So today was "one of those days"! :/ You know the, have yourself a pitty party kind of day?! ughhh. Those days are no fun...and they come out of no where and you can't control the way you feel! I just felt ugly, fat, and like i couldn't accomplish anything. So i went to my Weight Watchers meeting and decided not to weigh-in (which i ALWAYS do no matter what) because i knew that i gained and i would just be more depressed and mad at myself. But i am so glad i went to the meeting...it kinda got me out of the slump (even though i still didn't feel like being happy and fun with my clients the rest of the day haha) and i got a big hug from my amazing leader :) i KNOW that i can accomplish my goals...it is just going to take hard work and dedication and not just my half butt trying i've been doing lately ;)

So i felt like i needed to start my blog up again. It's going to be kinda boring haha. I am going to post pictures and write what i ate each day with the points + and any good finds i find :) I need something to keep me going and give me that push! So...To read it, or not to read it...that is the question! ;)

Today's menu:

(b) Chocolate pure protein bar [5 p+] it's my go to meal now when i am in a rush, but need to eat something. Surprisingly, they are really good and don't have lots of sugar like many protein bars have.

(l) In-N-Out cheeseburger [13], french fry [11], and 2 diet cokes [0] [24 p+] Yea, like i said, it was one of those days and i just needed this! haha. but i am counting it! :) seeing my niece and nephew and sisters brightened my day up.

(d) 4 oz balsamic glazed chicken breast [6], 1/2 C white rice with chicken broth [3], roasted asparagus [0], 3 pear halfs [0] [9 p+] Thank you marmy for a delicious dinner! i came home from a long day at work with this lovely dinner ready to eat.
Total: 38 p+

I just went over by 1 p+...so i have 48 p+ extras left for the week.

And no exercise for the day :( Tomorrow morning i will get something done!!

5 MILES! ...nbd ;)

This morning we woke up at 6:30 to get ready for our fabulous hike at the "Claremont Wilderness Trail". It's a 5 mile hike with about 3 miles of it up hill. We like it because they post .5 mile markers along the way, the trail is wide and kept up nice, there are lots of friendly people walking by so you feel safe, and the nature/birds chirping are so pretty! We definitely had to stop at several points...but we finished in about 2 hours (and that was even with stopping for about 15 minutes at the look out point and stopping for pictures...hello! gotta take those!) As we were walking up the trail we kept getting multiple groups behind us, because of our slow speed ;). So we just gladly let them pass: 1, because we hate having people behind us and 2, they would have such loud conversations we couldn't hear the pretty background sound of nature. Isn't that the best part of hiking?! Overall it was a great hike and we felt so amazing in the end...with our super sore legs and all!

We are hoping to make this a weekly tradition ((well, atleast while Jonni is home for the summer!))

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment! We also took 2 videos to show our lovely phat chick lovers...but we can't get them to upload! boohoo. So we will post them later if we figure it out :)

Overview of the trail...

Near the end...

at THIS beautiful spot...
the pictures don't do it justice...

look out point...

i'm a strong/powerful lady! haha...

woo hoo! we made it...
at about 1.5 miles...

YELLOW flowers...jonni's fav!...

starting up the hill...we be excited!
Now let us leave you with some inspirational lyrics from Miley! ;) They seem to fit in perfectly with our hiking theme. haha.

"There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb"

I wish i had a creative title :)

...but i don't! and i honestly don't even really have anything to say. BUT i did just happen to go back and look at one of our very first posts with our "before" pictures....and WOW! i feel like i haven't lost very much and changed, but looking at those pictures makes me realize that i have, indeed :) yay...slow and steady does win the race. i can't wait to do another photo shoot with miss J in a few months and compare the 2!

Anyways, i know that we totally neglect this blog...and i am not going to promise that i will start posting faithfully anytime soon :) but a girl can try! i have been trying to make healthier food choices because, heck, i want to win that $300 for our Biggest Loser competition! but it is soooo hard! does anyone have any favorite healthy recipes they would like to share with me?! maybe i will try one of them and take pictures and make a post about it. OH! and i use to always say that i hated fish, but i was brave and gave it another shot and surprisingly i really enjoy it! it has become a staple meal in the clark household.

ok, this is a very scattered post. hope you are all doing well!! maaaaybe you will be lucky and see me back here this week :) but don't hold your breathe (you may just die haha)

ta ta...TAY!

