Wednesday Weigh In!

Happy hump day ya'll! We're half way through this week and that is something to get excited about; but for now it's Wednesday weigh-in time! 

I lost another 3 lbs. this week! I was super excited to see that when I stepped on the scale this morning! Apparently what I've been doing is working! Whoop! I got in a great workout this afternoon and I'm feeling great. Since I'll be kid free this weekend I plan on hitting the gym hard in between my client's photo shoots. I'm seriously looking forward to sweating it out! 

I was given a 3 day trial of Plexus Slim this week; I did it for two days and for some reason I just didn't drink it the 3rd day. I will say it tasted great - like kool aid, but a little sweet for my liking. Totally tolerable though! For me, there is just no way to tell if something "works" in 2 to 3 days so I kind of blew it off. I think I may be "over" the quick fix stuff. I know a lot of people believe in it and it has worked for many. I just don't know if it's something I want to give a real shot. 

Regardless, I'm happy with my results for this week and I'm hoping I see something similar out of this upcoming week. We're going out of town in exactly 4 weeks from today and I'd like to shed another 10-12 lbs. by then! I may be dreaming! 

How'd you do this week? Have you ever tried Plexus or something like it? How did it turn out for you?

Linking Up!

Let's Pick This Back Up Shall We? {Weigh In Wednesday}

Hey friends! So the last time I did a weigh in post was in December and before that it was April. YIKES! It's time to get back on the bandwagon, am I right? If you are still keeping track feel free to link your progress post in the comments and I'll come visit your blog!

So back in December I excitedly told all of y'all that I had lost 17 pounds! I won't lie, I'm still sorta patting myself on the back for that one! However, in the last four months I've put back on about 5 pounds. It's only 5 pounds, but boy, it's made a difference in my attitude and the way I'm feeling about my body. 

So, I decided to do something about it. I went back to the gym this week - only once so far but I plan to go tomorrow as well. Don't worry, I've been getting my cardio in, outside of the gym! I'm also tracking my food on Myfitnesspal again. I've cut way way back on my soda and I'm eating the right stuff! I'm feeling better and happy to be back on track.

I was going through some old photos the other day from a few years back and I finally realized how heavy I had gotten. I was disgusted with myself and couldn't believe that I was that big. No wonder there are so few pictures of me. 

I'm proud of reaching my first goal of 17 pounds lost, but I am not done. My goal is to keep losing, keep toning, and get into the best shape I possibly can. 

Are you with me?

What's Your Healthy? #AetnaMyHealthy

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Aetna. All thoughts and opinions are completely my own.

Aetna recently completed a survey of 1,800 Americans as part of their “What’s Your Healthy?” campaign looking at exercise, diet, stress management and technology usage. The study asked, “how do you define healthy?” and delved into how Americans are working to achieve their health goals. 

Why is Aetna asking you what's your healthy? Because we want to help you be a healthier you. So no matter what your healthy is, Aetna can help support you with the right tools, innovations and experience.

Visit WhatsYourHealthy.Com for helpful resources and inspiration on healthy living and to learn how others define "healthy." Did you know that most people responded that given an extra hour in their day that they would spend it on fitness? I know I would! That or sleep! 

Aetna also has a mobile app - CarePass - which allows you to connect all of your health & fitness apps and therefore be better equipped to reaching your goals. Programs like FitBit, RunKeeper, MapMyFitness, and GoodRx work well with CarePass. 

If you want more wellness tips or help choosing a plan for your health you can visit planforyourhealth.com.

How would you define healthy? 
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Weight Loss Update

Well, it's not Wednesday, but given the fact that it was last April when I last did a "weigh in" here on the blog I figured you guys would overlook that little detail. 

At my last documented weigh in I was at just over 202 pounds. At my highest (non pregnancy) weight I was 207 pounds. I was fluctuating, up and down, up and down - and it seemed like it would never end. I was frustrated. 

So, I took a little break. I quit checking in on here - I quit logging my food on MyFitnessPal. I quit eating right and exercising. I quit and my weight kept fluctuating.

Four and half months ago I left my husband and my unhappy marriage of 7 years. In those few months I've dropped 17 pounds without even trying. I'm not trying to blame my weight issues on my ex or my marriage - but when you are unhappy - it's really easy to give up and quit.

17 pounds y'all! I'm excited, I feel good, and my clothes are fitting better! However, in my eyes, I still have a long way to go. I'm headed down to the gym here in a bit which will mark the 3rd time this week (GO ME!) and I'm proud of that. 

As a side note - it's so beneficial to have someone who is supportive of you and your goals. It's made all the difference for me. So find someone who has your back - a friend who can cheer you on! 

I plan on updating this portion of the blog more regularly, so y'all stay tuned! 

