Pretty Pretty Please, don't you ever ever feel, like your less than, less than perfect!

I've recently discovered that listening to music is far more motivating during a workout, than any television program. Why did his take me so long to figure out? One song in particular today stuck out to me. I have heard the song "Less than Perfect" many times before, but for some reason, today, I seemed to connect with every word Pink sang. As I was running and listening to these brilliant lyrics, I realized how distorted my vision has been on the way I view myself and that I put too much credit on how others view me. Our family is very swiftly realizing how mentally challenging our health goals are. We knew how "physical" weight loss is with exercise and healthy eating, but we didn't understand the depth of how "mental" it was. We've discovered in this journey of health that we give the opinion of how others view us way too much credit. We let those opinions affect our behavior and we choose to let them bring us down. Light bulb moment....who the heck cares what anyone else thinks! And the same goes to that inner voice that likes to tear us down. That is a new goal for the Hodgkiss fam-bam! Pretty pretty please, don't ever ever feel, like your less than, less than perfect! A new family motto. AND, from now on, it's music at the gym, only music! :)

These last two weeks have been fun and busy!  We
had family roll into town from Boston, Dallas, and Boise on Friday night. On that Sunday, Big 'D' was happy to report to his family that he lost 5 pounds! And this week he lost 3 pounds, excellent! I was very impressed with the lengths that our family went to to help our family goals. Momma Kiss/Na Na took us shopping at Costco and showed us some awesome products that will help us and Darrin in our goals. We got almond flour, coconut flour, protein shakes and powder, some healthy snacks, healthy peanut butter, frozen chicken and soooooo much more!! I wrote down a few healthy recipes and momma kiss put them to the test and they turned out yummy!! Heather Hodgkiss also made a delicious version of "fried" chicken called almond crusted chicken and it was to die for good! Very excited to have my own try at these two dishes. This was actually pretty huge for us Hodgkiss' because we are notorious for eating really bad at family vacations all day, every day! I'm sure this is something common for many, many families. Don't get me wrong though, we still had tons of fun and had some cheat meals, but for the most part, we all did really really well, and I'm very proud of all of us!!

They also helped us fit in our weekly family activity, just when I didn't think it wasn't going to happen for the first time in 8 weeks! We squeezed in a nice family walk by the beautiful canyon and then some soccer fun after our Boise soccer weekend the following week. The things we learned this last week will be invaluable to our success!!

We are falling in love with our soccer Saturdays! They are busy and prove to be incredibly exhausting, but we aren't going to trade them in!





Darrin also had a very intense week of studying for a big mid-term exam so, honestly the 3 pounds this last week were very well deserved, as work-outs were put mildly on the back burner. Something we have had to just come to terms with. Especially me as at times I expect a lot from him. And I will continue to do so, but on exam weeks, studying will always have to put up a good fight against exercise until Darrin graduates. He managed to fit in some good workouts and shifted his diet back to low carbohydrates and was able to bust out a total of 8 pounds in the last two weeks. We'll take it!! Good news....he fought and won an 86% on his midterm exam!

Now that Darrin has dabbled with different diet experiments, HE, has decided that what he deals with best is cutting out all bad carbs. He's learned that he, like many others, is a TRUE food addict and the best way to deal with this addiction for now, is to go cold turkey (again). He is also slowly opening his mind up to some actual counseling on this addiction. Until then, he wants to do what he knows works best and we'll touch back on the counseling. I'll be ready for whatever he decides. For now, I'm just THRILLED that he has even opened his mind to the sheer idea of getting a counselor to help with this addiction.  This journey is opening his mind to different ideas that will lead to his and our family's success! This my friends, is gold! I've also realized that I have treated Darrin as less than perfect, and that isn't going to help get him anywhere! He feeds off of my behavior, and that is a big responsibility. No, I don't control him in anyway. If I had any amount of control over him, then he would have lost all his weight 13 years ago. What I do know, is that my attitude affects his attitude and if I treat him as less than perfect, then often times he will act less than perfect. He's my husband, and I love him and he deserves better treatment.

