Sadie's Skinny

New Home!

sadiesskinny — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:34:41 +0000

Please visit me at my new home: http://sadies-skinny.com/blog and remember my website http://sadies-skinny.com

Bare With Me!

sadiesskinny — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:10:06 +0000

I guess by now you’ve noticed the changes going on around here! Well, I’m not done with them, don’t worry! I’m having some issues getting everything set up the way I want, thanks to trying to work on it while at work, then coming home and trying to do a ton of other things, and then my hosting company not being very cooperative on top of that!! :p

Anyway, I hope to have everything finished by the end of the weekend. I apologize for any inconvenience in the meantime.

Today was weigh day, and I am still at 184. I’m so frustrated. I’ve been so good this week, and after having such an exciting weekend shopping last week, I was hopeful. So, if I don’t meet my goal of 180 by Christmas, maybe I’ll at least get it by the end of the year.

How is everyone doing on their Christmas shopping? I’m almost finished. We’re going back to the mall tomorrow. We’re going mainly to be out in the crowds and get in the spirit, but I’d like to pick up a couple of things if we see any good last minute sales.

A Weekend Full of Positives

sadiesskinny — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:06:00 +0000

As I mentioned on Friday, I went to the mall this weekend to get some shopping in. While we were there we walked passed American Eagle and saw they were having a Buy 1 get 1 50% Off sale, so I went in to see if I had lost enough weight to fit into their clothes yet. I’ve been able to fit into some of my size 14 pants, even though they’ve been tight, so I was pretty optimistic, but I’ve also been so used to not being able to shop at “normal” mall stores for the last few years that I feel really out of place when I walk into them and look at the women’s clothes. I feel like everyone is looking at me thinking, “What is she doing here?” Anyway, I saw a sale rack with some navy slacks and found a size 14 and grabbed a sweater to go with them and headed for the dressing room while my husband sat on a chair right outside the door. I put the pants on and they were tight, but I figure that in a few weeks they’ll be okay. In the meantime it’s motivation. The sweater fits fine. I was really excited that I can shop there again! When I was coming out of the dressing room I almost ran smack into some guy coming in and when I met up with my husband he said that as I left the guy I almost ran into turned around and was looking me up and down. I asked him if he was going to go beat him up or if it made him proud.

Another great thing I’ve come across this weekend came to me via my friend CJ Harley. She sent me a link to SparkPeople.com, which is an online community of people trying to lose weight. You log in what you eat each day, your exercise schedule, you can join groups to talk with other members – it’s very customizable to how much you want to participate. I’ve signed up and am going to see what I can get out of it. Joining a community of people who have the same goals is always a great way to accomplish something. It’s a great way to get support and motivation.

I hope everyone gets off to a good start to their week!

Thirteen Days – So Much to Accomplish!

sadiesskinny — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:26:00 +0000

I can’t believe it’s already been 2 weeks since I told you guys that I wanted to be down to 180 by Christmas! And now I can’t believe there are only 13 days until Christmas! Where has time gone? I haven’t even started shopping! That’s what I’ll be doing this weekend I guess…

I am excited to tell you that I’m halfway to my goal! Today I got on the scale and discovered that I’m down to 184. I haven’t seen that number in so long! This also means that for the first time in a long time I am finally not considered obese! I’m in the “overweight” category again. That’s a weird thing to celebrate, isn’t it? I’ve found a good site to easily calculate my Body Mass Index. How do you do?

I’m really hoping that going Christmas shopping tomorrow and getting out in the crowds will help get me more into the holiday spirit. It’s been really tough this year for some reason. What would really help would be to make my grandfather’s molasses cookies. Ever since he passed it’s been a tradition of mine to make them at the holiday’s. Even though I shouldn’t eat the sugar, it would be a nice treat for me, and I could bring them to work. Maybe I’ll do that this weekend too.

How is shopping going for the rest of you? What are you doing to get into the spirit? Is anyone doing any pageants or parades or anything unique?

Martha’s Battle

sadiesskinny — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:00:00 +0000

A few years ago my Aunt Martha was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. She was only 41 years old. This came only 8 years after my great aunt had beaten breast cancer. She had been 59 when she was diagnosed.

When she was first diagnosed we had no idea how bad it was. I was living over 6 hours away so it wasn’t like I was able to just ‘drop in’ and be there for her. That was hard. She’s always been like my 2nd mother. When we finally got a grasp on everything, we realized that the cancer was manageable – the doctor believed that he could get it all. The only catch was that he was going to have to take her uterus. She was devastated. She had 2 boys already – one was in college and one was in middle school, but she had always wanted a little girl.

