Happy New Year!

I can't believe this year is coming to an end already. Time certainly does fly by. You can't help but to reflect on the past year around this time and it was quite a year.

Unfortunately I got up to my highest weight ever but I am happy to say that I have lost 35 pounds this year and hoping to lose at least another 35 next year. I have begun to make exercise a regular part of my daily life and I feel much better for it.

In addition to the weight loss I have made some good friends this year at the gym. It makes the hard work easier when you have great people working with you and rooting for you. I am so thankful to have them in my life.

Obviously exercise isn't the only part to the weight loss and I have been eating much healthier this year (okay, with the exception of the past two week, the holidays are tough for eating healthy). I really hope to improve this even more next year. It is something I struggle with and some habits are easier to change than others.

I am also really excited about my new hobby, Cross-stitching. I was so excited to finish my first cross-stitch project which was a Dalek from Doctor Who which I made for Ken for Christmas. I have started a second one and have made a great deal of progress. It has been fun learning something new. It keeps me busy and it also keeps me from snacking.

So with the New Year there always comes resolutions. I have found that the more realistic the resolution the more obtainable it is. I found this quote that to me sums up the meaning and purpose of New Year's resolutions.

“Time invested in improving ourselves cuts down on time wasted in disapproving of others."

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Resolutions

1. Eat more healthy and well balanced meals

2. Exercise at least 5 days a week

3. Spend more time learning and reading. Read at least 5 books this year.

4. Be less critical of others

5. Do more to help others. Find ways of volunteering.

The Time of Year for Eating

Okay, I know I've been really slacking with my blogging but I feel like I've been so busy (I know, excuses, excuses).

For starters we've been having the "Holiday Stamp-ede" at work. We had weigh-ins right before Thanksgiving and the goal is to not gain weight over the holiday season. They've had cooking demos, Patrick House from biggest loser came and spoke, and they've had workout classes 3 days a week. For each event we go to we get a stamp on our card. The stamps get us entered in a drawing for an iPad. I've done pretty good. I haven't gained any weight and in fact I've lost 1 1/2 pounds. Our weigh-outs are on January 3-4.

I went to the cooking demo where I got some good recipes (i'll include those at the end of my post). I went and saw Patrick House, Biggest Loser Season 10 winner, speak. His story was so inspirational and if you ever get a chance to see him speak I definitely recommend it. I've been going to the Pilates class every Wednesday and I tried the Monday bootcamp class though the time I went they didn't play any music and it was too weird for me to workout in silence. They also gave us stamps for turning in 2 healthy recipes. At weigh-outs they are going to give us a recipe book with the best recipes. It's been really fun and so great that they care so much about employees' health.

It has been pretty hard though because of course not everyone at work is taking part and the people in my area  love to eat. And I mean LOVE to EAT! People have been bring in treats pretty much every day since Thanksgiving. They are doing a 12 days of Christmas in which everyone takes turns bring in something for 12 days and then at the end of it all they are having a potluck. So in other words there has been a lot of temptation but I've done really well. I haven't eaten any of the treats. I did bring some of my own healthified baked goods one day; Gluten-free pumpkin muffins and gluten-free apple ginger scones. Despite the healthiness they went over surprisingly well.

On top of the extra work-outs at work I've still been hitting the gym pretty hard. I try to go on Monday and Wednesday mornings for Strength and Cardio classes. Tuesday I either go swimming or I walk on the treadmill at home. Thursday and Sunday are usually my days off. Sometimes I go Thursday morning or Friday morning and swim. Saturday is my 3 hour workout blitz of 1 hour Zumba, 1 hour Strength and Cardio, and 1 hour Yoga. If I hadn't indulged over Thanksgiving I probably would have lost a lot more weight by now but I'm just taking it a day at a time and realizing that even though I'm not seeing a lot of loss on the scales I am noticing clothes fitting different.

I've also still been working on a homemade Christmas present for Ken. That has been more time consuming than I expected and it's also hard because I can't work on it when he is around. I only have two weeks left and I hope I finish it in time. I haven't even started on my scarf but I don't have any real deadline for its completion so it has been put on the back burner.

I am going to be on call for work over Christmas so Ken and I haven't planned much. I'm hoping things will be quiet and I won't get a lot of calls.

On top of all the other excitement our heat went out twice in the last week and it ended up cost $600 to get it fixed so that was a fun unexpected expense but that's just one of the joys of home ownership and at this point I'm just glad to have heat. It has put a bit of a damper on my holiday spending though unfortunately.

Well that is the update for me. In case I don't get around to posting again before Christmas I hope everyone has a great holiday. I will be sure to post before New Years with my resolutions and goals for 2012.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Click here for recipes