We let our girls take a break this last week from our fruit and veggie experiment. This week we start fresh and recharged. I right now am in love with roasted broccoli, so that is what our girls will be trying this week. And our fruit is cantaloupe! They have slowly talked themselves out of liking this two food items; my job, to talk them back into it :) AND to get our booties to bed earlier.

Our community project is going wonderfully!! I have an employee, healthy eating class, set up for this Wednesday and we should have over 20 people present. We'll be discussing success stories, recipes, motivational tips and a pampered chef is coming to make us a healthy meal and will show us tools in the kitchen that make eating healthy much easier! I have also put together some awesome grand prizes worth around 1000 dollars, both in funds and products, so I'm incredibly happy! I will be putting together a sponsor newsletter/list and be advertising for companies as well. I'm so grateful for such wonderful support!

Here's to another good week!

"The Proof is in the Pudding"

I apologize for may lack of post last week! (I'm only entertaining the thought that you are all sitting on the edge of your seats every Sunday, waiting for my post ) :) The weeks lately have just seemed to get out of hand. I am learning how to manage such a busy life without family around to help. Last Sunday the girls and I got home from another one of our little road trips to Pocatello visiting my brand new niece, and when I got home I was too exhausted to blog. I really didn't realize the effort that blogging has! I'm really bad about realizing!

Anyways, my post a couple weeks ago was really raw and honest. Honestly, I really hate having to be so honest. But I keep thinking and hoping that at the end of this competition that both the good and the honest posts are all going to pay off. We all know that weight loss is hard, and I knew it was going to be hard for Big 'D', but we didn't realize HOW hard it was going to be for him. Typically, Darrin is able to start a weight loss plan, follow through for a few weeks and then falls off the plan. He isn't any different than the rest of the population. And typically, I allow him to fall of his plan because I can't control him, he's a big boy, he makes his own decisions. But, this time, he asked me to be his "Jillian nazi" and that is what he is getting. These next few months I will be his worst nightmare if I need to be. I will be face to face with him when that alarm goes off at 4 a.m. pushing him to his workouts and pushing him  even more to get the cardio in. I've stated before that he LOVES his cross-fit and really doesn't have a problem getting to those workouts. It's the cardio that he dreads, but from now on, he'll dread me more. I'll take one for the team :)

When I posted last time I only stated that Darrin didn't lose any weight. That wasn't honest enough. Everyone can do the math. After you see his stats today, things wouldn't really add up. And that is why we are doing this blog to be accountable and that in return leads to success. I'm actually quite the hypocrite because, in truth, my last post Darrin actually had gained 8 pounds. I was so upset and a little embarrassed for us both that all I could say was he didn't lose any more weight. Which was the truth, just not the whole truth. He kept telling himself that it was only water weight. Well, it took Darrin these last two weeks to understand that he wasn't being honest with himself, and it took him these last two weeks to lose those gained eight pounds in "water" weight plus another four. I am so so so glad that he was able to lose ultimately 12 pounds since our last post, but I  was even more glad when he realized he really only lost an honest 4 pounds. 4 pounds is great, but this journey also needs to be about getting passed denial. Big 'D' will never be small 'D', if he can't jump over this hurdle of denial and honesty with himself. The proof is in the pudding my friends.

So, lets get on to Big 'D''s stats for the month of February. Because Darrin didn't lose one week and gained 8 in another, for the month of February he only lost 4 pounds, weighing in at 318 lb. He lost 1.5 inches off his peck meas, .5 inches off his waist, 2 off his thigh, and 1 inch off his bicep. We also took some updated pictures.

Stats: (or the pudding)
 Jan 5                            Feb 2.         March 2.        Total lost

 weight: 342 lb.            321.5         318                24 lb

 peck/bust - 55.5 in.     54in            52.5               3 inches

 real waist - 56.5 in.     55in            54.5               2 inches

 arms/bicep - 19 in.      17in            16                  3 inches

 thighs - 28.5                28in             26                 2.5 inches

                               

                

                 

All in all, he did still lose weight, so we are going to move on from here with our heads held high and do better this month!! We really appreciate the way family has swooped in to encourage Darrin. He's received wonderful email messages, comments, phone calls and text messages that have helped him regain his confidence, invigorated his will power and motivation and given him more useful tools and guidance to do and be better. Darrin's little sister Linsey and her hubby's advice in particular have helped Darrin immensely! Thank you!! This experience has been eye opening for Big 'D', and I really believe it's had quite the affect on him.  I believe this month holds big numbers! Let's go March, let's go Darrin! Let's show the pudding that you're his BOSS!    

