My Fitness Pal

So, with my new rejuvenated enthusiasm to get this weight off I have decided to take a new approach. I've decided to start counting calories. I have been eye balling it in the past and making healthier choices. But I figured that a more structured approach might be just what I need to make the scale move faster.

I joined a site called myfitnesspal. It's a website and app all in one. You can calculate all of the foods you eat and get a read out on the nutrition you are consuming. It's pretty awesome how it shows all of the vitamins and everything you are getting and what you are lacking and still need to get for the day. You can track your exercise there too. Then it calculates and gives you credits for all of the working out you have done so theoretically you could eat more if you worked out. On a day like today when I worked out like crazy, I'm using some of those calories.

Another part of it that I like is that it has an app for my phone. So, while I was in the gym today I was adding all of the things I did right into it. That way I would remember it all. And it's so fast to do it too.

I lost again this week!! Not nearly as much as the first week trying really hard....but still a loss. I'm looking forward to many reports of progress on the scale.

You can add friends on this app to help encourage each other as well. I'm TraciTreasures. Feel free to add me. Still trying to figure it all out.  A bunch of my other names I would pick were taken, so I just chose my blog name (without the s). When I had originally signed up for it I was TracisTreasures, but I deleted that account because when I signed in I didn't use my original start weight for my "now" weight. I was discouraged. I really wanted that ticker! So, I'll be adding the ticker right after this blog. Sadly, I'm back to 30 pounds lost (as apposed to 66). But that's with losing like 5 recently. So, I'll take it. I won't quit. I will slowly lose it all again and then more.

While I was working out yesterday I was telling myself over and over. I'm capable. I can do this. I can get through this. I am worth it. I'm not going to die.

I'm so determined that no one and nothing is going to stop me.

I joined 2 challenges as well. One is with a group from church. It's mainly a goal challenge. Set your own goal and whomever achieves that goal within the allowed time gets put in a drawing for a $50 gift card. Sounds good to me!! The other challenge is kind of a goal challenge too with some online friends. For that challenge I am going to be continuing my workout routine as well as tracking my food and exercise on myfitnesspal as well.

Looking forward to all of this motivation to keep on track.

No Bus For Us

On the way to school today we saw the kids still waiting for the bus (all alone). So a conversation started about why they are not taking the bus to school even though they are far enough away from school to bus in.

I started telling them my story about almost being kidnapped at the bus stop when I was in 1st grade. I realize most people probably don't know this story so I thought I would share. I was with a few other kids at the bus stop waiting for the bus. A car came up to us when the man driving said that our bus had broken down and that he was there to take us to school. (There was already a little girl in the back seat of the car.) So immediately I was like...oh ok...and took a step toward the car. That is when one of the big 5th grader boys stepped in front of me with his arm straight out shouting "NO!" He hovered around us pushing us away from the car to get us further away. It all happened so fast. That's when the bus showed up and the car sped away.

We proceeded to tell the bus driver, as well as several other adults who DIDN'T believe us. Finally we told a noon duty aid who took us seriously and took us to the office. The police were called and a search was on for the people in the car as well as the little girl who was in the car already. They did calls to make sure none of the school buses were actually broken down as well. And eventually called our parents. My mom says it wasn't until 2 something before they were called. Needless to say they couldn't believe it took them so long to call.

The police honored the boy who saved us. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Who knows what could have happened if he weren't there?

I was just talking about this with my mom the other day. I learned something I never knew. She said they eventually caught the guy because he tried to do it again.

The bus stop here is literally right down the street from our house. But the bus stop this happened at was right down the street from my child care that I was at in the morning. And the bus stop this happened at was right next door to a fire department. This stuff can happen anywhere. So I will happily drive the 2 miles to the school twice a day.

Moving the Scale

Finally we have some major movement on the scale. I lost 4.4 pounds this week!!! Hallelujah!! I guess cutting back on the Easter candy was the trick. What a concept?! lol So excited to see that scale moving in the right direction. It just motivates me further to keep going to the gym and eating better.

Video for Ellen

Ever since seeing Sophia Grace and Rosie on Ellen Courtney has been asking me if they can make a video to send to Ellen. That way she can go on the show. It seems really important to her so I agreed to video them if they practiced what they were going to do. So they practiced and I videoed and promised to send it to Ellen. I'm putting it on here because it needed a web address to submit it. And I thought it would be safer here than you tube. So, here they are. So cute!
Never mind...it only let me upload on you tube. But here it is anyway.

