FIRST! I want to know how many of you guys have actually FINISHED the 30 Day Shred. I got it, and I totally didn't finish it. I didn't even come close to finishing it. BUT, I've lost about 40 pounds since I tried it last and I think I might be able to do it this time. I'd love to lose as much weight as possible before my next trip home and I'm thinking that the 30 Day Shred might be a good way to do it. I've got exactly 30 days before I'm leaving to go back to Denver!

So, I'd LOVE to hear from any of you who have done it, and what your experience was. What'd ya lose? Inches? Pounds? Gain muscle definition? Get more energy?

Today Dan and I had dinner with his family and stopped by the studio to get some of our winter clothes out of storage. I found a fabulous pair of brown corduroy pants I haven't worn in years, and I went ahead and grabbed them along with a few other dresses, skirts and shirts. I decided to try on the pants when I got home, and voila! They fit! Now these pants are made with a kind of stretchy material and the front buttons looked a little angry, but dammit, they fit. I made Dan take a picture of me being all goofy happy with the pants on for you all to see! :)

Someone asked what size they are. They're a brand called "Silver Jeans" and say 33/33 on the tag. I used to wear these when I was a size 10 and they were slightly loose on me, but still a comfortable fit. Tonight they're pretty tight, but ya know!

My measurements as of this morning are:

39/31/40



Oh! And yes, that's the green sweater I found at the thrift store, and yes it's one of my favorites now. Best $2.36 I ever spent!

I also got some weight loss compliments from the family and it made my freakin' day. Dan's brother in law (who is gorgeous, and totally a fitness nut) said, "You look great!" It meant a lot to me because I always consider him to be soooooo into fitness, and I felt really slovenly around him. It was always in the back of my head that he'd look at me and think, "tsk, tsk, tsk!" Though he's always sweet and very nice... it just meant a lot. Dan's Mom said, "I told him that you should always tell a woman she looks great and ask if she's losing weight, 'cause even if she's not it'll make her feel good!" I'm not sure that works for everyone, but it made me feel good because I happen to be losing weight.

I was at the bar a few weeks ago with Dan and his friend Dustin.



We were hanging out and Dustin said, "You know you're looking really good Jenn. When I was here last (a year ago) you were looking kind of..." and he made a round gesture with his hands. A girl at the bar with us gasped and said, "Hey! That's not very nice." I'm sure some people could have gotten offended at that, but I took it as a compliment and said, "No, no, I appreciate the honesty." I wonder if I would have appreciated the honesty if he'd said I was looking (round gesture) while I still looked (round gesture.)

Well! Just wanted to give you guys a quicky update. Tomorrow I will be blogging about Thanksgiving and how to deal with the eminent mountains of food!

~Jenn

I'm going to be totally honest and tell you guys that this is a tough, tough, tough one for me. I will put my hand up and admit that I completely am guilty of negative self-talk, body talk and weight talk. I whine and bitch and complain and scrutinize and compare and pinch and wiggle and whine some more. I do NOT love my body enough.

I think most of us don't.


I checked out the kick-ass MizFit's Exposed blog entry a few days ago and saw that it was inspired by my beautiful friend Michelle's awesomegoodness post over at Eating Journey. (go check them both out now, I'll wait...)



Michelle posted that entry with the Exposed Blogger movement info in it quite some time ago and I saw it at that point, and said, "Hmm, this is freaking awesome, but I don't think I'm going to participate," and I hid back under my desk and drank some more Diet Coke. When I looked again I noticed that she linked back to our gorgeous friend Esther and the blog entry she did about the Naked Truth. In that entry, she said she was inspired by me, my honesty and all that stuff.

So round about, I somehow inspired some people and I am lamely not even participating in the movement.

That, my friends? Is bull puckey.

You guys all know by now that I'm not easily embarrassed by much, I struggle to find topics for TMI Thursday because I'm just not that easily humiliated. I post pictures of my butt in old man undies and I show photos of my trying to squeeze into a size 8 pair of jeans unsuccessfully. But what is a real challenge for me (besides working out regularly or saying "no" to the piece of pie I ate today, more on that later,) is taking a candid look at my body and finding things to love about it.

So, it's obvious I've got to do it. I'll first thank these three ladies (MizFit, Michelle, Esther) for being ballsy babes and inspiring me to take a Loving Look at myself for once. ((hugs.))


Without further ado, I give to you, my Body Love.




So. What do you love about YOUR body?


Oh. And yes, to confirm your suspicion, the placement of John Mayer's name was TOTALLY intentional. ;)

~Jenn

Alrighty! So, I can finally blog about this you guys.

Here we go!



