Manic Monday!

Ok, so it is the start of the week and I feel like I need a weekend off to recover from my weekend. I now have my fiance Charlie home, and it makes things a little more do-able. I am on the go from 6:30 a.m. until 9 or 10 p.m. It drives me absolutely nuts! But, I can say I at least have the willingness and desire to do something different keeps me motivated. I have school, work, gym, homework, and all the other odds and ends. The good news is, I have not had a soda pop, processed food, or sugars (other than the natural sugars from fruits and veggies) since the 19th of January. I can say I love, love the Weight Watchers program, it is giving me the tools I need to manage my food intake and feel good about what I eat. At this point I am allotted 43 points per day, with 49 extra points a week (if something special were to come up). I love it! I am eating guilt free for the first time in my adult life. Thank you God, for this gift. I am so honored and blessed to be apart of The Big Loser 2011 from the Planet 94.1 radio station. I am so blessed that they chose me, out of all of the applicants that applied. I feel like God is saying here Leslie, let me help you. So far my workout schedule is as follows: Mondays- day off, Tuesdays - 3 miles, training session with Ty "The Terminator", and Zumba with Jazzie, Wednesdays - 2 miles and swimming, Thursdays 3 miles and Zumba with Jazzie, Friday 1 mile and training session with Ty "The Terminator", Saturdays 3 miles and Zumba with Jazzie, Sundays 3 miles at the Park. The only thing I am struggling with is setting an athletic goal to shoot for. My goal this week for weight loss is 8-10 pounds. I am hoping this will be possible. I am doing everything I can to make sure I am following the guidelines. I refuse to weigh myself, and see what happens on Wednesdays at Weight Watchers with the other teams. I have a huge support system going on right now and I love it! The more support the better, so if you are following me, Thank you so much. I will keep posting my progress and my weigh ins.

Before Pictures and Planet 94.1 Bio

Starting Weight:  300.2
Body Fat Percentage:  49.3%
Age: 32
Height: 5' 3"

Pet Peeves:

My biggest pet peeve is dishonesty. I feel so strongly about just
 being honest, regardless. My thought about it is, even if you

think you may, or may not hurt my feelings, I can still respect

your honesty and accept it. It is better to be honest and hurt

someones feelings, than to be dishonest and later on down the

road they find out you were lying. Just more wreckage to clean

up later. Save the trouble and be truthful right from the start.

My other pet peeve is my own procrastination. I always tell
myself, I will just do it tomorrow or later. In reality, there is

no better time like right now, because right here in this moment

is all we have!

Favorite TV shows and Movies: 

I am not one for TV shows but, I do love the Biggest Loser.
I watched a few seasons and then decided not to watch it

anymore because I was feeling sorry for myself. Questioning

my ability and then I would go into the kitchen and eat. So,

I just stopped watching it.

My favorite movies are: 

Peaceful Warrior, A Walk To Remember, Remember the Titans,

Despicable Me, What Happens in Vegas, and Why Did I Get Married.

Food that is your biggest weakness: 

Food in general is a big weakness. But, I love La Frontera's
smothered burritos and french fries. I also love my homemade

chicken enchiladas. I also can't resist cookies and milk, or a

piece of homemade yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

What motivated you to enter this contest?

The biggest motivation to enter is my desire to lose this weight.
Right now I am the biggest I have ever been in my life. I want to

lose weight, I think about losing weight but I just go right back to

the same habits and don't stick to my goals. I have tried HCG,

I have tried to do it on my own. This opportunity came up and I

said a prayer to God asking him to help me get the help I need

and the courage to do it. Wow! Is this contest amazing! I am so excited.

This is the jump start I need to give me the tools, motivation, and

support to better my life, and the lives of my children. This is a gift!

Thank you Planet 94.1 for choosing me and blessing me with the

opportunity to get healthy. Thank you for believing in me. I am

so excited to meet the other contestants and hopefully build

relationships with them to last a lifetime. I am ready to get

this party started!!

Week 1 - 10 pounds baby!

All I can say at this point is "Whoooaa!" I am so dang proud of that 10 pounds! Who would of thought I would be happy about losing 10. But, I earned it! A whole lot of pain and a whole lot of sweat! Bye, Bye 10 pounds, I neve have to see you again EVER! This past week has honestly been an emotional roller coaster ride. I have had a trainer who has pushed me to my limits, telling me I am worth it! Telling me that "I am taking my life back," giving me the push that I needed to believe in me once again. Tyann is an amazing trainer, I know that God must have picked her out for me. I have not had any sugars other than the natural sugars from fruits and veggies. I have not had one drink from a soda pop, or fruit punch. I have not had any processed foods for over a week. I have however had some Subway, and today for the first time since I have been on this weight lose journey went to Applebee's. I had a steak potato salad, it was wonderful! Last night Charlie finally came home! Two wonderful things happen for me yesterday, for that I am grateful. This morning I didn't push myself as much as I would have liked to, however I did work out. Tomorrow is another day with my trainer, I think I can, I think I can!

Sunday-What a Fun DAY!