WACCy Wednesday

haha I thought that would be a fun title since I am writing about the women's retreat that I went on with the wonderful women at WACC (Whittier Area Community Church). We went to the Murrietta Hot Springs for the weekend and had a wonderful time. As you can see from the photo above, it was a beautiful place. I only took this one picture of it. lol Didn't even take my regular camera. Guess I needed a retreat too.

6 people to a room doesn't sound like much fun, but it was. My roomies were my mom, Shauna, Kim, Ekaterina, and Amy. We had such a fun time doing everything together.

The first night we got all checked in (thanked God we weren't the lady who broke her leg) and went to dinner together. It was fun eating all together in the big hall so we could see the other groups who were there too. Then we went over to our big room that we had the opportunity to meet our speaker. She was wonderful. What a natural gift this woman has. While walking back to our rooms and being very tired, we checked out the hot springs for the next day. Don't know if you have ever been to them but boy do they stink. lol Supposedly like sulfur but to me it smelled like rotten eggs. We didn't care. We just knew we had to experience it while we could. So we went back to bed and slept. Every one was so tired.

The next day we started with breakfast together followed by our morning session with the speaker and worship. The theme of the talks was friendship. We learned about  Barbaras, Pamelas, and Tammys. The need for having friends that are Barbaras are friends that are like Barnabus was. There for your friends no matter what. They live life with you and are willing to pick up your mat when you are too sick/tired to do it for yourself. Friends who are Pamelas are friends who are like Paul. A mentor relationship. Someone who has been there before. Someone who can pour into you, as Sherry would say. The third are Tammys. These are friends who are like Timothy. Friends that we can mentor. Someone new to the path you have been on. It was awesome learning all of this.

After that talk we had many different options of workshops we could go to or chose to do nothing at all. ;) I thought it was great that they emphasized that this retreat should be whatever you want it to be. So if you wanted to have activities, there were many to choose from. If you wanted to sleep all day you could do that too. Loved that. We chose to sign up for one workshop and have fun the rest of the day. We went to Anne's workshop on Building Healthy Relationships/Boundaries. Some good reminders about having healthy boundaries and sticking up for yourself really. A hard challenge but worth it.

We then went to lunch and parted ways. Some went to lunch outside the retreat and others went to other workshops, while 4 of us (mom, Shauna, Ekaterina and I) went out shopping after our lunch. There was a mall right down the street. A few of us got mini massages (10 min. shoulder ones). It was worth it. We got back to the retreat and decided to go into the hot springs. WOW, is it hot! And we were supposedly in the cooler one. The natural rocky bottom was so hard to sit in or on. It was amazing that we didn't stink like it afterward. We all still took showers after just in case. ;) Then we all got ready for dinner. After dinner was a wonderful night with worship and the speaker one last time. There were also other mini talks here and there throughout.

After that we had a bonfire with smores and spontaneous baptisms afterward in the hotsprings. The speaker had talked about her church and they did a polar bear baptism for someone who insisted to get baptized right away in natural water (not an inside pool or bath). I think people were inspired by the story and by the Holy Spirit of course. It was wonderful that so many people (7) decided to be baptized.

We actually left right before the baptisms and before the bonfire was over so we could get to our movie in time. We went to see The Hunger Games. The movie didn't end until 1 something. We were pleasantly surprised when the rest of our group was still awake when we got back. They had been relaxing in the hot springs late. The movie was good, but the company was even better.

The next morning we met for our last breakfast there together. I ended up getting an allergic reaction to the bread (manufactured with peanuts I found out). So I spend the rest of the morning in a daze of sleepiness due to the Benadryl. We had a great morning recapping our wonderful weekend. So many women talking about their experiences. I even felt the need to share. I got up to share how wonderful it was to spend some quality time with friends. To be somewhere, where I knew a lot of people, and got so many wonderful hugs from people. I think God knew I needed to be there. To experience the love of friendship this weekend. It was a rather emotional morning. We went to look at the bookstore before we left.

Thankfully my mom had offered to drive me to her house because there was no way I could drive. We were already planning on going to Whittier. I was just going to drive home to get everyone and Scott drive to Whittier. So this way my mom drove me to Whittier and Scott and the kids met us there. We got to hang out with my cousin Nicole while she was down from Washington and her fiance Greg. We had to leave way too soon. We waited quite a while though after taking the Benadryl to leave because I had to drive one car home. The weather going home didn't help. Windy, rainy, foggy, dark.

Got home safe from the retreat finally like at about 8 or so at night. What a wonderful retreat with my friends and family. But it was so nice to be back home. I missed those kiddos and my hubby.