down about 35 pounds

Down to size 14 jeans and an Large top. Started out wearing 18 jeans and 1X tops.

What I had to give up...

Eating the "Weightwatchers way" has really not changed my life that much. When I think about it, I really was already doing the basics of the Core Plan. I have always eaten plenty of fruit, vegetables, whole wheat bread and pastas, and brown rice. So what changes did I make:

1. I had to switch from whole-fat dairy products to fat-free dairy products, which was not a problem for me. The only dairy I noticed a difference in was the milk and after drinking fat-free milk for a few days I got used to it and it seemed normal.

2. I quickly realized that there was seven foods I was eating way too much of: bread, nuts, butter, cheese, peaunt butter, candy, and icecream. All of these foods, except candy and icecream, I considered to be healthy foods and never worried about how much of them I ate. But, as soon as I started eating them in moderation, I started loosing weight.

3. I had to quit grazing. The first day on WW, I was constantly having to stop myself from tasting while cooking and eating food as I was putting away left-overs. I had no idea how many little bites I was taking and how the calories add up.

4. I had to learn to substitute. Eating only the foods on the Core list can get boring after a bit and the 35 extra points do not go very far. I usually use my points for bread, cheese, butter, and fat-free fudge bars. So in order to spice up my meals, I had to learn how to substitute. At the WW meetings you get lots of great ideas of how to do this. Here are a few examples: I make my own fat-free "cream of" soup, I buy the high fiber wraps that are only one point, and I buy a zero calorie/zero fat butter spray for popcorn.

5. I had to learn to stop eating before I felt stuffed. I remember eating "seconds" all the time and I never left food on my plate. I can't even image now how I ate all that food. I think the problem was that I learned years ago that dieting was bad and that you should never let yourself get too hungry or you will end up stuffing anything in your mouth and making poor food choices. This is true, but I went overboard and ate way more than I really needed. I often felt uncomfortable after a meal due to over-eating. Now I eat until I start to feel satisfied and then I stop, knowing that when I get hungry again, I can eat again. You don't have to starve yourself, but you don't have to stuff yourself either.


So there you have it; that's really all I had to change to lose weight. Sometimes I feel bored or like I just want to go back to the old habits, but I remind myself how far I have come and how easy it really has been. On occasion, I feel left out when everyone else is pigging-down on the yummy stuff, but most of the time it really doesn't bother me. It has really helped that my family is eating healthier too. We do not have nearly as much junk in the house as we used to. The health and energy that I feel, the way I look, and the compliments I am starting to get far out-way the few changes and choices I have had to make.

25 Pound Ring

I got my 25 pound ring two weeks ago, on October 17th! Last week I weighed in at -29.4 pounds. I feel like I have lost a bit more this week and I am hoping to at least hit -30 and get another star. Can't wait to get my 50 pound ring!

Goals I have meet...

Well, I have to admit, I am getting a bit bored of this weight loss journey and I need to get the move on again.... I made some small goals awhile back and these are the ones I have meet...

1. Five pound stars: at the time I made the goal, I had 2 five pound stars, as of now, I have 4 and I am .4 pounds away from getting the fifth star. Also, I will get the 25 ring to go on my key chain at the same time.

2. 10% key chain: I got it!

3. Get below 200 pounds: that happened last week, the scale said 199 which made me feel great!

4. Wear size XL/14: I am wearing a size 16 jeans today and they are practically falling off.... I officially wear a size XL/14 now.

5. Jog instead of walk: I measured the distance I usually walk and it is 1.4 miles. I started really pushing myself to jog more the last few weeks and I am jogging about a mile of it now. I hope to jog the 1.4 miles within a week or two.

And another great thing that happened: I now can get out of the tub and wrap a standard size towel around me and actually cover everything up!

I know I want to keep going and get to goal and stay at goal....I'm just going through a bit of a slump right now. Not that I am totally pigging-out or anything, I am eating a few more things like crackers and peanuts. I make sure the crackers are high fiber though. I also eat treats on occation, but I make sure I eat only the serving size which is not much.

I havn't been counting my points the last couple weeks. What I really want to do is get to where I listen to my body rather than counting points, but the last week, I really have not been doing either. I think it is natural to drop some pounds, start to feel better, and ease up on your efforts. Need to get going again....

Just one pound!

All I lost last week was one pound! Take a look at this picture of one pound of body fat and tell me that just one pound is not a major accomplishment.