I am very, very proud of myself today! I cannot say that about yesterday. However, I am today. Saturday was a nice day at the gym with my daughter. I did 25 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on the rowing machine. I happened to do 40 sit-ups and that was about it. I did eat healthy, for breakfast-oatmeal, 1% milk, and 1 piece of whole grain toast. For lunch Jazzie and I had Subway. Yes, with Weight Watchers I can eat out! How amazing is that! For dinner it was chicken fajitas. So, then the quietness of my house, the children were at their dad's house for the weekend, my head started to play games with me. It was telling me that, "I am not doing enough, I can push myself harder, you are such a disappointment." I was making myself sick, of course I started to cry. If you want to know the truth, my mind is a terrible place to be, when I am all by myself! Geezzz! I did reach out and sent one of my team members a text message to express my feelings, and his response was very kind. Eventually, I was able to go to sleep. Today, was a great day. Besides the fact that Gold's Gym, well all I can say is two thumbs down. Last year I purchase and paid in full for a membership for an entire year. Well, I get there and they said that I owe them money for "maintenance/upgrade" I said, "I paid in full! He said yea, but they must have not charged you for it! Oh ok... Well what should I do. He wanted me to pay them for their mistake! What! Ummm Nahhh! So, I went to the park. Yep, my trainer wanted me to walk/jog outside once a week to train for this 5k. Well, that is what I did. At the park there happen to be a mile key stating how many laps equaled how many miles. So... I did eight laps which equaled three miles. I was so proud of myself when I left there. I did three miles in one hour. Which means, when the 5k happens to roll around, I know that I can at least walk/jog within one hour. But, the way I am training I will be able to finish sooner than an hour. But, what I learned today is that I can at least do it! Way cool if you ask me. I am also, struggling with the idea of getting on my scale at home. I have not done it, and I am not going to. But, my head says, "Oh, you need to see how much weight you have lost." But, I know in my heart that I want to know when I weigh in on Wednesday when everyone else finds out. I want to feel the success of my hard work. Today, I feel good and I am proud of my steps toward my weight loss goals. The first goal is to lose at least 5% of my weight. Not too overwhelming right??? I also went to the chiropractor/acupuncturists yesterday! Yes, that is right I have been given the gift of two visits a month, while I am doing this contest! WOW! What a gift! I loved it by the way! Thank you GOD for all my many blessing. 

Day 2 - Oh What A Day!

Talk about a day! I feel good, yet tired! I woke up this morning and did the oatmeal and 1% milk for breakfast. Which I did yesterday too. Then after my morning class, I went to the gym. I was feeling all pumped up, excited for the day, ready to exercise and meet Ty (Trainer). Well, about 15 minutes into my workout, I was trying my hardest not to say the words I hate the most (the bad ones mostly four letters) it was in my best interest to keep a positive attitude though. I honestly did not think that I was this out of shape. I found out really quick how much of a lie I was telling myself. My weight gain is so similar to my drug addiction, I can see the commonalities all over it. "Oh, I am not that fat!" or "If I get as big as that person, then I will do something about it." How about "I'm not fat, I', fluffy." or "More to love baby!" The list can go on, and on. The cold hard fact of it all, I am out of shape and over weight. Today was an eye opener for me. I know that I have challenges to face each day. But, for now I am going to live one day at a time with this. On day one, I did 45 minutes on the eliptical and 20 on the treadmill, then I went to Zumba for the first time. I am not so sure how I feel about Zumba, but I will go back to learn. I am willing to try anything to lose weight, and have fun at the same time. I have also met some really amazing people who are apart of this Big Loser 2011 contest too. They have been motivating me, and touching base periodically. I love that I have people who can relate to the way I am feeling, and understand the ups and downs. I can say that the only thing that is a down today, is the aftermath of the workout. It hurts! In a few days, I am sure it won't hurt so bad. Right???? I have my first radio spot on Monday morning, for all you fans out there be sure to tune in. Our pictures from the photo shoot will be coming soon. I will post them as soon as I have them.

Tonight is the Night!

Ok, family and friends. I am feeling nervously excited at this point. I want this weight loss so bad I can taste it, and no that is not the fatty foods I have been eating for the past year! This is the time for me to take my life back. To take this food addiction and kick it to the curb. I know that I am powerless over food, and with that being said, I have a body weight that is unmanageable. However, it can be arrested and recovery is possible.  My schedule is pretty clear, I will be at the gym five to six days a week. This is where I will be training for the up coming 5k, that I am going to jog. Yes people, I am going to job my way to victory. This is my goal! I am starting with these manageable goals I can work at. My trainer wants me to do at least 1 hour of cardio three to four times a week, on top of strength training! Oh baby, oh baby! I am going to be one hot mama by the time summer comes around. You know how nice it will be to feel comfortable in a swimsuit, out there with my children. Very exciting stuff! Umm.. I will also be leaving food tips and recipes for all you followers. I will also share my good days and my bad days. I will share my weigh ins and what ever comes to my mind. There is also updates that will be available on the Planet94.1 website, and you can also facebook them to see the other contestants. You will be amazed with the other people participating, the are wonderful, heartwarming, yet competitive team members. Regardless, if I win or lose the contest, I get the gift of weight trainers, Weight Watchers, tools to lose weight to last a lifetime, and relationships with other people who can relate to the way I feel. Way too awesome! I am going to have to send a huge shout out to the man upstairs, my loving God of my understanding-Thank you God! You are doing things for me that I can not do for myself! I am responding to your hand in my journey and I know you are here every step of the way. There is no way I can fail, having God by my side. For those of you who are following this, thank you for your love and support.

"Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good."

Vince Lombardi

This is my first blog. I have decided to blog my weight loss away. That way my friends and family will be able to see my progress, and find out what I am doing. Not only what, but how I am doing it. I will posting pictures periodically, along with weight loss each week. When I know you will know. Many of you already know that I am a contestant for a local radio station here in St. George, Planet 94.1. I will participating in the "Big Loser 2011" where I will be apart of an amazing opportunity to take my life back. I am so excited to start my weight loss journey, the safe and healthy way. I am asking for love and support along the way.