My mom was able to be with her when she came out of the surgery. She came through it well, but was an emotional wreck. I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to be in that situation – to know that you can never have any more children. Ever. Especially for someone like her who had built her whole life around her children. It had to be terrible.

Thankfully, the doctor was right. With taking her uterus, the cancer has not come back. She is now completely cancer free and has been for 4 years. For that, I thank God.

Since I first started going through puberty, my mom told me that “abnormal pap smears” ran in the family. Since then, almost every time I go to the gynecologist, my pap smear comes back abnormal. I really have to be careful. Just earlier this year I was having really abnormal menstrual cycles with horrible cramps so my doctor ordered an ultra sound. Luckily I’m aware of these things at a younger age and can be watching out for it. It’s still really scary, though.

Everyone is always so quick to talk about breast cancer, which is a great cause, but I hate that people seem to forget about other cancers. Ovarian Cancer is a terrible killing of women. Please consider donating this Christmas season as a gift to those who suffer. You can also go to L’Oreal Color of Hope to get a L’Oreal Paris Hope Necklace for $29.95. $5.00 will be donated to OCRF (Ovarian Cancer Research Fund) to help fund research to fight the disease. You can also go to Julie’s Journal to enter an extremely easy contest to win one! All you have have to do is write a post on your own blog about this disease to spread the word to others. See her blog for more details.

Red Currants – What Do You Do With Them?

sadiesskinny — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:45:00 +0000

I went to the store tonight to pick up a couple of necessities: salad, bananas, eggs – and I happened to see red currants next to the blueberries. I’ve heard of them in European recipes but I’d never had one, so I made my husband try one in the store and tell me what it tasted like. I wish I had a picture of his face! He said it was tart and kind of sweet. So, I bought a pack.

For dinner tonight I had my boiled egg, half a hummus sandwich on 12 grain bread, a few blueberries, and a few of the red currants. I actually really liked them! Since I’ve cut out sugar I don’t really like sweet things too much anymore. I find that sometimes things can be “too sweet”.

After dinner I started looking online to see what I could find about this little fruit. Well, the answer is: not much. The best bit of information actually comes from the Wiki article I linked to in the first paragraph. Here’s a good excerpt from it that explains some of the herbal benefits:

“Although blackcurrant is more traditionally associated with medicinal
uses, English and German language herbalist sources consider redcurrant
berries to have fever-reducing, sweat-inducing, menstrual-flow inducing, mildly laxative, astringent, appetite increasing, blood cleansing,diuretic and digestive properties. Some of these proposed effects are probable, due to the verified high levels of vitamin C, fruit acids, and fiber the berries contain. Tea made from dried redcurrant leaves is said to ease the symptoms of gout and rheumatism, be useful in compresses for poorly healing wounds, and as a gargling solution for mouth infections.”

There seems to be some great qualities in there for weight loss, as well as just health in general. In the article it also talks about how people don’t really eat them alone, but, well, can’t I? I kind of like it! Do you guys have any good recipes? Have you ever had them? What about smoothies? I wonder if they’d be good mixed with other fruits.

I’d love some feedback if anyone has any!

My Christmas Decorations

sadiesskinny — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:24:00 +0000

If you know me by now, then you know that I live in a tiny apartment. I make the best of it by saying that it’s “comfy-cozy” and “quaint”, but, c’mon – it can be a real pain. There isn’t much room for all of our stuff, but the good thing is that I’ve learned how to stack a lot of boxes into only 3 closets!

Decorating for Christmas is really tough in a small place. Growing up we always put the Christmas tree in the front window. In other places I’ve lived that’s what I’ve done. Well, not here! That’s where I had to put my loveseat. My only option was to buy a small tabletop pre-lit tree. It works, though. I tied some ribbon to a few branches, hung a few of my favorite ornaments, found a star to put on top, and there ya go!

The only other things I really have room for are some dish towels and pot holders in my kitchen, my stockings (which I still have to find hooks for), and my nativity scene. Here’s my nativity scene:

It’s important to do something for yourself during the holidays to get into the spirit. Whether that be decorating your small apartment, playing your favorite holiday CD in the car, or hosting your annual Christmas party, do something that you enjoy this season – just for yourself!

What are you guys doing at your houses this year?