Just think, I have lost more than 23 of these big blobs over the last 2 months. Never again will I feel discouraged for losing only one pound!

Also last week was my daughter Brinya's fourth birthday. I decided to have some cake and icecream to celebrate. Now, in the past, I really believed that a serving of cake and icecream equaled about 4 cups....but now I know that it is more like one cup. I ate the one cup, enjoyed it, and had no desire to eat more. Now, that is an accomplishment for me. I am usually the one who eats one bite of forbidden foods and than says, "what the heck, I blew it, I might as well eat the whole thing"~ not anymore, there are no forbidden foods, only portion control...and feeling in control.

And did I mention, that I am no longer considered "obese"! I am now on the higher end of being "overweight" for my height. Most people are not thrilled about being called overweight, but compared to the word obese, it sounds like heaven. Of course, I look forward to the day they will call me "normal".


Here is my updated Virtual Model, after losing 23.2 pounds. Is she looking great or what?!

Made my 10% goal tonight

Yes!, I lost 22.2 pounds which qualified me for the 10% keychain! I lost 10% of my original weight, what a feeling! I am lovin it! So what now? Just 2.8 more pounds until I get a 25 pound ring to go on my keychain!

These two are always hanging out together!

Connor & Brinya ~ July 2007

Isn't she sweet

Niekelle ~ 17 months old

Fat Pictures

This is me before I started loosing weight... back when I thought I couldn't do it and would just have to except who I was.

Whoever took this picture of me is in big trouble. Wait a minute, I am sure that isn't even me....

Wow, I can't hardly believe I used to look like that. Weight gain kinda sneaks up on ya. You hardly realize how bad it is until one day you look in the mirror or see a fat picture. I guess I just got busy taking care of everyone else and forgot to take care of myself. I'm ready to take care of myself now so I can take care of others better.

My virtual model

Okay, I keep daydreaming about what I will look like when I lose more weight, so I found this virtual model to help me out:



The first one is me at my starting weight of 224 pounds~yikes, no wonder I never went swimming~ the second one is me at my now weight of 212~looking a little better~ and the third one is me at my goal weight~ yeah!!

Small goals

Last week I lost 2 pounds and this week I lost 1 pound. Not as exciting as losing 3-5.6 pounds, but every little bit counts. The leader was taking about how even a quarter of a pound is a lot. She said to go home and get a stick of butter and put it up to your body and try to decide where you lost that much weight from. I laughed, but when I got home, my kids where kinda teasin' me for only loosing a pound, but I got out a one pound box of butter and showed them just how much a pound was. They changed their thinking after that. I guess I just want all the fat gone now and I don't want to wait. I have to remember that I gained this weight over about a five year period of time, even if it takes five years to get it off, that will be fine. My goal before I joined Weightwatchers was to lose 10 pounds a year rather than gaining 10 pounds a year. I have already surpassed that goal in just 4 weeks. I am going to list my small goals to keep me going and not worry about the end goal.

1. Working on 5 pounds at a time. I already have two 5 pound stars and I am nearly half way to the third.

2. 10 % goal. I have already lost 5 % of my original body weight, all I need to do is repeat this once and I will get my 10 % key chain.

3. Get below 200 pounds. I remember when I was pregnant the last few times, I dreaded to get over 200 pounds, but at least I could use pregnancy as an excuse....no excuse now.

4. Wear a size XL misses comfortable. I am starting to wear size 16 or 14 jeans, depending on the jeans and my 1X tops are feeling a bit large. I estimate that I will wear size XL/14 when I lose my 10%.

5. Jog instead of walk. I am walking/jogging for about 30 minutes now. I want to get where I can jog the whole time.

Well, these are my small goals. I already feel like I have accomplished so much. It is amazing how just losing 11.8 pounds can make such a difference in how you feel. My belly is getting smaller, I can tell, but no one outside my family has commented yet. I guess I am one who needs that attention, cause I can't wait for someone to comment on my weight loss. But for now, I feel thinner, I have more energy, and I am excited to be on this journey.

