IT'S ALMOST OVER!!!

i can't wait!! i've enjoyed the fruits and veggies, but i'm ready to take my focus off of them for a little while. i won't give up on them, but i won't be cramming them all in just before 8pm. i'll keep the 8pm rule, but if i'm still eating dinner i'll take my time. it's been a fun ride, but i think i'll go with a different plan next time. i don't know what exactly, but it might be weight watchers.... and toning my body. i've lost the weight, but i don't feel like i look all that much better. oh well, it's a learning curve. hope you all have had fun too. love ya, hayley

15 pounds down only ## to go!

This has been a wonderful challenge. It's hard to believe it is almost over. Only two weeks left and then I am going to eat a whole Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream. Just kidding, I'll only have a couple of bites. :) I have been thinking about all of the excuses I used for not exercising. It's amazing that I actually believed them. Now that I am seeing real results, I think it will be pretty easy to find the time to keep this up.
I can hardly wait until the next challenge. Girls vs boys. If we win, the men will keep all of the kids while we go on a weekend get away. If the Guys win, they can take the kids on a weekend fishing trip. What do you say?

Weight Watcher Friendly Restaurants

We have ~3 weeks left of the "Family Lifestyle Health Fitness Drink Lots of Water and Exercise at Midnight Challenge". Carrie Mae and I are doing the weight watchers diet for our diet plan. It's been painful to keep track of points, but I can now say it's been worth it. We haven't really eatin' out lately because we don't know how to count points at restaurants. Well... this late in the game, I finally found (Heath sent to me) a website that has 567 restaurants with weight watchers points attached to the menu. Guess who's cooking dinner tonight? Not Carre Mae. :-)

Here is a link to the site for those for those of you doing weight watchers. Click on the restaurants link on the top line (fourth from the left). Happy eating out!

http://www.dwlz.com/

we finally slipped up

yes, it's true. david and i finally slipped up. i am the one who turns in our points each week and i forgot to turn them in for last week. there have been several times that i have almost messed up. the week of christmas and new year's was hard. one night we went out to eat around 6:30 to a barbecue restaurant. i still had a half of a fruit serving to eat. (my diet plan has me eating 3 fruits and 4 veggies a day and not eating after 8pm) i was pretty sure that barbecue restaurants didn't have fruit on the menu, and i was right. so, in order to get my points for that day, i asked for a bowl of lemons (which are sliced and used for 'water with lemon')... and ate them all!! it was sooo gross! but i got my points for that day. a few days later we were over at the potts' house and mom and dad were there too... it must have been new year's eve. anyway, mom was talking to krista and mentioned something about excercise. it was 11:28pm. i yelled to david "did you excercise yet?!" he said no, so we threw on our shoes and went for a brisk walk. while we were walking, it occurred to me that i didn't drink all my water for the day yet, and neither had david. so, we picked up the pace and got back at about 10 minutes 'til midnight and filled up our glasses of water and downed them while we walked around the house for the last bit of our 30 minute cardio. then, on the next saturday, it was 11:58pm and i almost missed the deadline for turning in points. so, i hurried and got online and emailed carrie with only seconds to spare. last week, i was over at mom and dad's and the boys were having a hard time going to sleep, so i layed down with them. i got up at 11:05pm and still had my excercise to do. i went in living room and sat down to put my shoes on and dad was watching the presidential debate stuff and i asked if he did his cardio for the day. he said no, of course. i asked what he was going to do, and he said 'ride the bike' (mom and dad got a recumbent bike, which is great!! you don't have to go outside in the cold.... i know, it's not as cold as utah or idaho, but it's still cold to me) anyway, i was planning on riding the bike too. i asked dad when he was going to ride, and he said 11:30pm. so, i hopped on the bike and rode until he kicked me off. then i went outside and braved the cold. at least it wasn't the whole 30 minutes! so now to missing our points.... i just plain forgot to turn in our points. i should put a sticky note on the computer so i don't forget anymore. wyatt is right there with us in first place. we can't slip up or we'll get bumped. all-in-all i've really liked this challenge. i hope to keep up my diet plan of eating more fruits and veggies and not eating after 8, and excercising at least 5 days a week. i'm really feeling great! i hope all of you are accomplishing your goals. good luck and have fun, hayley

Real Men Do Kick Boxing

It was late in the evening and Carrie Mae and I still had to get our cardio in for the day. With two boys in bed, we had to come up with a way to do it inside because we both couldn't leave the house to get our exercise in. Carrie pulled out an old VHS tape (I guess I don't have to say 'old' and 'VHS' in the same sentence) with a kick boxing routine. My first thought was, I am not dancing to the beat of a different drummer... guys dressed in tighter than usual clothing. But I needed the points so dancing we did. Five minutes into the routine my calves were burning and I had to turn on the fan.

So when it's late, the weather is bad, or you just feel like dressing in tight clothes, then dig out your old VHS tape of mullet men/women dancing to the eighties... and get the cardio on.

Can we fix it?

Beau and I went to Applebees the other day. I love their oriental chicken salad, but I was a good girl and ordered off their Weight Watchers menu. It was a pretty small serving. For dessert, we ordered the W.W. chocolate cake to share. The waitress thought we were crazy. When she brought it out we knew why. It was the smallest piece of cake that I have ever seen at a restaurant before. This challenge has really opened up my eyes to how much I used to eat.
I have been using small bowls for breakfast instead of the regular sized ones and smaller cups. It really makes a difference. I agree with the posting that mentioned plate size-portion size.
Just because I was raised with six boys doesn't mean that I have to look like them. :)

Quoting the beloved Bob the Builder, "Can we fix it? Yes, we can!"

On The List

Everyone at work and many of my other friends know about the challenge. Every time I get something to eat they ask me if it is allowed. I lost points today because I went to the Jazz-v-Mavs game with my boss' family. I couldn't resist the Churros. Since Mexico I hear them calling my name every time I step foot into an athletic event.