OY. It has been a long time since I have written here.

First: YES. I am still alive.

Second: THANK YOU for your comments and emails and homing pigeons, checking in on me and telling me that you miss this little blog. I appreciate that more than you know.

And Third: It’s moving day!

Moving where…? To my new blog, of course! (You didn’t honestly think I was leaving California, did you?)

Now, I know what you’re thinking…
”Really, Melissa? REALLY? What is wrong with this blog? You’ve worked so hard/this is a perfectly fine blog/life is always going to be a journey/I DON’T WANT TO UPDATE MY GOOGLE READER WITH YOUR NEW BLOG ADDRESS…”

I’m sorry guys. I promise, it will be awesome.

Truth of the matter is, this blog will always be my first love but like 99.9% of first loves, I’ve grown out of it. I started to feel stuck in the confines of writing about weight loss, healthy eating and how much I was (not) working out. I felt like I had to keep apologizing every week I didn’t lose a few pounds, even when there were so many other awesome things in life to tell you about. I found that I was sort of done talking about the journey to lose weight…and I was ready, after a couple of years and around 75-ish pounds lost, give or take…I am ready to just write about the awesome life that I am living right now.

And THAT, in my opinion, deserves a brand new shiny blog.

DRUMROLL PLEASE….and update your Google Readers to….

www.amarvelouslife.com

Woohoo!!!

So this, my friends, will be the last update on Journey To Marvelous. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading. It has been a great run!

I hope that you will appreciate that I kept a little part of my old blog identity mixed in with my new blog name. A little tribute to where I started, perhaps, with eyes on the future.

NOW: Please follow me to my new blog home…there is lots I can’t wait to share with you guys!

xoxo,

Melissa

Hello there friends! It’s that time again…

Starting weight: 283.0 pounds
Week 101 weight: 218.3 pounds
Today’s weight: 216.9 pounds
Loss this week of: 1.4 pounds
Total weight loss to date: 66.1 pounds

I’m happy to be recording a loss after my first week back on track! It’s not a big loss, sadly, but it’s still a loss.

I was good about eating my home cooked healthy meals this week for the most part, with a couple of splurges here and there. I wasn’t so great about getting out for exercise this week—I went on a  bike ride and a walk or two but that was it. Now, I’m not making excuses, but the reason I’ve not been concentrating 100% on my healthy living goals this week is because I have a couple of fun projects coming up!

More on that this week.

As far as my healthy living goals, I’m going to keep on keepin’ on this week….trying to eat healthy meals at home and get some activity in. I need to get through this week and then I’ll be able to regroup and move my goals back to the top of the priority list.

For now, they’re a very close second!

Happy Monday!

5:59…a.m….

Early morning bike ride for the win!

Last week I pulled my bike out of winter storage and got ready for a summer of riding. Tires aired up, brakes checked, odometer reset, new gel bike shorts at the ready…I’m on my way!

Well…sort of. My first ride of the season taught me one very valuable lesson. I am OUT! of! shape!! Like, major. You see, I can go ride the bike at the gym for 15 miles in an hour no problem. But hauling my own tush around town? Much harder! Isn’t it weird how two seemingly comparable activities are really so different?

This week I took a couple of really nice rides from my apartment downtown to a park across town, around the small lake there and back—about 10.5 miles roundtrip in about an hour. It is a great ride with a couple of little hills…easy for a fit rider but a little bit of a (welcome) challenge for me. At least for now…but now I know what I need to do to kick start my fitness for the summer…I’ll be riding my bike everywhere I can!

…and taking pictures as I go.

Naturally.

Brace yourselves, people!

Starting weight: 283.0 pounds
Week 91 weight: 205.9 pounds
Today’s weight: 218.3 pounds
Gain this week of: 12.4 pounds
Total weight loss to date: 64.7 pounds

Whew! My first weigh in in 10 weeks…it was a real act of bravery to get on the scale this morning after such a long time away. I knew I was going to have a significant gain because I’ve been WAY off track. That being said, 12+ pounds is actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be! I know that sounds ridiculous, but I had teetered up to 221-222 a week or two ago. I was able to rein things in a little bit before I finally came crawling back to my blog and I’m happy to be sub-220 as I get back on the straight and narrow.

Yesterday I spent a big chunk of the day preparing food for the week. When I get off track, I do far more eating out than I do cooking at home so my fridge was pretty bare. I went grocery shopping and stocked up on lots of veggies and some chicken breasts, eggs and healthy carbs like quinoa and sweet potatoes. I washed a couple of heads of lettuce and got them all ready for big yummy salads. I washed and steamed several broccoli crowns, a few zucchini, carrots and mushrooms and put them all in Tupperware so I always have fast and easy vegetables for lunches and dinners this week. Finally, I rinsed grapes and berries for my breakfasts, grilled some chicken breasts on my handy-dandy George Foreman and hardboiled some fresh eggs from Farmer John. I am all set for a week of healthy eating to kickstart my weight loss again!

I’ve all but fallen off the gym wagon over the last 6 weeks or so. I’ve still been working out weekly with Trainer, and I’ve been taking morning walks once or twice a week with friends, but my early morning sweat sessions at the gym have been non-existent. However–I do have something new to report. Last week I pulled my bike out of winter storage and after airing up the tires, I went on my first bike ride of the summer. WHEW, am I out of shape! It’s amazing to me how different riding an actual bike on the street is from riding a stationary bike at the gym. I’m definitely planning on getting outside for rides regularly this summer and I’m looking forward to feeling the changes in my stamina and strength. Coupled with some gym time, my sessions with Trainer, and my walks, I should be able to get back on track with my exercise too.

Happy Monday!

Holy break from blogging! It’s been over five weeks since I last blogged…in one sense, it feels like just a couple of days has gone by. At the same time, it feels like a hundred years ago since I last sat down and wrote something.

I think I just needed a break to work on some other projects, catch up on real-life things, and…okay. Real talk, here: I’ve had a super negative attitude lately, and I’ve just not been inspired to write AT ALL.

What have I been so negative about? I think I’ve just been burnt out in general! Too busy, a to-do list that only gets longer, time and energy totally zapped by work and no time leftover to work on things that I want to. Feeling overwhelmed and being underprepared leads me straight back into old habits…old BAD habits like eating junk and skipping workouts.

Every time I eat junk or skip a workout, I beat myself up about it.

Every time I beat myself up, I lick my wounds and then get some fro-yo to make myself feel better.

Sense the vicious cycle that’s been happening over here for the last five weeks? And then I can’t help but think, “If I’d only just stayed on track from the beginning, I could have been at my goal weight a year ago, instead of still fumbling around with 40ish pounds still to lose, two years later.” Ouch, right?

I already know that my negative attitude has reflected in my weigh ins, which I’ve been doing periodically over the last few weeks—just not blogging about them, of course. Even worse, every week that I’ve been seeing a slightly higher number on the scale has not jolted me back into action…it’s jolted me into a more negative attitude that just perpetuates my backslide. Finally, I had a “Come to Jesus” talk with myself, and came up with only one answer: Cut the crap, stop making excuses and just DO IT. And start blogging again. Obviously.

I’ve missed you guys and I hope that you’ll forgive my absence and come back and read along. Thank you those of you who sent messages letting me know what I’m missed and wondering if everything is okay—I appreciate them and YOU! I’ll be back tomorrow morning with a “get back on track” weigh in. (Womp womp womp.)

See you tomorrow!