Justin is Home

Well, Justin has been home for about nine days now. It has been great! It was so wonderful to pick him up from the airport. We all sat at the airport waiting for his plan to arrive at 11:06 p.m. and waiting...the plane was delayed until 11:27 which seemed like an eternity. Finally, there he was coming down the escalator. I took pictures, gave him a big hug, and took pictures. The kids held up a big sign saying "welcome home elder Anderson", and gave him a big hug. Steve gave him a big hug and said, "welcome home son". It was kinda awkward at first, what do you say?...so we said "how was your mission"? and he said, "good". Then we realized we had to be more specific. We questioned him all the way home. When we got home, he opened his two suitcases full of memorabilia from Panama. Then we put the kids to bed and me and Justin stayed up until 3:00 talking. I was so tired, but I couldn't go to bed. My son was home! He's been going through the adjustment. It has been hard at times because he feels so stressed to get going with his life, but it has been great too. He has learned so many things. We have gospel discussions and he has tons to contribute. We got him going on signing up for school and he is working with Steve. He will adjust just fine, it just takes some time.

3rd week on WeightWatchers

I am so pumped! Last week the leader warned me that you might lose a lot one week and than a little the next week, so don't always expect to loose 3+ pounds...I thought okay, maybe 2 pounds....what to my surprise, I lost 5.6 pounds. I love WeightWatches; it wasn't that hard at all. A total of 8.8 pounds. I got my first little five pound star!

2nd week with WeightWatchers

I was so nervous to weigh-in tonight. I did everything I was suppose to do...yes, I used ever point that was given to me, but I had made a lot of changes and made good choices...yet still, I just had no idea what that scale was going to say. I had secretly been hoping for a lose of 3 pounds just to get the ball rolling, but I would be okay with 1 or 2...I just could not bare to work so hard and not drop an ounce. As it turned out, I lost 3.2 pounds. I was so releaved! I started crying...I asked if we where suppose to cry and they said I could if I wanted to. Kinda embarrassing, but I needed a good cry. Then I was pumped and ready to keep going.
Can't wait till next weigh-in.

Day One on WeightWatchers

I chose the Core Plan--where you don't have to measure food or count calories. You just eat the healthy foods on the list until you fill full, but not too full. I really do not like counting calories, writing down what I eat, and measuring portions. The Core Plan works better for me. I don't want to be hungry or suffer any when I am losing weight. I did notice yesterday that there are quite a few foods that I consider healthy that are not on the core list. Such as Bread and Peanuts. Also the dairy products on the list are all non-fat. I went to the store yesterday and could not find any dairy products that where non-fat; there were reduced-fat or low-fat, but no non-fat. Also with this plan, I will have to be prepared with things for me to eat that are on the list. When I make meals for my family, I will have to take out a portion for me and not add the fattening things to it. With the CorePlan, you do get 35 points a week for foods that are not on the list. Yesterday, I used 8 of them. You can see that I will quickly use up all my points if I keep that up. Today I will be more careful.

Weight Watchers

I finally got around to signing up for WeightWatchers. I went to the first meeting last night. It was fun. I am excited. I really think I need that support. I have been preparing myself to loose weight for several months now. I have read some good books and learned a lot about what to eat and what not to eat. But, I still felt like I needed the support of others who are changing their way of eating. Also, I think the weigh-in is motivating for me. I do not want to get on that scale and see that number get higher.

Just one more week

I am way excited! Our missionary, Elder Anderson (Justin) comes home one week from today. We are going to pick him up at the airport at 11:06 p.m. Not the greatest hour to take seven children up to Salt Lake and wait at the airport, but I would go at 2:00 a.m. with twenty children if I had to to get my boy! Well, I say boy, but I am sure that I will find a man at the airport. A mission does amazing things to a boy. You send them out all immature and with the best training and teachings of the Gospel as you where able to give them and then letter by letter (or email by email) you see your little boy turning into a man and gaining the greatest testimony of the Savior. Sharing the Gospel with those who do not have it on a daily bases does amazing things to ones testimony.

I am sure that Justin will have a lot of adjusting to do when he is home. He plans on signing up for school and working with Steve. But it will be a huge adjustment for him where for the last two years everything was Gospel centered. I am excited to have him in our home and and I am sure his diligence to the Gospel will rub off on us some. Just having two missionaries out has made us have a stronger desire to live the teachings of the Gospel.

I think when Jared comes home, I will miss having a missionary. I will be thrilled to have them both home...safe and having served honorable missions, but it will be sad in a way too. It has been the greatest experience to read their letters and hear of the people that they are teaching and to feel of their love for them. We have been blessed greatly by giving our sons to the Lord. He has kept them safe and taught them much.

