January Has Been Good To Me

So life has kinda calmed down for me and I'm loving it. What a whirlwind it was there for a while...I couldn't keep up! Some of the decisions I was making didn't even feel like me. There were times I didn't recognize even the slightest bit of Ali anymore.

I'm back to making healthy food decisions, and I'm still losing weight (even if it's slowly). I'm moving out of my best friend's apartment and into another friend's house on Feb 1, and will probably start playing tennis again. I really loved it before, so I'm looking forward to it. :)

I'm super excited to start my new life in GA on March 16 and continue on the road to becoming a better me!!! There are new love and life opportunities out there, and I'm gonna start living life to the fullest!

7 Letter Words

P-I-E-R-C-E-D

 

We'll start off with the cute stuff, lol. After years of wanting it done, I finally got my nose pierced!!! :) I could not love it more, and everyone says it suits me, which I agree with 100%, haha. 

 

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

I suppose that's the 7 letter word that will shock some people. I left my husband on Oct 30th. I haven't filed yet, but probably will in the next month or two. It's been hard, but I know it's right. It's not at ALL that he's a bad guy...he's actually one of the best men I've ever known. I'm just not in love with him any more. I haven't been for a while, and I've stopped trying to feel something I don't. We tried, we both did...but sometimes you just have to move on. I didn't want to look back when I'm 40 and WISH I would've left when I was 30...

C-O-U-R-A-G-E

I'll be honest, a few people have criticized me for my decisions. And yes, there was one decision in particular that I'm not proud of; I strayed from my marriage just before I left. I should have waited until after I left. But I didn't, and that's something that only I should have to live with. The thing is... a lot of people would have just STAYED. And CHEATED.
I left. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but it was the right decision. From people who know me well, I've been told that I have more courage than a lot of other people in that same situation, because others wouldn't have been brave enough to leave. So I feel good about my decision in the end.

F-R-I-E-N-D-S

Throughout the last 7 weeks, I've had my fair share of "finding out who your true friends are" moments. I've lost plenty due to the above mentioned indiscretion. I lost two of my best friends and god-kids because they're my ex's family. I knew that would probably happen, but it hurts sometimes anyway. But honestly, more than grieving over lost friends, I've really been celebrating those who have rallied around me. My friends are amazing, and more like family than any family I've ever known. Except my sisters, obviously... I love you two more than life itself and you know it! But those of you reading this know you who are, and I can't thank you enough for sticking by me.

H-E-A-L-T-H-Y

So, let's get down to business: The last time I posted here was 9/17 and I weighed 345. Today, it's 12/24 and I weigh 324. So in just over 3 months, I've lost 21 lbs. It's funny how portion control just becomes a part of your life. Plus, with moving into my best friend's apartment, my routine has been CRAZY. :) But I've tried to keep my health in mind, and so far it's worked. Along with getting my body healthy, I just gotta keep my mind healthy and I'll be ok!

B-L-E-S-S-E-D

Throughout all of the struggles in the last few months, I've realized how truly blessed I am. Blessed to have a best friend who loves me enough to let me move in with her and her kids at the drop of a hat... Blessed to have a sister who is thrilled about me moving in with her in March... Blessed to finally have the opportunity to move back home to GA... Blessed that my future ex-husband is a good man, and has allowed this to be pretty civil so far... Blessed that he's letting me have my dog!...
I'm just blessed.
And I know it.
That's what's getting me through. <3

Motivational Monday - 9/17/12

Well! I sure can talk the talk, and I sure can inspire and motivate people....but I've had a rough time walking the walk lately.

On my "weigh-in's" page (link up top), the last weight recorded was 348 lbs on 5/19. *sigh* On 9/8, I weighed in at 347 as the "starting weight" for my new challenge. Guess I stalled out a bit, huh? Lost a whole pound in just under 4 months. I'm ashamed to even type that...

However, I'm now involved in two different challenges, one of which is an elimination challenge, and I'm really, REALLY competitive...so losing is NOT an option. Seriously, I'm right up there with Monica as far as needing to win, lol. Have you guys seen this episode?

My unofficial weight as of this morning was 345. Lost two pounds! I know that's not much, but it's a start. In the past 4 months, I've dislocated my hip joint, celebrated my 30th birthday, and gone on vacation. All in all, I guess I can't be too disappointed that I even maintained. But I am! I don't want to BE that person. I don't want to be stagnant in my weight loss. I want to accomplish things!!!

The one thing I'm MOST proud of is that I actually walked a 5k for the very first time on 9/11!!! (see pic above, lol) After I was done, I had the worst blisters on my feet under my toes, so I've had to let those heal, but I'll be going to the gym to do 1-2 miles Tues/Wed/Thurs of this week, and then me and Destinee are walking a 5k again this Sunday. Our ACTUAL Color Me Rad 5k is next Sat, 9/29! I'm so excited!!!

