First of all we have a winner for the CSN Stores Giveaway.
The winning comment is #3 as chosen by random.org
Hey Sarah - thanks for the contest! In my bag - two point snack bar in case I get caught out and won't have to find a fast food place, my WW journal, some gum,

Lip gloss, phone, sudoku book, and a little cash! I carry a small purse! Love your blog, you are such an inspiration.

Louise - I don't have your contact information, so please send your contact information to:  srhrss@yahoo.com so I can send you your $40 gift code to CSN Stores.

Yesterday we got dumped on... dumped with snow that is.
I just saw a weather report and it looks like we got around 15 inches here in my little suburb on Minneapolis.
And to think... last week it was nearly 50 degrees!

This year it seems like spring will never come some days...and winter is eternal.  And I have to say sometimes life just feels like that doesn’t it?  Eternal winter.  Always waiting for spring.  I used to do it, and sometimes still do… tell myself that when spring comes I’ll change my habits, I’ll start living healthier, I’ll start a diet, I’ll exercise. 

Or maybe it isn’t spring you’re waiting for maybe it’s the start of summer because everyone knows dieting in summer is SO much easier because of the wonderful fresh fruits and veggies.

Or maybe summer’s hard for you because well… there are just so many parties with food you know.  BBQ, grad parties, weddings… and we are out and about all the time.  There’s just no time to plan.  So you’re waiting for the kids to go back to school, because then you’ll hunker down and have a lot more time to concentrate on your diet.

Or maybe fall’s bad, because well… those kids that were supposed to just go to school and leave you alone are involved in activities every single night after school, and you guys barely can make it through the drive-thru quick enough to get to all the events.  Then there was Halloween, and you just have to have some candy, because Reese’s peanut butter cups are your favorite.  And of course then came Thanksgiving…. And you may just as well throw in the towel now and just wait until the New Year… because the New Year makes doing this so much easier.  Everything seems new and fresh and everyone has lots of motivation in January…

You can see what’s happening here can’t you?  I was able to cycle through all of the “seasons” and come up with “sample” excuses for each one… all of these which I’ve actually heard in real life from others, or have actually used myself at one time or another.

There is ALWAYS an excuse of why waiting will be easier/better.  There is always an excuse to put off losing weight and getting in better shape.  I played this game for years, until my body finally called my bluff.  I was always in the “I’ll do it next month” mode, because a certain life/seasonal event would have passed.  In that time of making excuses I probably gained 50+ pounds.  Think of how much easier my weight loss journey would have been if I would have just stopped with the excuses and started with some action!

Right now might seem like eternal winter to you…I know I STILL have days after doing this for nearly 2-1/2 years that seem like eternal winter.  But in the midst of that find a way to start making changes in your life today.  Know that even small changes add up.  Don’t wait for spring… because seriously… in Minnesota at least, I’m convinced it may not be coming this year.

I waited decades to start living my life… don’t make the same mistake… start living your life now!  Today!  This hour, this minute.  You are worth it! 

Don't forget to enter my $40 CSN Stores Giveaway

Sometimes life gets crazy. We all have those days where we are so busy we can’t keep things together or find what we need when we want it. It’s on those days that a great laptop messenger bag or any sort of bag that keeps things organized when you want them will be a lifesaver.


I think it could also be helpful on your journey to health. We all know that bringing along our own snacks/lunch for instance will keep us away from the vending machine and fast food drive-thrus. It can also help to keep your food journal in your bag with you. I always say “bite it and write it.” It definitely keeps me on track.


I’ll admit sometimes I live out of my laptop bag or my purse. If you looked in there right now you’d find:
- an empty Tupperware that had Nutella in it for my toast this morning
- a church bulletin from last Sunday
- a half eaten granola bar
- My weight watchers materials/journal
- mittens
- makeup
- gum
-old pay stubs
- my gym membership scan card
- coupons
- an American Express gift card, tucked into a thank you note.
- 2 pairs of sunglasses – one broken one not
- cell phone charger
- GPS charger
- iPod charger
- Weight Watchers weekly
- Samsung Intercept cell phone (my latest toy)


Today, CSN Stores has offered to give one of my readers a $40 credit to one of their over 200+ online stores. CSN Stores is an online retailer that is comprised of more than 200 different shopping sites. Some of these include: Cookware.com, Csnbaby.com, and Fitnessequipmentandmore.com. I have made purchases in the past from CSN Stores, and have appreciated the good customer service and fast shipping!


