Hi. My name is Amy and I'm a Food-a-holic...

Well, I literally fell off the wagon yesterday.  Not only fell, but JUMPED off and ran the other direction!  I tell ya, this diet lifestyle change can be sooooooo hard at times. I did good for breakfast - two eggs and a banana.  But, then at lunch, I ordered Jimmy John's.  It is my FAVORITE sandwich shop in Chattanooga AND they deliver!  :(  I had a 6-inch turkey sub with lettuce, tomato, and mayo.  I ordered a bag of chips, too, but I only ate 4 of them. :)  Then I ate TWO mini tootsie roll suckers!  I felt really guilty.  I didn't make it to the 5:30 workout class either, so I decided to go run with my girl, Chris.  We actually ran 5 laps around the track and walked 5 as well.  It wasn't as hard of a workout as the bleachers are, though. :(  On the way home, I heard KFC hollering my name.  It was seriously SCREAMING at me.  Chris even called me on my way home to make sure I didn't stop by and grab some chicken since I had mentioned it SEVERAL times during our run/walk.  I was good, though.  I went straight home.  The house was empty, but the remains of tacos were sitting right on the stove.  I caved.  I ate THREE tacos.  I am so mad at myself!  This ALWAYS happens to me.  I cannot just cheat once.  I literally SPIRAL out of control.  Grrr!!!  Soooo frustrating!!!

I am fixing to leave to go teach cardio dance this morning.  Cardio dance is my FAVORITE class!  I'm so excited about teaching it today.  I REALLY need the workout, too.  Hope lots of people show up.  If not, at least I know I will get a workout! :)  Have a good day!  Eat clean!  I know I will be!

Sooo "Hangry"!!!

Day 2 down and I am absolutely STARVING!!!  These smoothies are startin' to get old - FAST!!  And don't even get me started on the chlorophyll!  BLECH! I ended up pouring half of it down the sink this morning.  I just could not make my mind and my will be on the same page!! It's not that it tastes bad or anything.  There is barely any taste at all. But it's GREEN!!  It is definitely psycho semantic.  BUT perception is reality so... I think we are going to have to skip that part for the rest of the detox.  I hope I am not making a huge mistake.  :(. I really wanted to quit tonight and get some baked chicken (Mmmm... The thought makes my mouth water), but when I asked drill sergeant Swaney about it, she told me to suck it up and drink yet ANOTHER friggin' protein shake!  Dang it!! I am all "shook" out, I tell ya!  :(. On a side note, the blueberry shake tastes the best to me, but apparently I have NO friends at work because they let me walk around ALL DAY with blueberry pieces in my teeth!!  I went to the bathroom and when I was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror and about had a heart attack!!  I swear!  I had a dot in every crevice practically!  TOTALLY DISGUSTING!!  It literally took me like 10 minutes to fish every little dot out of my teeth!  :( thanks, guys!! Mean it! :(

To add to my misery, I barely made it to the last 30 minutes of workout tonight.  Before joining the group I had to weigh and I friggin' gained THREE pounds!!  Gained!!!   I am soooo mad!!! I am totally working' my butt off here (literally) and I don't have time for gains.  I am skeptical of this detox.  I can't wait to get back on my 1200 calorie diet!  And be able to take more than ONE class a day!  I did end up at the track tonight.  I am not weak or sick at all on this diet.  Just bored and HUNGRY.  Lol!

Well, I think I will go to bed now so I can dream about swimming in a big vat of Rocky Road ice cream!  YUMM!!!  Whatever works, ya know?

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

Chris gets the shaft!

Hey Guys!