Anyway, I suppose that's it for now, but I haven't blogged in a WHILE, so I wanted to get back on track! :) I push myself more when I know people are watching, haha.

xoxo
Ali

Motivational Monday - 8/20/12

hahaha

So, being honest, I only went to the gym twice last week. That is NOT good enough. I've been getting things ready for vacation in 2 weeks, but I've also been using that as an excuse.

I've got to do better this week. I've got to find my motivation again... *sigh* What's YOUR motivation?

Motivational Monday - 8/6/12

The countdowns have started!

25 days until vacation, where we will need the endurance to walk miles and miles of downtown Atlanta streets.

54 days until Destinee and I do our 5k!!!

Could not be more excited for both! :)

I didn't wake up once and go to the gym BEFORE work last week. Ahhhh, my intentions were good, but I just like my sleep too much. There, I've said it.

But for some reason, I woke up at 4am this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. So at 5:15, I made the decision to get up and go to the gym! ***pats myself on back*** I actually GOT to the gym at 5:40am. I'm so proud of myself!!!

I'll definitely be going to bed (and spending the rest of my day) with a little extra satisfaction.

I did 1.5 miles in 33 mins, which isn't "fast" by any means, but it burned off 354 cals so I'm totally cool with that!!!

Motivational Monday - 7/30/12

So another week has gone by. Me and Mike went to the gym on Thursday and Friday of last week, and I haven't been back since. But I'm GOING tomorrow!!!

It's so hard!!! Getting up at 5am to go to the gym, when I have to leave my house by 7am, work from 8-6, then get back home at 7pm. When I get home, I have to eat dinner, shower, and wind down, and hope to be in the bed by 9pm in order to wake up at 5am. But you know what?

Movtivational Monday - 7/23/12

Alright, Ali....it's Motivational MONDAY! C'mon! LOL, I can't keep doing it on Tuesday, that defeats the purpose, haha.

*Sigh*...Oh well...

This has been so "me" lately. Yes, I'm talking about in regards to fitness, and weight loss, and eating right...but there's a lot of things that go into that. I hate it when my house gets "cluttered". First, it makes me not want to clean bc I don't know where to start. And second, it makes simple things (as easy as packing lunch) more difficult bc nothing's in the right spot.

So this weekend I decided to do something about it. These pics are NOT good quality, bc they were just for me to see the difference, but then I thought, I could put them on the blog because....well, just because! It's my blog after all, it's the one place I can do what I want - haha!

It's the hallway and pantry that have been bugging the CRAP out of me lately, so I decided to do something about it!

So here are some pics... in the first one, you'll notice on the shelf above the washer & dryer: a heating pad, laundry detergent, crumbled up reusable publix bags, random water bottles, the red string is the wire stuff that goes to the weed-eater (that we haven't used in at least a year, lol), and dog food, collars, & leashes (on the far left side where you can't see), and random other stuff...

On top of the washer and dryer is a crockpot that we don't use anymore (we upgraded), a box that needed to go to the street for trash day, pizza (Busted!), my lunchbox, more laundry detergent, some Febreeze, and a 2 liter. Can't even reach the buttons on the dryer, ugh! I'm ashamed I let it get like that, lol.

It's BEAUTIFUL now! On the shelf: a rarely-used dog crate that was in the hallway, a box for "yard stuff", dryer sheets, laundry detergent, and misc cleaning supplies.

On the washer/dryer: NOTHING! :^) I put a box labeled "dog food/collars/leashes" on the back of the dryer. We keep their bowls in there also, since they're only fed once a day.

And here's the pantry....it's such as eyesore! It's pretty organized, but because it's in the middle of the hallway, it's so UGLY!

Fyi, the baby gate is there to keep the pups out of the hallway. It allows us to be able to get out the door without them getting out of it first. That one you see looking at me in the pic? (The one that is a total mama's boy and was wondering what I was doing?) Yeah...he could race a greyhound....it's damn near impossible to catch him once he's loose. :^)

Solution: tension rod and a fabric shower curtain. $15 and I LOVE it!

Oh, and because we were talking about the pups, here are a couple of pictures to show them off, haha.

See? 60 lbs of total Mama's boy. I love that dog.

I love her too...she's just a tad more stand-off-ish, lol.

Ok, back to the mess...This was the right side of the hall. First, there's the tension rod, but that was just to put the shower curtain up with. Then there's a dry erase board that we use to tell each other if we've fed the dogs (to avoid double feedings), but Mike hung it up originally with blue sticky stuff, and it fell down (leaving the blue stuff on the wall with the dry erase markers). Then there's just random stuff...a grill pan, some board games, a  bag of dog food, a dog crate we never use, several trash bags that were going to the street the next day...

So pretty much EVERYTHING is gone from the hall now, and those trash bags are gone now too, and it's fabulous! Feels like there's SO much room in there now!

So anyway, that's part of what I did this weekend. Isn't it funny how we can just spend a little chunk of our time cleaning an area, and it just transforms it? Awesome.