"I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad, I got sunshine in a bag..."

(Gorillaz, "Clint Eastwood")

Soooooo....guess what?

Give up?

Thought so. I lost weight! My official weigh-in weight for this week is (drumroll please?!): 255.8! (Okay, so maybe that was a tad dramatic for a 2.8 pound weight loss, but I'm happy, dude!)

What's working for me? Well, a couple of things. First of all, I've broken down my weight loss by month. Meaning, I started at around 260 (that's where I've been hovering for months now, so that's what we're going with), and I want to lose 2 pounds per week, so that's 8 pounds per month. Instead of focusing on that big ol' number in October, I'm focusing on 252. So if that's my goal, I've got 12 days to lose about 4 pounds. Seems easy enough now that I'm actually moving in the right direction!

What else is working? That damn treadmill is kicking my ass! (In the best way possible). I walked/jogged three times this week for an hour each time. I have found that it helps if I take a little 5 minute break at the 1/2 hour mark, and then get right back up and go for another 1/2 hour. According to my treadmill and TDP, I'm burning somewhere between 375-400 calories every hour. And what is helping me make it through an hour on the treadmill? Oy with the Poodles, already - The Gilmore Girls. LOL. It's one of my favorite shows of all time, and I own all of the seasons on DVD. Each one is about 45 minutes long, so one episode gets me almost all the way through a workout. Then I get 15 minutes into a new one and get to relax and watch the rest of it when I'm finished! It's an excellent plan! And since there are 7 seasons, and I just started the 3rd season (for about the 5th time), I've got a long way to go before I run out.

And just to give me that extra little push when I'm struggling on the treadmill, I also posted a sheet of paper under the tv that says 01/31: 252. Just to remind me what I'm working towards. And last night, when I was having a tough time trying to get there, I'd shout to the Hubs (who was on the computer in another room) how much longer I had to go every 5 minutes. "25 more minuuuuutes!!!" and then I'd hear a random "Woo Hoo!" or "Yay!" from the other room. LOL. He kept me going.

I'm starting to get the hang of the whole calorie counting thing. We had dinner with one set of my parents and some family friends (10 of us all together!) Saturday night at Mimi's. I checked out their website for nutritional information and narrowed down my choices before we even got there. (Which meant staying as far away as possible from the bbq baby back ribs - almost 3000 calories in the ribs alone! Eek!) In the end, I chose pretty well, and again limited myself to one piece of bread.

Sunday, I attempted to be Suzie Homemaker - and failed miserably! LOL. I have had this idea in my head that I wanted to try to make a pot roast, envisioning tender meat falling apart, sitting in juicy gravy, covering tender potatoes and carrots. What did I get? Tough, hard meat that was an adventure to cut, let alone chew, in a watery, flavor-less gravy, soaking potatoes and carrots. Yeah, I've got a long way to go to get that "Donna Reed Wife of the Year" trophy. I tried, though, and the Hubs (amazing man that he is) ate his, and mine too! LOL. He's a good guy, that Hubs of mine.

At any rate, crappy roast kept me from over-endulging. Actually, it kept me from endulging at all. LOL. I ate a couple of rolls and was on my way.

Oh, and I would be a bad citizen if I didn't mention the fact that today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I truly believe we should all take a minute today to reflect upon the history of civil rights in this country. We've come a long way, but we've still got so far to go! Hopefully when Barack Obama takes the Oath of Office tomorrow, it will be a new dawn for the American people, and he will set us in the right direction towards providing true equality for all.

At any rate, that's where I stand. I'm "officially" 2 pounds down, but I'm calling it 4.2 from 260. I'm the one working my ass off here, so I say I can choose to look at it which ever way I want. LOL. I've got 3.8 pounds to go. *Puts her game face on* Oh, it's (and I'm) goin' down, man! It's goin' down...

Have a great week!