Tomorrow is the big day!  Gonna start my detox diet.  I took off to the store today with two of my favorite people I work out with so we could buy all the nasty junk we have to consume this week so that our bodies can get rid of the nasty junk inside them.  Doesn't really make sense, does it?  Well, lots of things don't make sense to me anyway.  For instance, the word "shaft".  It sounds like a dirty word.  It makes me smile.  Sometimes even giggle.  Today, in the car, Chris Besh informed Billie and I that she did not like the word "shaft".  HAHA!  We were coming up on the freeway and they are apparently building ANOTHER motel/hotel in Chattanooga.  It is purple - of all the colors in the world, WHY would you pick PURPLE to paint your hotel?!?  Anyways.  The hotel had an elevator shaft and I mentioned the word in the car when we were talking about the building.  Chris pipes up, "Ewww... I don't like that word!"  HAHA!  That girl is crazy!  I'll tell ya what word I don't like... boils.  Not like what you do to water, but like what can come up on your body. EWWWW!  That word just gives me goose bumps when I say it.  Blech!!!  I'm sorry if I have offended you if you happen to have boils.  That word just creeps me out.  And another thing...how come some people can't say the "oi" sound and it ends up sounding like "bowls" instead of "boils".  I don't get it.  It ain't that hard, people.  This is one of the reasons I could not name my daughter "Chloe".  Tommy and I had tossed this name around SEVERAL times, but he could never say it right.  He would say "Cloy".  WTHeck!  I just thought Chloe Elizabeth would be the prettiest name for our little angel, but not if daddy couldn't say it right!  :(
So we went with London. :)

Anyways,  the trip today was so much fun!  I loved hanging out with the girls!  We talked about so much stuff.  It was nice to get away and just chat. :)  At Earth Fare, we managed to find most everything we needed.  Even the Aloe Vera Juice.  YUCK!  I just hope the apple juice knocks the taste out of everything else.  :)  I'm looking forward to losing another whole pants size in six days!

I'm also ecstatic that tomorrow is double cardio dance at the studio!  MY FAVORITE!  I told Rhonda that I didn't want to do cardio dance today at the workout and she looked at me so hurt.  I was just joking and was actually going to keep the joke going for a minute but the look on her face made me recant in about 0.2 seconds.  LOL!  Cardio Dance is my FAVE of all the classes.  Gotta get my Groove on!  Plus, I love to watch the whole class when we are totally in sinc!  It is so cool to watch, that sometimes I forget the  next move!  :)

Well, I need to finish up my lesson plans, so I guess I shall write more tomorrow... If I am not permanently seated on my "throne" from the detox! :)   C-ya!!

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

Ho hum...

So, today has really been a hard one for me- for reasons I don't really want to go into.  At any rate, I was feeling down and just really super bummed and do you know what can ALWAYS lift me out of said funk???  RETAIL THERAPY!!!  That's what!!  I have been needing a new pair of shoes for literally MONTHS and today I decided to go and get me some!!  Whaddya think?!?

I know.  Totally KILLER, right?  Of course!!  Well, I cannot WAIT to go running in them!!  I will be at the HHS track tomorrow night at 4:30pm if anyone wants to run the bleachers with Christina Besh and me!! :))

So, I start this detox diet thing this coming Tuesday.  Ugh... I have a HUGE gag reflex and I am so afraid I wont be able to swallow ANYTHING on this diet.  Just the NAMES even sound gross!!  Milk Thistle??  And what the heck is Aloe Vera Juice?!?  Blech!! Pretty sure I don't have a sunburn inside my abdomen...  I'll to give it my best shot, though.  I have to say that Rhonda hasn't steered me wrong yet, so I am not looking for her to do it now.  I just wish I could do a detox of Snickers bars and supreme pizza.  OMG!  My mouth literally just filled up with saliva typing that.  YUMM!  I wish I was one of those people that could eat anything and never gain a single ounce.  Freaks.  Apparently I have the metabolism of an elephant humpback whale!  :sigh:  This detox diet says that you can lose up to ELEVEN pounds on it!  Sweet!! That would be AWESOME if I could drop that much weight in the next week.  I mean, come on!  In the words of some crazy lady I know, "I(You) can do ANYTHING for 6 days!"  I don't know about all that, though.  I mean, ANYTHING?  That's a bit lofty, don't you think?  :wink:

Well, a pile of dirty dishes and very LARGE pile of dirty clothes is calling my name, so I must sign off for now...(How old do you think a kid needs to be before I teach them how to do laundry?)