It is very bitter-sweet. It is heart-wrenching to let them go not to have contact with them except through letters and the two phone calls a year....but you feel extremely blessed the whole time they are gone and you don't want the time to ever end....yet you are counting the days until they return. The ultimate in bitter-sweet. I love it!

Our New House

These are some of our cute kids on our front porch of our new home. We moved here the middle of January and we love our house and the city.






The house looks small from the front, but it has been added on to and is about 3800 square feet with six bedrooms and two baths. Perfect for our large family.




The street is lined with these great shade trees. They are beautiful especially now that they are in full bloom. Main Street also has these trees on both sides for several blocks.

Here's the side view; you can see the addition.

Here's the other side and the carport. There is storage above the carport that we havn't even began to use because there is so much storage in the house.

The livingroom is the first room when you enter through the front door. It is long and skinny. It has a large doorway that leads into the kitchen.

The livingroom has this nice built-in bookshelf.

This bedroom is off to the side when you come in the front door. At first, Shautel was using it for a room, but we moved her upstairs with the other children and we are using this room as an office.

We are just loving the large kitchen. It has a beautiful floor that doesn't show all the dirt like our last kitchen floor did. It doesn't have a dishwasher, but we have found that we keep up with the dishes better without one because we make sure all the dishes are done instead of thinking, "oh, we'll get the rest of these in the next load"...which never happened because the next time you went to do dishes, there was the ones that you left plus enough for another load.

It has a nice big pantry in the back of the kitchen. It is a cleaning closet/pantry/coat closet.

Across from the pantry is the upstairs laundry. It has been so nice having it right in the kitchen. In our last house, the laundry was downstairs and we where always behind on laundry because it was downstairs where we didn't see it all the time. Now, it is right in the main hub and we are always throwing in a batch. The sink in the picture is what we call the "kid sink". This is where they wash their hands so they aren't using my sink.

This is the other side of the pantry, it has a built-in china cabnit, which I hope to have china to put in it someday, and a computer desk.

The master bedroom is huge! We have always just had room for a bed and a dresser until now.

This is the other side of the master bedroom.

This is the master bedroom closet.

There is a main bathroom right off the masterbedroom and at the bottom of the stairs that leads to the children's rooms.

These are the stairs that lead to the children's rooms. When we first saw them, we knew the children would naturally want to slide down the built-in slide on the side there. Steve sat all the children down and discussed how that was not going to be allowed. As of today, I would guess they have only slide down it about 200 times. Steve threatens to make them pay to replace the carpet, and someday I think they will have to.

At the top of the stairs is this little area with a closet.

The are no doors on any of the four bedrooms up here, but this one has a curtain. It is like a loft, yet there are four separate rooms. This one has a window-seat with storage under it.

Here's another bedroom. You can see that the upstairs has an A-frame shape to it.

The two bedrooms on the other side are really one bedroom with a partial wall in between. Both sides have these great cubbie-holes.

This picture shows the built-in bookshelf where we keep all the children's books.

Here's the other cubbie-hole. Plenty of hiding places for hide-and-seek. This really is the perfect loft for children to grow up in.

Here's the bedroom accross from the cubbie-hole.

Now we are have left the upstairs and are heading to the basement.

This is the familyroom.

Off the family room is an extra sink. There used to be a kitchen down here. I use this for grinding my wheat and making bread in my bread machines.

This is the downstairs laundryroom. My dream-come-true; two laundry rooms! No, the jeans in the picture are not our laundry, these where jeans I was selling on ebay.

This is the second bathroom. Yes, it needs some work, but the toilet, sink, and shower work. In our last house we only had one bathroom, so this extra bathroom is heaven!

This is the food storage room. Look at all those shelves!

And more shelves. We are using them for stuff instead of food right now. Maybe one day we will have them full of food storage!

Underneath all these clothes is our back patio. This was my ebay business; shortly after we moved, I decided to partner with my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws and move my business to my sister-in-laws place.

There's the clothesline which I use everyday now.

Here's the cute little workshop. It is actually not little. It has a basement, an upstairs, and a main floor. It is 900 square feet. Orginally, I was going to use it for my ebay business, now we use it for storage, yard tools, etc...

This is the upstairs of the workshop. We call it the play house, although we need to do some child proofing before the kids can actually play there.

There you have it, the completed tour of our new house!