There are a couple of ways you can win. For each of these please leave a separate comment to have your entries all counted:
1) Leave a comment and tell me, what’s in your bag, and how does it help you on your journey?


2) Post this giveaway on twitter using the following: I just entered @fatlittlelegs @csnstores giveaway and you should too: http://tinyurl.com/6hnh9fyLeave me a comment telling me you tweeted.




3) Follow my blog (with Google Friend Connect - on the right hand column OR by subscribing to my email updates) and leave me a comment telling me you did. If you already follow my blog, just leave me a comment telling me that.

4) Post about my giveaway on your own blog, and leave me a comment with the link.


This contest will be open until 9 pm Central Time on Thursday, February 24th. The winner will be chosen at random from all eligible comments.   This giveaway is open to readers in the United States and Canada only.


Disclosure: CSN stores did not compensate me directly for this post, but they did offer to give one of my readers a $40 gift card.

Last month I spent a few days in Portland at my niece’s wedding.

Now one thing I found out about Portland is that in January there’s grass… real grass on the ground, and you can see it! This is exciting for me being from Minnesota. We haven’t seen grass since… oh.. maybe early November.

Another thing I found out about Portland?
Portland January Average Temperatures
* Average Daily High=45°
* Average Daily Low= 34°

Minneapolis January Average Temperatures
* Average Daily High=22°
* Average Daily Low= 4°

As you can see… It felt downright balmy in Portland in January to me. Even when there was just a little ice on the windshield outside, it didn’t feel bad at all. I had a black wool winter dress coat that I brought, and I seemed to be too hot most of the time in it.

And this got me thing a lot about perspective… because really when you think about it, that’s what this journey is really all about.

Dictionary.com defines perspective as: the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship.

Perspective was me feeling warm in Portland compared to the 4 degrees it was the morning I left Minneapolis…. It wasn’t “warm” to the people in Portland, but it sure felt good to me.

Perspective is… getting up early to go for a run, and not feeling tired, because you now have more energy from exercising and fueling your body appropriately.

Perspective is… thinking that a nice bowl of oatmeal tastes better for breakfast than a huge scone!

Perspective means… sometimes still feeling fat, but knowing you’re not because you fit into a size 8 and a medium.

Perspective means… seeing rolls of skin on my body, and thinking I’m fat, but looking back at my “before” pictures, and knowing just how far I’ve come.

Perspective allows us to find the reason for the journey. To find the reason that we do this. It allows us to feel warm when it’s only 45 degrees outside. It allows us to see where we’ve come from, and however big or small the change is to know that we are doing something to move ourselves forward.

I won’t lie… I have been having a rough time lately - probably the reason for my absence with posting.  It’s been hard for me to remember to keep everything in perspective. This journey is life-long. That means I have to work at it my WHOLE LIFE. No, that means I GET to work at it my WHOLE LIFE, and sometimes that means coping, and putting weight loss on the back burner, and having to be OK with that.

But perspective bluntly tells me with the glance of a few old photos that February of 2011 is much different from February of 2006, or February of 2008, or even February of last year.

New changes
New challenges
All which bring amazing new chapters in all of our lives.

“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.”
~Ivy Baker Priest

I just wanted to let you know that Mary at Fit This Girl has featured me as a success story today!  I am honored!  Mary is a personal trainer & specialty fitness instructor in Minneapolis, who's also a weight loss success story herself.  I've really enjoyed reading her blog this past year. 

Please go over to read my story, and also check out all of the other great info she posts!

This morning at my house it was 10 below zero, and the wind chill was in the 20s below zero. Some of the outlying schools were delayed due to the freezing temperatures. My mind read that as “the gym is cancelled” and I rolled over and went back to sleep at 5 this morning.


I HATE EXCUSES!

I really do hate excuses… it bugs me to no end when people around me start using them. I want to scream “own up!” “Put your big girl panties on and just get over it!” Apparently I needed to do some yelling at myself this morning.

It’s too cold.
I don’t want to heat up my car.
It’s too far to walk between the car and the gym door.
I’ll get too cold on that LOONG walk.
No one else will be there anyways.
I can go at lunch.
I can go tomorrow.
One day won’t matter.
You need the extra sleep anyways.

I HATE EXCUSES!

But this morning… I was full of all of them, and guess what? Yep, the excuses won. I did not go to the gym, and even worse I had McDonald’s for breakfast and I didn’t go to the gym at lunch (like I promised myself) either.

It doesn’t happen often, but I’m still not proud of it.

So what happens next? I let it go. I forgive myself. I move on, and I make new plans for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I can recover from this… I can do this. So can you!