P.S. Here is your motivational quote for the day:

In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.

Heck yeah!!

Hey, hey, hey!!!  

Seven pounds and 9.5 inches later...Woohoo!  I lost a newborn midget!  Or is "little people" the more politically correct term?  Do you remember that show?  "The Little People".  That reality show where all those little people were running around , getting married, haveing itty bitty babies?  Too cute!!!

Anyways, I am super excited about my weightloss!  Although I do feel kinda bad for my trainer.  None of the ladies in my focus group are extremely vocal or enthusiastic when we weigh in and she is always asking, "Are you excited?"  "Are you happy?"  Yes, I am extremely happy about the weightloss and inches lost!  And truthfully, it is all because of her!  She motivates me, pushes me when I try to wimp out, and texts me every day to keep me on track! Have you ever tried to work out at the YMCA or another gym and the trainers there make you feel like less than a person because you are overweight? Just the way they look at you.  They don't know what its like to be fat and most of them really don't care. That's where Rhonda is different.  She HAS been there.  She's done that.  And honestly she wants to help you do the same.  She's not only my trainer, she's my friend.  The girls that I work out with are not just acquaintances, they are part of my family - my JOURNEY family.  We all have a common goal.  We push each other.  We celebrate successes with each other, and we lift each other up when one has fallen.  If you are tired of doing the same old thing and getting the same result...if you feel like a failure and want to just give up...if you are ready to REALLY make some changes, but you need someone to push you, come to The Journey Fitness Center in Ringgold.  Tell 'em Amy sent ya!

Click here to check out the website! :)

Thought for the day:

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.  The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

And so it begins...

Well... This is it.  My blog to chronicle my journey through weightloss and finding myself.  It only took me 24 hours to come up with the name!  Sheesh!  Every great idea I had for a name got shot down by 6 extremely irritating words - this blog name is not available.  Grrr!!! All these names I thought were unique and original had apparently been thought up by someone else already.  So much for standing out in the herd!  I guess I'm just chewing' cud with the rest of them.  Well, anyway, as I sat there trying to rack my brain after the TWELTH name had been shot down, I realized I was hungry.  I looked over on my desk and there was a HUGE bar of chocolate sitting there...Oh, how I love chocolate.  Any chocolate.  Eww, except for Palmer's chocolate.  That stuff's just nasty unedible!  Do you remember getting that crap as a kid in your Easter basket and being like, "Man, the Easter bunny left me crap candy!"?  I do.  But I digress.  Actually, I digress quite often, you will begin to see.  I'm like that fish on Finding Nemo -Dori.  You know, the one that has the voice of Ellen.  I do LOVE that character!  She totally cracks me up every single time I watch it!!

So, anyways, we've established that I am very fond of chocolate, but now for the other half of the blog name - CARDIO - my new obsession.  I freakin' love it!!  It kicks my butt every single day and I come back beggin' for more!! I can be in a total funk when I walk in, ( just ask my trainer) and 10 minutes in, I'm like the energizer bunny on speed!! Im smiling, cracking jokes, LOTS of jokes, and having a great time!  LOVE it!!

Anyways, the reason I decided to start this blog is to chronicle my journey as I lose weight and find out who I really am.  Plus my trainer says it's good to journal during this time, so I thought this would be a fun way to do that! :). At times, you will probably hear me whine - typically right before Mother Nature comes to destroy my otherwise very cheerful disposition.  So if my big girl panties start to sag a little, just tell me to shut-up!  That's what SOME people do, anyways! ;) ( luv ya, girl!)

I'm actually really excited tonight.  I have weigh-in tomorrow AND I get my measurements done!  I really hope I lost more than I did last month.  Three and a half inches lost is going in the right direction for me, but I need it to drive like a hot rod and not an old lady's Jazzy!  Know what I mean?!? Anyways, I am super excited about tomorrow and will probably be thinking about it all day!  :)

Thanks for stopping in and reading my blog!  It really means a lot to me that you stopped by!  Come back soon! :). For now, I leave you with a simple truth:

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself.  Whatever has to be done.  It's always your choice.