The Benefits of Sunshine

sadiesskinny — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:04:00 +0000

Wintertime tends to be a very cloudy time of year. For people that suffer from depression, or who are prone to it, being stuck in what feels like constant darkness can feel very heavy, or very trapping. Even those who don’t suffer from depression can fall into it if they don’t take the right steps to prevent it.

The last few days here have been really cold and really cloudy and just gross. It even rained a little north of here last night. For those of you who are like me who work 8-5 or 9-6 or something like that, you probably go to work as the sun is just coming up and drive home in the dark. I rarely ever see the sun – unless you count the times I see it out of the office window, as I peer over file cabinets and stare out of the 18th floor to the other high rises and the ship yard.

Sunshine has all kinds of benefits. Yes, getting too much in the summer can fry your skin and cause skin cancer. We all know that. But we can’t hide in the dark like vampires, either, even though they seem to be very popular lately, don’t they? Sunlight helps our bodies produce vitamin D. It also helps us produce a natural mood enhancement – a natural anti-depressant. It’s been proven that spending time out in the sunlight helps curb depression. Some mental hospitals even take their patients outside daily to give them sunshine.

What I plan on doing this season is, on days that are sunny, no matter how cold it is, I’m going to go out on my lunch break and walk around the block. I won’t have to go far, I’ll keep moving so I won’t get too cold (hopefully!), and I’ll get my daily dose of sunshine. Plus, I’ll get the added benefit of getting out of the office for a few minutes every day, and I could definitely use that! Why don’t you try doing something similar?

As it’s Friday, it’s also time for my weigh in report. Sadly, there isn’t much to tell. I’m still at 188. I guess it could be worse. After the holiday last week, I was afraid of what the scale would say, but I’ve worked hard this week to counteract what I ate on Thanksgiving and the days that followed when my mom was here. So I’m glad to see that my work paid off, I guess. I hope you all had a great week!

Healthy Drinks – What Mistakes Are You Making?

sadiesskinny — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:55:00 +0000

I’ve been reading articles lately about healthy drinks and the dos and don’ts about them. When I say “healthy drinks”, I mean anything from fruit smoothies, to fruit juice, to yogurt shakes. As most of you are already aware, I don’t drink anything other than water, milk, and fruit juice. Well, okay, I occasionally have tea, but I don’t put sugar in it, an I never have more than one cup – and it’s usually not more than a couple of times a month. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I had a soda. It was sometime over the summer before I started this new lifestyle. Anyway, it’s important to know the difference between a healthy drink and a “healthy” drink.

So how do you tell? Good question. These days it’s hard. Everyone is trying to jump on the health train by putting the word “organic” or “fresh” on their label. That doesn’t mean that it’s good for you! Even when something says “low fat” it doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. The best way to tell is to turn the carton or bottle over the read the label! I cannot stress that enough. You have to look at calories versus fat versus sugar. Those are the 3 most important things on a label.

Now, we all have our own bodies and our bodies digest things in different ways. That means that we all need to pay attention to different things on that label. Some people need to pay attention more to calories. Some people will need to pay more attention to fat. Me? I read more into sugar. Calories are important to my body type, too, but sugar is the biggie for me.

You’re probably asking me now: How do I tell what my body type is? I have an answer for that too! But, I have a disclaimer before you just start clicking on the link I’m about to give you! I don’t want you to buy the product this site advertises. I don’t agree with buying “diets”. I think you need to know what your body type is, look at some of the sample meals they’ll show you, and take it from there on your own. Losing weight is a lifestyle change. That’s what I hope everyone is learning from me. My whole life I’ve tried all kinds of pills, I’ve tried LA Weight Loss, I’ve tried Weight Watchers. None of it worked because they weren’t a lifestyle change. To make the right changes for your whole life, find out what type of body you have, and learn to watch the right things on the labels. You’ll get the right results, and keep the off, for good.

December Picture

sadiesskinny — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Well, it’s December 1st, so it’s time to update my picture! Like I did last month, I’ve posted last month’s picture and this month’s picture so we can all compare.

Nov 1st

Dec 1st

The things I notice: the first thing I notice is definitely my stomach. It’s not a huge change, but the change is definitely there. next, my sides have shrunk some. Underneith my bra you can see it doesn’t pooch as much. I can also see a smaller pooch over my panties. The only other change I can really see is in my thighs.

I didn’t lose as much weight this month, either. That’s expected, though. Things slow down. I know that. I am proud of my changes, though.

Oh!! The big news of the weekend! How could I forget?! I went shopping and I bought a size 14 pants at Talbot’s!! I’m so excited! Not only are they a size smaller, but I can shop at a normal store again!!