Throwback Thursday to Drew and I's wedding five years ago. Oh how our lives have changed but I know that we still love eachother and The Lord more than ever.

Starting in January I knew that I had 6 months to lose weight for my sister's wedding.  The next month would come and I would have 5 months, and 4 months left... I kept asking myself when am I going to get motivated???  Well, about a month ago my friend at work introduced me to this game called diet bet.  A game/competition and I get to lose weight? I said where do I sign up?  Diet Bet is a game you can play with friends or strangers.  I chose to start my own game and charge $20 to buy in.  I posted it on Facebook and ended up having  nine people sign up, this made the pot become $180.  The game goes like this; you put in $20 and if you lose 4% of your body weight in four weeks you will get to split the pot with anyone else who also reaches the 4%.  Well...I made it and split the pot with four other people.  I ended up making $14 when you take out the $20 I put in.  Here are my stats from the game.  Remember this was over a four week period (28 days total)

So you ask how?

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In the first week I lost two pounds just by drinking 90 plus ounces of water a day.  I used a Smart Water bottle, because it can hold almost 34 ounces, this way I did not have to keep filling it up, and I only had to drink three a day.  I felt that was an easier task than eleven eight ounce glasses per day.

It helps that I got a Fitbit for Mother's day.  I was able to track my steps and link this to MyFitness Pal.  If you do not already have this app and you are trying to lose any amount or maintain your weight I strongly suggest it!  When I started I put in my starting weight, what I wanted to weigh, and by when.  It told me how many calories I could have per day and it adjusted the calories when I synced it to my Fitbit.  I did not realize how many calories I was consuming before I started tracking.  Simply doing this helped me to see how unhealthy I was.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

I found easy, clean recipes that my family would enjoy.  I have heard the statistic that losing weight is 70% what you eat and 30% working out.  Here you can find my Healthy Aldi Meal planner. I did give myself a few cheat meals along the way and I tried not to deprive myself of something I really wanted, but that was only once a week.  I used these Healthy Treats to get my sweet tooth fix.

Ok, so the least exciting part of the diet was the workout.  I did get the T-25 videos from a friend.  This is a shortened workout made by Sean T who also did the Insanity videos.  It took 25 minutes a day and I would do this at night when my little one went to bed.  In the morning I would run on the treadmill or outside for 20 minutes.  Here are two workouts that I alternated.  I worked out for a total of 45 minutes per day for five days a week.  On Saturday i would only do 20-25 minutes and Sunday was usually my day off.

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In summer school this year I was not in my classroom, so I needed something that I could utilize and keep track of without having many resources.  I decided to do classroom money.

Money I used:  FREE on teacher pays teacher

Classroom Money Template

Ways to earn money:
1. Completing the assignment in class.
2. Being the only student on task.
3. Winning class games/trivia
4. Where ever I saw fit recognizing good deeds, showing good sportsmanship, etc...

Ways to spend money:

Lately I have been on this health kick.  Trying to lose weight for my sister's wedding and participating in diet bet.  Here are few of my favorite healthy treats recipes' I have found online.  I found these are good meal replacements and healthy options.  Not too much sugar.  Remember everything in moderation and just because it is a healthier option than Dairy Queen you cannot have an endless amount.

Chunky monkey

Granola Bars

Bananna chocolate bites

Cookie dough yogurt

Greek Yogurt

Aldi Smoothie