We all know that losing weight has some serious advantages. We also know that losing weight makes finding new clothes that fit challenging. I did a blog post on the clothing issue a while back, but the other issue I'm running into now is...

GIANT PANTIES.

It starts slow. The panties start to ride up and try to sneak into my butt. I pull them back into place and move on with my day. Then it just starts to get totally out of control. They fully have NO interest staying where they should stay. They flop around and bag out and pooch over the top of my jeans.

Don't believe me? Good. I have photographic proof. 'Cause I asked Dan to take pictures of my ridiculous ass, and he was laughing SO hard while taking these photos, I can't even explain it to you. He just kept saying, "It looks so funny! What do you have?" And I'd say, "Giant panties" and he would just laugh and blow snot and spit everywhere from guffawing and I'd say, "TAKE the damn pictures already!

/sigh.


If you don't want to see my saggie baggies just turn away now.








And the coup de gras:




Frack. I REALLY need some new skivvies. I mean, seriously. It looks like I have a giant dump of white poo in my drawers.


And this couldn't have come at a better time. Our very favorite Cutefaced, Rum-Lovin' Insatiable Host is starting a really fun project called The Panty Pyramid.

I'm out to get me some new undies, y'all. It's time I took care of myself by losing weight, yes, but also by remembering to do things like... get a pedicure, and pluck my damn eyebrows, and buy pretty underthings that fit me.

That goes for you all, too.

~J

If you don't want a Biggest Loser spoiler for this week, then turn away now.

Last season I was totally inspired by Tara. She was super athletic, won tons of challenges, and was never in the bottom two. She kicked super ass. As a reminder, here is the lovely Tara's before and afters:




But this year, Rebecca is my inspiration. She's my height, 5'6. (Well, I've got 1/2 an inch on her, but it's basically the same.)

Starting weight: 257 pounds.



Current weight: 157 pounds.




She looks like a movie star now! I can't believe her body. It's AMAZING.

Yes, she cried a lot. Yes, she said "I don't want to just be a pretty face" a lot. Yes, she bugged me sometimes during the show. But when I saw her on Leno tonight, I cried. She ran the half marathon and I cried. She's in love with Daniel, and I cried. I freaking love her.

And here's the thing. I have my ultimate goal weight set at 140. That would mean that I'd be weighing 17 pounds less than she does in the after photos up there. That seems like it's a little unnecessary. I'm taking a second to really think about why I chose that number. It just seemed like a good number, I guess. Is it about a size? Is it about having skinny legs? Is it about becoming some magical number I think is acceptable at 5'6.5"? I don't know.

I do think she looks so good because of her being SO toned. We all know that a pound of muscle is smaller than a pound of fat, so she could be 157 and fitting into a size six, where I could be 157 and fit into a size 10. That might be why I want the 140 number, since I could conceivably lazily diet into that size instead of work my ass off to become a 157-pound size six. But... at this point I'm going to just take it a little easier on myself and go by the feel of things.

And now that I think about it, it amazes me that I'm only 21 pounds away from 157. Holy crap. And it shames me a bit that my arms will look NOTHING like hers. I feel like doing push ups. Lots of them.

The funny thing is that the BMI scale says that for a female weighing 157 pounds at 5'6" is a BMI of 25.3, and means they would still "overweight." Take it from the example of Rebecca that the BMI scale should NOT be your only way of measuring success or health.

Does she look overweight to any of you???

~J

It's true.




Click here to watch/join/enter with the Bloggerhood of the Traveling Not So Fat Pants! We're giving away a size 18 pair of jeans. The idea is, if you're a size 18, enter. Then you get the jeans. Then you use them as motivation to get too skinny for the jeans. Then, after two months, you pass 'em along to someone else, and hopefully they're baggy on you.

Also, don't forget about the awesome LA Boxing giveaway, you only have two more days left to enter! :)
~J

Hello lovelies! I have a very special surprise for you. I got an e-mail from Kelly at LA Boxing offering me one month of classes and gym access at an LA Boxing center, and asking me to review it on my website. I was beyond stoked, but come to find out there are NO LA Boxing centers in Milwaukee! :(



SO... I'm passing the opportunity along to you guys! If any of you would like one month of free classes and gym access to this kick-ass place, please enter the contest! Please check HERE to make sure there's an LA Boxing in your area before entering. Also PLEASE keep in mind: This prize is for one month of classes and gym access at LA Boxing. Should you win, you will need to write about the experience and send your write-up to me so I can put it on my blog.

I'm choosing a winner on Wednesday!



~Jenn

Well, today I did a bit of a shoot with Dan's sister, husband and their gorgeous, gorgeous little girl. :)

Click HERE to see the photos!



~Jenn