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5 Swimsuits For The Curvy Woman

In the last month or so I've dropped 10 pounds. Awesome right?! Yea, I thought so too - until I hauled my butt into a dressing room with 30 different swimsuits to try on. Losing 10 pounds will sure boost your confidence, at least until you go swimsuit shopping. I spent at least 2 hours in that dressing room - trying on, pulling off, throwing down swimsuit after swimsuit. Two hours of my life wasted and when all was said and I done I felt like I had very little to choose from. 

I did buy a suit that day; one that I liked and felt comfortable in. I didn't feel like a million bucks in it but I did like it. Plus, my daughter said I looked like a princess. Score. I'm not overly self conscious about my body. I'm a curvy woman. I have pounds that I need to lose. I have "trouble areas." I should still feel gorgeous in a bathing suit. I had a hard time finding anything that made me feel gorgeous that day. 


I know I'm not alone in this area. So, in an effort to help out other curvy women like myself who want to look and feel amazing while walking the beach, lounging at the pool, or lunging down water slides I've polled the masses (not really) to give you 5 great swimsuits for curvy women. 

We all have different bodies and some of these suits won't work for you - some of them wouldn't work for me - but they all have something to offer!

1) Allen B Cinch Front Swim Dress: I love this suit. It's modest and provides good coverage while still being super cute and fun. The skirt is just long enough and the cinching around the midsection is very flattering. 

2) Slimming Sarong Tanksuit: This suit offers slimming, shaping, and better control. That's all I need to know! Plus, it's not frumpy like most "plus size" suits. It's also built to last which is always important. 

3) Slender Swimdress: I've got it on good authority that this is the swimsuit to have. Everyone I've talked has said that it is comfortable, flattering, and lasts forever! I wish I would have known before I purchased my suit this year, but next year - it's on! 

4) Ruffled One Piece: I chose this suit for two reasons: I love the fun and flirty print. Also? It's from Target which means it is super affordable! Bonus: the ruffled collar will draw the eye upward and away from the midsection.

5) ASOS Curve:  I'm in love with this suit! It provides great coverage up top with wide straps for comfortable support. The polka dots are slimming and adorable. 

Where is your favorite place to buy a swimsuit? Join me on the Charm + Sass facebook page to discuss it! 

{This month's advertisement}

She’s a Maniac…Maniac! {Color Mania 5K + Giveaway}

Okay, do any of y’all get the song reference from the title? Anyone? Ahem. Moving on..

By now y’all know that I’m obsessed with participating in 5K Fun Runs. I’m no competitive runner and to be honest I barely run at all.  However, I do enjoy getting out there with the crowd, getting pumped up to the music, and then power walking my butt off!  It should come to no surprise to you that I jumped on the chance to tell y’all all about the Color Mania 5K – oh and to give FIVE of you the chance to win a free registration for the race! 

You’re welcome. :) This is a sponsored post and I've never ran (nor walked!) the Color Mania 5K but I have a feeling it's going to be amazing. All opinions are mine all mine.

Here’s what stands out for me about the Color Mania 5K: It is super family friendly. My minime has asked me every single time that I’ve done a race like this if she could come along. I haven’t felt comfortable bringing her before but that is all about to change! Apparently there will be games, bounce houses and more! 

“Color Mania is an event that kids love. Kids 7 & under run FREE! In addition to the color fun run, color mania offers some cool activities for kids near the start/finish festival area. Whether you’re coming as a family or bringing tons of friends and co-workers, Color Mania is a great day filled with fun, entertainment, food and more.”

Did you see that? Kids 7 and under run for FREE. Yes please! I think it is totally cool that there will be a Kids Zone set up for the little ones. My girl is going to LOVE every minute and I’m thankful that Color Mania has put some thought into the needs of the little athletes!!


Curious if a Color Mania event is coming to a city near you?
Find out here.

As I mentioned above, FIVE lucky Charm + Sass readers will win a FREE registration to the Houston Color Mania race on August 10, 2013. I apologize for those of you who are not in Houston but local only was at the request of the sponsor.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• People of 5K's 
• Run With Me
• Recovery Fun 5K Fundraiser

{This month's advertisement}

Wednesday Weigh In {Week 16}

I allowed myself to temporarily forget this morning that I needed to post for Wednesday Weigh In. Damn if I didn't remember. 

I'm taking a break from Wednesday Weigh In's. Maybe a week, maybe two weeks, I'm not sure. I'm still going to post on Wednesdays and I'm still going to put the linky at the bottom of this page so that I can support all of you, my friends, in your journey. 

For the last two weeks I've been stressed out and overwhelmed. I've been eating my feelings. Stress eating, emotional eating, and no-excuse eating just cause I wanted to. I  have set myself back and I'm feeling defeated. 

I need to take a break, compose myself and get up and try again. 

