Quilting helps you lose weight???

I'm really excited to have a guest blogger today for

"ON MY WEIGH"

She is such a fun, great gal!  I met her a few months ago during

Modern Quilt Group at one of our local quilt stores.  When

she came and sat by me...I could feel her HAPPY energy as she

gave me a big friendly smile!   You can visit her in blog land HERE

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I was so honored to be asked by Annie to be her guest blogger today.  She asked me to share a bit of my story.  So here goes ;)

Six years ago, this past Christmas, I found myself with 6 children, one of them a brand new baby, and 80 lbs overweight.

Not sure when this was taken.  I guess about 2003 :(

 I was miserable and disgusted with my weight.  I had been overweight my entire married life and just HAD to change.  I set some goals for myself right there as I laid in bed feeding my beautiful new son.  I told myself that I would lose all of the weight and get in serious shape.  I decided that the year I turned 37 I would run my first 5k.  The year I turned 38 I would run a 10k.  For the year I turned 39, I would run a ½ marathon and for the big 40, I would run a marathon.

Me at the finish of the Utah Valley Marathon 2009

I knew that I would need some “professional” help with these goals, and after talking to my sister in law (one of my best friends since I was 13), I joined Weight Watchers with her.  She was a lifetime member and also had just had a baby too.  To make a very long story short, I did really well with Weight Watchers and accomplished all of my running goals!  YEAH ME!! ;D  I even became a leader for Weight Watchers for 4 years.

At my goal weight, Christmas 2008

So lets get to the good stuff.... the part of the story where we find the big conflict that shakes everything up ;)  In the summer of 2010 my sweet hubby was seriously injured when he fell from our roof.  His accident was not only physically traumatic for him, but it was really hard on our family.  A few months after his accident, I was hit by a car while out on my morning run.  Aside from the obvious problems that come along with being hit by a car ;), one of the HUGE issues for me is that running was my stress reliever.  I eat when I am stressed and without running, my stress shot up through the roof and so did the eating :(
The truth about weight is that if you consume too many calories, you gain weight.  Your net caloric intake must be lower than your calorie expenditure to lose weight.  It’s pretty simple.  Eat less, move more, lose weight.  Now as simple as the science is, we all know that it is WAY more complicated to apply it and get the results we want ;)

So fast forward to this past Christmas 2011, when we find out that my sweet hubbs has to have surgery again :(  We are getting closer to the day... just a few weeks away and my mom calls after a trip to Broadbents in Lehi, Utah.  Broadbents is a WONDERFUL fabric store... they have other things too, but I never get past the fabric ;D  Well, she wants to take a quilting class and wants to know if I’d like to take it with her.  I say yes, and she heads to Seattle for a month.  Now, I had made a few patchwork quilts here and there, I had even attempted to make a baby quilt for each of my children when they were born, but I had never done anything like “REAL” quilting.  Let’s just say, I dove into the deep end, head first!  I started my first quilt on Wednesday the 18th of January and had it quilted and bound by the following monday.  I am getting ready to quilt #15..or is it 16 today and #17 is topped and ready to be quilted as well ;)  You can see them all HERE.

So, you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with dieting or managing food?”  Well, when I had originally lost all of my weight (87#’s total), I found that if I had a hobby, I managed eating much better.

 I am really good at letting “eating” be my favorite hobby :(  I put 2+2 together and realized that quilting would be a perfect way to distract myself from the stress of my hubbies upcoming surgery and our 6 week house arrest ;D  ….and to avoid gaining the weight I gained the last time he had this surgery ;D... and after the car accident :p
Currently, I am up 25#'s from my low :(  I am back in physical therapy, exercising most days of the week and TRYING desperately to manage my food intake.  One of the biggest tricks to managing weight is understanding why I eat and finding ways to manage those situations!  There are SO many reasons to eat ;D

Here are my favorite weight loss tips:
     #1  "You CANT eat it if your don't HAVE IT!"   This goes for the good as well as the bad.  You can't eat an apple if you don't have one ;)  You also cannot conjure Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, no matter how hard you try! (Take my word for this, I have tried and TRIED!)
    #2 Love it or HATE it, you have to exercise ...or be REALLY active.  It's just true, I'm sorry :(
    #3 None of us have been forced fed in a LONG time, like since we were 18 months old, so if we ate it, we fed it to ourselves.  We only have control of a few things in our lives, and pretty much, what goes into our mouths is one of those things :(  I try really hard to tell myself that this is not true, but it is.

Oh, there are so many more things I could share, but this blog post is already 4 miles long.  Here is my current picture at my current weight.

Christmas Eve 2011

I am SO happy to have found quilting.  It is an AMAZING creative outlet and really does help me to redirect my energies away from the kitchen into AMAZING fabric.
Thank you SO much, Annie for letting me share my WAY too long story :) xoxo to you all!!
-Marion

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~~  Recipe  ~~

(makes 7 servings / 103 calories ea)

1 can (20oz) pineapple chunks

1 can (11-15 oz) mandarin Oranges, drained

1 Large banana sliced

1 kiwi fruit, peeled, halved and sliced

1 cup frozen strawberries, sliced and partially thawed

1/4 teaspoon grated lime peel (optional)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon honey

Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup of juice

Combine pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, banana,

      kiwi and strawberries in a large bowl.

Stir together reserved pineapple juice, lime peel,

      lime juice and honey in small bowl. 

Pour over salad and toss to coat.

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 ~~~ Ruby's Report ~~~

Treadmill - 6 days...one cut short of 2 miles and several at 3 miles

Food - I was quite good with food choices this week

Weight(loss?) - down .8 this week.  (I have 16 more pounds to go!)

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Yep!  I'm lookin - atchoo... =P  and BEEyun quite NOSE-eee...

How didja do this week with YUR goals???  Did you set a

goal last week?  Iffin so,

(if you left a goal-comment on last week's post)

 please...furSHORE leave a comment

so ya can be entered into the drawing!!!

(Entries will end next Tuesday April 24th midnight MT)

It's still a surprise what you will win!  But, I'm sure

it will maka YOUZ happy!!

If you didn't set a goal last week....howz about setting one

today for next week???  =D