An update on our family changes....I believe we can do better as well. I really am learning how to manage a busy lifestyle. And really it's not that I haven't ever been busy before, its just that I've never been this busy all by myself before. I think I managed this week better, and it was one of the busiest yet with some added ear infections. Now that I'm learning to be better, I think I can help my family be better too. The week I didn't post was a bad veggie and fruit week. We brought in two different squash dishes in and attempted kiwi, but forgot to put the kiwi on my to-do list.  BUT, I'm so thankful that my sister-in-law came to my rescue and had our healthy food attempts waiting for us in Boise at our soccer weekend. Thank you Heather! Such a great support and it means the world to us that you would care about what we are trying to accomplish as a family. We love you! Anyways :) .......We continued on this last week with more kinds of squash and kiwi and we also tried avocados again. So far the squash is not a veggie they like AT ALL. We'll come back to those because I like squash! And I tried spaghetti squash for the first in lieu of pasta at Heather's house and LOVED it! Yay! Kiwi, was only tolerated, but avocados they learned to like even MORE!! We had three very healthy salads this week and the girls ate bigger portions of it too! We even had little Sophie with us this week and she ate heapings of kale, spinach, a                                            green leaf lettuce and tons of avocados. Way to go Sophie!

We do however continue to succeed in our family physical activities! Something we have absolutely loved incorporating, but hasn't been super easy either. Two weeks ago we played basketball and had tons of fun! We went up against each other the best we could. My favorite part was that my daughters thought they even remotely had a chance of blocking daddy's shots! And of course Mommy's too right? Not so much. After we played a game against each other, with teams changing, we also played a game of "around the world" and "horse".  This last week we wanted to share the trampoline gym with Sophie, Alex and Keaton who were visiting, so we did that Saturday. But, only the kids jumped this time....it's expensive, busy and Tiff just had a baby so she couldn't jump.

 Taking his girls on.....great bonding times with caloric benefits! And you know we all have to go head to head sometimes, especially the mommy and daddy!

Our community project couldn't be going better! I have modeled this project and taken many examples from the Magic Valley Weight loss challenge. However, it was quite unintentional! It went from wanting to do a 5k to a health fair, and spiraled into 60 person employee health challenge. I've shared some details, but I can't believe how detailed it has actually become! I just might end up going crazy, but is has been very very very fun! Our 12 week employee challenge weigh-ins and "healthy points" tracking start this week. I have put together nurses to log in initial stats which include height, weight, BMI, blood pressure, and a diabetes glucose reading. At the end of 12 weeks we will get the same stats and see how far our employees have come. I have an opening motivational meeting that takes place Wednesday the 12 of March and I myself, my sister-in-law Linsey and her hubby NFL player Jordan will speak and motivate the employees for an hour. My portion will be information and my own weight loss story as a "bigger" girl. Linsey's portion will be on how she transformed her body but didn't have a lot of actual weight to lose, and Jordan will talk about setting your mind on something and following through. His experience working hard to become an NFL player will be inspiring and invaluable. We will all share our methods, trials and successes. We have some employees that have a lot of weight to lose, and others just a few pounds, so this should prove worthy for every participant in our family challenge project.  I am VERY excited about this meeting! It will take place at the cross fit gym that Darrin has come to love. A great motivating setting. And we will also do some cross fit demos so the staff can see what this workout is all about. This week also I am working on sealing the deal on grand prizes for the overall winners. Wish me luck!

ONE MORE THING......Darrin and I started our 6 week ballroom dancing workout lessons. We had soooooooooo much fun!! We learned three steps to the cha cha! It took us back to when we were dating and that we are meant to have fun as a couple. And it was a great workout! By the end of the 6 weeks, we should be pros on the cha cha and the YMCA has set up a dance party at a restaurant where we will dress up and everything! We are kind of excited :)

All in all, a very busy week. But a learning lessons week. We have learned to say and do better. We will succeed in our goals!! Thanks everyone!