I will get up and try again.

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Wednesday Weigh In {Week 15}

Up Down. Up Down. Up Down. I'm exhausted y'all.

Those .8 lbs. that I lost last week? They're back!

I'm lucky I wasn't up 5.8 lbs. considering everything I ate over the weekend! My hubby was out of town for 4 days and I was a little sad. I stayed at my mom's for the majority of the time he was gone and she spoiled me with lots of not good for me foods.

I'm armed and dangerous now though - I went to the grocery store on Monday and stocked up on food for myself. Foods that I like and that are good, healthy choices. 
I even shared a healthy recipe yesterday. 

Last night I managed to not eat homemade enchiladas. 
That's a sin in this house.

I'm tired of playing around and seeing results one week and being super happy and proud and then the next week feeling defeated.

Also, we're headed to the beach in a little over a month for a week long vacation. If the fear of looking like a beached whale for an entire week doesn't light a fire under my ass, nothing will!

How did your week go? Don't forget to link up below! 

P.S. Have you signed up for the Pamper Me Pretty swap I'm co hosting? Today is the last day to sign up! 






{This month's advertisement}

Oven Roasted Zucchini & Yellow Squash

It's no secret that I've been trying to eat better and lose weight for like, ever. I've found that if I'm able to prepare healthy choices ahead of time I'm more likely to eat better. I love to prepare oven roasted veggies and this dish of zucchini and yellow squash is my favorite. I also prepare all of my other veggies this way; it is especially delicious with carrots and cabbage! 

Here's What You'll Need:

Zucchini & Yellow Squash {about a pound each}
Olive Oil {about 1-2 TBS}
Seasoning {I use Tex Joy on everything}

Here's What You'll Do:

Cut your veggies up. I like to quarter my long wise, kind of like a french fry. Toss 'em in a pan - I use a 13X9 glass casserole dish. Toss them in the olive oil - you just need enough to lightly coat the veggies. You don't want too much now! Sprinkle the desired amount of seasoning over the veggies and toss again. You want them to all be coated well!

Pop 'em in the oven at *350 and cook until they are tender enough to poke with a fork, usually about 30 minutes.

Enjoy friends!
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Wednesday Weigh In {Week 14}

Hey y'all!

I gotta be honest, I had no intention of "weighing in" this morning. I was feeling pretty down on myself after the way I handled Easter. We had three different celebrations in one day and and I ate at every single one of them, and I ate a lot.

When I woke up this morning I made myself get on the scale. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment but I had to know what the damage was.

I've lost .8 lbs. since last week. "Shut the F*ck Up!" That's exactly what I said when I read the scale. I know, not very ladylike, but whatever! Then I got off, and got on again. I even took two pictures.

I really don't know how I pulled that one off.

I've been really down on myself regarding the pace that I'm losing weight. I'm just barely sliding by week after week, meaning I"m barely losing anything at all. Sometimes I"m all "oh well, at least it's a loss!" Which yea, that's true, but 14 weeks in and I could be a lot closer to my goal weight than what I am. Like, I could be over half way there by now and it sucks that I'm not.

So I guess now, I have to decide -

Am I going to slide by week after week after week after week?  Am I going to drag this on for more than a year? Because at the rate I'm going it will take me approximately 62.5 weeks to reach my goal weight. That's not cool y'all. 

Or am I going to step up my game? Am I going to make even better choices about what I put into my body? Am I going to really make an effort to exercise? Am I going to do what I know needs to be done in order to meet my goals in a reasonable amount of time?

I wish I had a distinct answer right this minute. I can sit here and say I'm going to work my ass off to make this happen and at a quicker pace but then I'll be right here next week with a .6 lb. loss.

I'm going to try to do better. I want to do better.

I'd love it if you'd link up your fitness/weight loss related posts below!

ALSO - DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY MARCH SPONSOR GIVEAWAY AND SIGN UP TO BE A PART OF THE PAMPER ME PRETTY SWAP THAT I'M CO HOSTING!  

{This month's advertisement}

Wednesday Weigh In {Week 13}

Happy {sort of} weigh in Wednesday ladies! 

This is going to be short and sweet today because I feel like my to do list is getting longer and longer by the second. 

I've had a bad week in terms of watching what I'm eating and also just in general. I've comforted myself with food. I knew I was doing it while I was doing it and yet I continued to make bad decisions. We went out to dinner last night and I even had dessert, my favorite dessert. That is like 1,000 calories by itself. I didn't feel guilty about it at the time, and I told myself I wouldn't feel guilty about it later, but I did. 

Crap.

Do you ever feel like you are sabotaging yourself?  I do. 

I'm up .6 lbs. this week and to be honest, I expected much worse. 

