Biggest Loser Checklist

It's official. I am the biggest loser (female)! :) It's really amazing how well so many of us did! It's so encouraging to see people of different body types, schedules, etc. do so well at this! Both the competitiveness and the camaraderie of this contest were the best motivators I could have asked for. It's always easier to go through something when you know that others are going through it with you. Thank you to my fellow losers and those who continually cheered me on along the way! (Be sure to read Nik's blog about the many wonderful accomplishments during the contest!)

Back before the contest began, I posted a list of reasons why I wanted to be the biggest loser. Now that we're done, I wanted to revisit the list and see where I stand on that list.

• Getting my wedding and engagement rings to fit the right fingers. Unfortunately, it looks like the whole preggo thing made my bones expand. Although I weigh probably about the same that I did on my wedding day, I still can't get either of my rings on the right fingers. I used to wear my wedding ring on the proper left finger and my engagement ring on my ring finger on my right hand (which is bigger than the left). I have been wearing my engagement ring on my wedding ring finger for months now, but it still won't come off easily (and it used to practically fall off). So, I guess I will just need to get my rings resized. At least now I know. :) Also, I wanted to be able to fit into my wedding dress again because I bought my dress with the intention of wearing it for every anniversary, but that only happened 1 year because I was 7 months pregnant on our 2nd anniversary, 9 months post-baby (and about to get pregnant) on our 3rd, and 4 months post-baby for our 4th. So, I was hoping that for our 5th I'll be able to wear it again. I might still be able to, but the other day when I tried it on, the zipper wouldn't go up the last inch because of my rib cage. I think that has expanded too. If it doesn't go down soon, I might have to see about getting the dress taken out a little.
• Having the money (and an excuse) to throw out all of my non-maternity 3+ year old wardrobe and buy a whole new style and age-appropriate wardrobe without feeling guilty for spending that money on myself. I've got some of that money (and it turns out that I was only about half a pound away from the whole pot!), and with how good I feel now, I don't feel too guilty. It's not like I shop at expensive stores anyway. Lookout Marshalls, Ross, and Target... here I come! ;)
• A step toward achieving one of my life-goals of completing a 5K in less than 26 minutes. Although I still can't run because of my stupid calf, at least now I'm in shape so that when I am to run again it shouldn't take nearly as long to get back to running at a decent pace.
• To keep up with my kids. Doing pretty good here! And they're fast, so that's saying something!
• To maybe wear a bikini again. If I am standing up straight, I'd say I could pull off a bikini. But the second that I lean over at all, my tummy gets all wrinkly and it isn't a pretty sight. So, until someone can tell me about a cream or something that will tighten up the skin on my stomach, I'll be sticking with super-sexy one-pieces.
• So that I don't have the appetite of a horse. This has been one of the best things that I've gotten out of following the Weight Watchers plan! I really require about one-third of the portion size that I used to eat to feel satisfied. Today when I went to treat myself to pizza and Cold Stone, I only had 1 slice of pizza (even though it's a big slice) plus a little of the leftover from Corgan and Belle's piece, and at Cold Stone I couldn't eat all of the ice cream that I ordered. I hardly EVER throw away ice cream. In fact, I usually eat everyone else's ice cream leftovers, so that's really saying something!
• To stop giving all of my money away to fast food joints. Done! I still grab the occasional fresco taco (MMMMMM!!!) from Taco Bell, but that's about it. I'm sure I'll have a Whopper Jr. (hold the mayo, no cheese) occasionally, but not nearly as often as I used to (hopefully never often enough that Corgan will also learn what I regularly order!).
• To teach my kids to eat healthier. I will still need to work on this. We've been eating more veggies, but it's hard to convince kids to eat adult meals sometimes. Plus, many of my meals have been the pre-packaged frozen ones, so I eat that and the kids and Keith eat something else that's easy to make. Now that I'm in "maintenance" mode instead of "lose" mode, I should be able to work more healthy meals for the whole family in.
• So that I feel like one sexy momma! Done and Done!
• I want to take some great pictures of just Keith and I, and I want to look super-hot in them. Erica... add me to your schedule!