower.


Then I decided to do something about it. Like most projects I do, I did it on a whim. So I set out to good old Menards and Wal-Mart (the only stores within 30 miles of my house) to find what I needed- a shower pole and some baskets.


I couldn’t quite find the baskets that I envisioned, so shower curtain hooks were also needed. I chose these baskets for two reasons 1) they are cheap, $2 and 2) they have holes to drain the water, however they are a little bit wider then I would have liked. One tip before heading out to the store…measure what size shower rod you need. Argh off the the store I go again.


Minor set back, because the end result was so worth it.

Look at how organized everything is! Now that I have had my shower like this for a while I am overall happy with the end result, I could get away with just two baskets (sometimes I bump into them) and I am going to invest in a curved shower rod to give you just a little more room.

Love Always … Tam

What’s Up?

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What’s Up, besides my weight that is….How can you want something so bad, but yet you can’t control yourself to get it?  Yesterday as we were watching TV a commercial came on for one of those media-spas that “get rid of your body fat in just one day” Vivian turns and looks at me and says “mom why don’t you do that?” I told her because it doesn’t just work like that and it cost lots of money. Bless her heart that g12513857_10208527355720936_8188607754644347526_oirl looks at me and says in all seriousness “I know, I can give you all the money in my piggy bank for it” That right there should have broke my heart in two, made me hop up and get on that treadmill, instead I just sat in my chair and curled up in my blanket a little longer. I know that she is getting older and starting to notice more that mommy has a “big booty butt” (as we call it) and a big belly and I cringe at the day that she will be embarrassed by me because her mommy is fat. I mean I am going to embarrass through out the years, but I don’t want it to be because of my weight.

Last night my mom called me to come over to have a late night “business meeting” in the hot tub. I went over, we sat in that hut tub for 2 hours!! The night was perfect with a full moon, no wind and it was almost 30 degrees out! We talked about work and started getting excited for our upcoming season of senior pictures and our new class of spokesMODELS, we talked about all the new cool stuff coming into the Boutique for the next sale (all I can say is think Joanne Gaines!) and of course we talked about our weight. How we still haven’t lost anything over the winter, how 4th of July will be here before we know it and how this year was going it be different! Man I so want it to be different, I want to skinny (I am using this term loosely because I know it isn’t all about size), I want to go and pick out a cute outfit for the 4th and not just see what there is in my size and looks decent.

Rant over, thanks for listening.

Love Always … Tam

3 Day Refresh Review

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I know that this is long overdue and I apologize. I had it all written out and went to go save it and lost it all!!! I’m sorry to report that this post won’t be as witty as the first one I wrote, it was pretty good.

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My first thoughts that come to mind when I hear “3 Day Refresh (Cleanse)” is 1) I’m going to starve!!! and 2) I’m going to sh!t my pants. I am happy to report that neither of those happened during my 3 days.

You start out your day with your Shakeology, still get 2 snacks, lunch (Shake) and a meal for dinner. Oh and there is this digestive drink too…. I can’t say I loved it, but I did’t hate it, but I reccomend drinking it ice cold and really fast….. Same with you lunch time shake, ice cold.

For your snacks and dinner I just went with raw veggies most of the time, I  prefer my veggies raw and they are fast and easy. I will admit that I did have a moment of ” I can’t do this, I’m going to starve and ate a few 21 Day Fix approved items. Of course after my week moments I realized I wasn’t going to starve to death and regretted my decision.

Nevertheless the scale did move in the right direction at the end of my 3 days….drum roll please…. I lost a total of 4.8lbs is 3 days and I didn’t starve myself either! Funny all those years I thought not eating was the way to lose weight.

So would I do it again, Yes,  perhaps another after the new year.

Oh and Happy (Late)  Halloween from the Purple Minion! Yup thats my real hair!! Sad it only lasted the night, I was really digging the purple.

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Love Always … Tam