Welcome to my blog

2/17/2012

For the most part - this right here is filler. I am trying to figure out what I want to say, how I want to say and the overall platform of this site. I am not sure who my audience will be, if I will even have one.

It seems like everyone has a blog - why shouldn't I. I am using this as a journal of sorts for personal gain. Perhaps as I feel comfortable, I will try and promote it to get readers. 

 

The direction that I want to take the blog is all about the title - a Beauty Queen Mom. 

 

Several months ago, I read a news story about how Miss South Carolina - Bree Boyce - once weighed 234 lbs and lost the weight and went on to become the representative of SC in the Miss America competition. Her story planted a seed in my mind as a new goal. I want to get to a place in my life where I can enter a beauty pageant. Since I am married and 36 years old, Miss America is not the competition for me. I was thinking more along the lines of the Mrs. America pageant. My goal isn't to make it that far. It isn't even to win my state - Mrs. Connecticut. It is simply to enter the pageant. I have horrible stretch marks from my two boys (mainly #1 - #2 just ran along the same lines), I have never had perfect teeth and my husband asked me tonight what my talent would be - hadn't even thought that far. 

So - what is up with the blog. Well, I am currently 191.6 lbs. We are doing a Biggest Loser contest at work. There are 5 of us competing. The buy in price is $100, making the winning pot $500 - nice motivation for 20 weeks of hard work. We started the competition on Jan 3rd with out first weigh-in. I was shocked and I am embarrassed to admit that my starting weight was 204.2 lbs. On the other hand, I am happy to report that I am down 12.6 lbs in 6 weeks, which averages to 1.8 lbs a week. 

I have accomplished the loss of 12.6 lbs. by cutting my portions using Weight Watchers Online as my guide. Back in 2009 I joined Weight Watchers and lost 25 lbs in 4 months. I found it simple to follow and easy to understand. I kept the weight off for a majority of the time, up until I became pregnant with my second son in Feb of 2010. After I had him, I quickly lost weight and was on 10 lbs heavier than when I became pregnant. 

Unfortunately, poor eating habits and a new job with an onsite cafeteria caused me to put all the weight back on. Having two kids and a husband working overtime, I was never able to get back to the Weight Watchers meetings. I would occasionally track online, but I wasn't very consistent. Now that I had the fabulous invention of an iPhone - I have the Weight Watchers App and it is amazing!!!! It makes tracking and calculating points so easy. It is probably the greatest tool and I am going to benefit greatly for having it in my pocket . During my gaining days I also didn't have the accountability factor, which for me, is the key to my success. When I attending the meetings and had to weigh in, it made me try harder and I lost the weight. The good thing with the Biggest Loser at work, isn't the drive to win the money, or even win in general. It is having to show someone else my weight every week, it makes me accountable. I think that I will miss the weigh ins when the competition is over and may even still weigh in, just to keep it consistent. 

Besides the working out, I have also started to become more active. I go to Zumba classes 2-3 times a week, although, this week I only went once because of Valentine's Day. I love zumba, as many others do across the world. I attended a Zumba for a Cause event where there were 13 instructors. It was great to see the different styles and levels. This motivate me and planted another seed. I know want to become a zumba instructor. I am mad I missed out on an instructor training class in my area in April - class sold out before I could scrape the $225 together. It is probably for the best, being I have only be doing it for 6 weeks. I will continue with the classes and get stronger and more proficient, save up and join the next class that is close to home! I would love to teach Zumba Gold for the seniors and Zumbatomic for the kids. Definitely a more short term goal than becoming Mrs. Connecticut, but I plan on conquering both goals.

Well, it is 11PM and I have to shuffle my son to Hockey lessons at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow. So for however read this - thank you and there is more to come.