I'm wiping the slate clean and starting over as of now and looking forward to a week full of healthier choices. What else can you do?

Link up your fitness related posts below! 

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Wednesday Weigh In {Week 12}

This losing weight stuff sure is slow going. I suppose it's my own fault for not exercising or making healthier choices, but I am staying within my 1,200 a day calorie limit. Counts for something right? 

I'm losing instead of gaining, so there is that. I'm down .4lbs this week. I have to stop weighing myself between Wednesday Weigh In's. The other day I was at 200.2 lbs. 

To say I was excited would be an understatement and then this morning, well, not so excited.

Moving on...

I decided recently that I wanted to give juicing a try! Except I really have no clue what the hell I"m doing. My mom gave me this little blender thing and I bought a whole bunch of fruits and veggies and threw them in. My juice turned out ammmazzzzinng! 

Looks gross though right? Here is what I used (for one serving):

A handful of  raw Spinach

1 Carrot

1 Celery Stalk 

1 Mango

8 Small Strawberries

A little water

Even my precious babies loved it. I was shocked. I figured they'd run screaming out of the kitchen when they saw it. Not the case! Do y'all have any juicing tips or recipes for me? Juicing resources? 

I feel like I need some direction!

Update me on your weight loss progress from this last week! 

Don't forget to link up your fitness related posts below! Got a healthy recipe? Link it up! Got a weekly check in post? Link it up! Got some new work out gear? Link it up!

--On a completely unrelated side note --

Do I have any Matchbox Twenty and/or Goo Goo Dolls fans in the house? I know y'all probably think I'm only a country music lover but I LOOOVEEEE me some Matchbox Twenty (and Goo Goo Dolls) and I just found out last night that they are going on tour this summer (and coming to HTOWN - HOLLLLLAAA!!!) and I almost burst with excitement. I may have called my mom at 11 P.M. on the verge of tears to tell her the good news. I know, sounds crazy, but I am that excited. C'mon July 30th!!!

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Wednesday Weigh In {Week 11}

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Howdy Y'all! I took a little break from blogging yesterday to try and recover from our rodeo shenanigans on Monday (more about that later!) but I'm back now and it's time for Wednesday Weigh In!

I honestly didn't even want to do this today - I"m just not feeling it for some reason. Then I said to myself, "Cowgirl Up Woman!" I'm in a rodeo frame of mind still, if you can't tell! 

I was pretty sure this was going to be a rough week since I was so tempted on Monday to eat all that fried goodness that is rodeo food, but I resisted! I had a few beers and  a few bites of cotton candy but that was it!
C'mon, I deserve a pat on the back for that y'all!! 

Whoop! I lost the .2 lbs. that I gained last week plus an additional .2 lbs. It's not much but it is a loss and I'm okay with that. I was hoping for more, but obviously I didn't make that happen. I've finally reached my first little goal of losing 5 lbs. but I'm really hoping to break 200 sometime this month! 

Linking Up With:

**ANNOUNCEMENT** 

Do you have a weight loss success story? Would you like to share it with Charm + Sass readers? 

I would love to feature your story on a future Weigh In Wednesday Post. 

Email me if you are interested! 

blogging2blog@gmail.com

Link up your posts below!!

Do you host or link up with another weight loss link up? Please share the link up with me! I'd love to participate! 






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Wednesday Weigh In {Week 10}

I kind of can't believe I've been doing this for 10 weeks already. I also can't believe that I've only lost a little over 4 pounds in the last 10 weeks. 

That kind of bums me out. A lot.

Losing weight takes a lot of hard work, and while I've been working hard in some areas there are other areas that I have not. It is very apparent that I've still got a very long road ahead of me. I was worried about today's weigh in for a few reasons:

1) I didn't drink enough water this past week. I drank so little water in fact that I was dehydrated and getting awful headaches over the weekend. I can't let that happen anymore.

2) I need to learn to treat myself in moderation.

I have done really well in moderating the type of foods I eat as well as the amount of food that I eat except for when it comes to something that I consider a "treat." For example, on Sunday night I made cinnamon rolls from scratch. I knew I was going to have one and I was okay with having just one. However, over the next few days I didn't have just one. It was more like three. Those bad boys were amazingly delicious and they were also about 500 calories a piece. This is not okay Lacey! 

I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. 

I've got to learn how to treat myself within reason. How do you deal with this? 

I'm up .2 pounds from last week. I know that this isn't  HUGE gain, but it's a gain, which is obviously not the direction I'm trying to go here..

I'm trying not to bummed out about it because it happens. I'm just tired of going up and down over and over again. 

Tell me what helps you to stay on track with making good choices, please! 

Linking up with: 

Do you host or link up with another weight loss link up? Please share the link up with me! I'd love to participate! 

Don't forget to link up your fitness related posts below! 

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