It seems like the whole country is cold and snowy these days.  Here in Minnesota, of course, we are used to it but it doesn't mean that we don't crave spring this time of year.  I have been craving comfort food lately, and this is what was on the menu recently, that helped that craving.
1/4 cup butter/margarine melted
1/4 cup of honey
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Serve over basmati rice and with roasted carrots

Its Saturday night... and I'm exhausted!  Too many early mornings - 4 am, where I'm woken up by a 3 year old that begs me to "cover him up" because he's kicked off his covers.  Then... I can't go back to sleep.

At my weigh in on Thursday I was up 1 pound... oh well.  Mandatory weigh in for the month = done, and I'm free for the month of February because I am 7 pounds below my goal weight.  Yay for that!

Made it to the gym 4 times this past week - including 40 minutes on the treadmill today.  Wanted to make 5, but skipped yesterday to go out for Mexican for lunch... uh... yeah... guess what I'm real too!

I have a couple of giveaways in the works, but see the first comment about exhausted in getting them together.  I hope to pull them together in the next week or so.  You won't believe the free stuff people want to send you sometimes when you have a blog.  OK, maybe you will... but I was thinking I would actually get cool stuff... ha!  OK, sometimes I have gotten cool stuff, but this past week I was sent Green Giant veggies in a giant box with dry ice.  They probably didn't need the ice considering the weather... I like veggies... so I guess this is a good thing to get free veggies in the mail.

I made balsamic chicken with brown butter ravioli, and a warm spinach salad for dinner.  Major comfort food... majorly yummy.  I should have taken pictures to post, but I ate it instead.  Oops.  I promise to share the recipe soon, if you promise not to chastise me for not having pictures.

The Superbowl is tomorrow... do you find this a hard eating day... like Thanksgiving, or does it not matter to you?  How do you cope with it?  Me... we are are making mini-mushroom Swiss sliders out of lean beef, and having baked fries.  I did make lemon bars because I really wanted some, but they are only 4 PointsPlus each... I can handle that.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Past Failure does not predict future results.
Read that again:
Past Failure does NOT predict future results.

It’s a pretty simple, yet profound statement isn’t it?  Now tell me… do you believe it?

I really thought I did. Like many of you that are probably reading this, I tried to lose weight many times before this time where I actually succeeded.  The first time I can remember trying I was in ninth grade.  I started going to Weight Watchers with my mom.  Then there was back in the summer/fall of 2005 when I lost 35 pounds, got pregnant, quit Weight Watchers, had a miscarriage, and found myself eating my heart out in grief... and gaining back all that weight plus more before the end of the fall.  Fail.  Fail.

When I started this final weight loss journey back in October 2008, I took no preconceived notions with me.  I didn't even think about those past attempts.  I didn't even consider failure.  I knew I would do this.  I knew I had to do this.  For my sake, for my family's sake, to save my life.  And... late last summer, I reached goal and 6 weeks later lifetime.  I was living proof that past failure does not predict future results.

So yes... I believe it.  I believe it when it comes to weight loss, because I proved to myself it was true.  Lately though, I've found this belief challenged in non-weight loss related ares of my life.  Will past failure predict future results?  This past week, I had convinced myself that yes... it will.  I heard myself actually thinking out loud that if I have failed at something in the past:  relationships, work, exercise, weight loss, etc, etc. I will probably fail again. 

And then... this morning, as I was listening to the radio on my drive in to work, I almost turned the radio station to a different one, but stopped myself, just as I heard the following line, "What happened yesterday has disappeared, the dirt has washed away, and now its clear."  Its from the song Only Grace by Matthew West.

It is what I needed to hear.  It is what I know is true, deep down.  Past failures do not predict future results.  Hands down that is the truth, and a beautiful, hope-filled truth at that!

I bet its what you need to hear today too.  Sure, you've failed in the past... who hasn't?  But this time CAN be different, you have the power to make it different, and even when its something completely out of your control, we have the wonderful truth that future results can be changed.  We can have a future filled with hope.

Ten years ago last month, my dad passed away from cancer.  One of the things I took with me after he did was his Bible.  I admit, I don't open it as much as I probably should, but one day I opened it up a few months after he had left us and found a card with the following, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
- Jeremiah 29:11

I didn't realize it at the time, but that verse would go on to be one of theme's of my life.  Even when I thought that things were failures... they were only paving the way to my new future! 

Past failures do NOT predict future results.  Take it with you on your journey as an absolute truth!