mind over matter

if you were a part of our family at the moment, you would be in a weight loss frenzy. Taylor and I had an amazing idea to do a family biggest loser this year. now, we have tried this many years and we have never actually stuck to it. in fact, if my memory serves me right, we have never even gotten so far as to actually put the money into the winner pot. but this year, the 2 phat chicks were super dedicated!!! at first, it was going to be just me, Taylor, our 2 sisters Ally and Lauren, and our mom. we were each going to put in 20 dollars, which made the winning prize be 80 dollars! that was pretty exciting to me, being a poor college student. but after my mom posted something on my facebook wall, one of my cousins saw and wanted to join...lets just say that 15 people later our prize is now $380!!!!!!!!!!! needless to say, everyone is now super motivated and at least personally the only thing on my mind is how i can lose more weight. we are all very excited and cant wait till the first weigh in, to check out all the competition ;] it is going to last 6 months, with our final weigh in being june 14. while i know its a long time, i have full confidence in everyone, and i know that by the end of this everyone will be very happy with the results!

for me, i want to lose weight so badly, but it has never worked out for me. i have slowly lost some weight as the months pass, but nothing big and barely noticeable. but whenever i really try, i can never seem to stick with it, or never seem to see results. so if i wanted to lose weight this time, i had to look deep inside myself and really ask myself why i never could before, and think of a way to change that. as i was walking to the gym i was having an internal conversation, just like i always do haha, and i was thinking about the end results of the competition and thinking about working out. and i thought to myself, i cant really do this, i will never be able to actually lose weight, ill always be that chubby girl who is not confident and self conscious. it was then that i realized why it has never worked for before, i never truly thought i could lose weight. but something like that is really hard to just change in a second. but i knew the only way i could change it was through the help of my Heavenly Father. when i'm not confident, when i look at myself in the mirror and hate the body i see, He is thinking the exact opposite. He loves me no matter what i look like, and he knows everything i can accomplish if actually try. when i look at my body as something i hate, i'm sure He is disappointed. My body is something divine, and given to me by God and when i don't see it like that, i am not achieving my full potential. i have not been taking care of this wonderful gift i have been given, and i need to change that. so in stead of thinking i could never achieve my goals, i started saying a little prayer. it went something like this "Heavenly Father, please, i need your help. i cant do this by myself, and i feel like i never will be able to. i want to love my body and see it as gift from you. please help me to be grateful for everything i can do, and the things i take for advantage, and please let me see my body as the divine thing it is". when i went to the gym and got on the elliptical machine, i looked down at my legs, and saw the way they moved without effort, and thought of the muscles that pulled them. then i looked at my arms and the way they pushed and pulled through the air. and then i thought of all the amazing things bodies do, the way our hearts pump blood through our body, and lungs breath in and out. i felt my body warm as i worked out, and realized how my body was reacting to the work. and i became instantly grateful for this body that can move and take me places, and think, and function so wonderfully, all without my thought. that night as i can home, i looked in the mirror and i loved what i saw. my body didn't change in one night, and while i still saw how much i have to loose, i looked at the beauty of it and was completely happy with my self. now, there is no doubt in my mind that i can do it, i WILL loose weight. i WILL eat healthy. i WILL exercise and get better. it may be a slow process, but i am ready for it. i will no longer treat this body like crap, and will treat it like the gift it really is.

HAPPY 2011!

so i told yall that i would sumarize my WW meeting topic...so here is what i got out of it :)

the topic was "PointsPlus 2011...A Second Honeymoon!" it was all about how we can be starting over, in a good way! :) and how to set achievable goals this year. my leaders name is JoJo and i absolutely LOVE her! she is by far one of the best leaders i have ever had at WW (remember, this is like my 4th time coming back!) but anyways, she started off with a quote that said, "An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up until midnight to make sure the old year leaves." -American Author Bill Vaughn. I need to be that optimist! :) I am excited for the new year to be here and to make those changes that will last! And i am going to take with me the stuff i have learned from in 2010.

Then she went on to tell us how to set our goals. And here is what a WINNING OUTCOME should look like:

• positive


• specific


• within your control


• a good fit with your life

i like it! :) so for my weight loss new years resolution i am going to say NO SODA (including diet) ! positive, because it will help me be healthier (check) specific (check) within my control, i've done it before for a whole year :) (check) and a good fit for my life (check)

and for my personal i haven't quote decided. i am either going to do 365 Days of Pictures or write in a journal every day. and i think both of those would pass the winning outcome check list :)

I am just excited for the new year! i know i am still not going to be perfect, but it gives me a chance to start fresh and to try and make positive changes in my life :)

the only think i am worried about is tonight new years eve party with the familia and friends :/ i know there is going to be LOTS of yummy food and it is going to be a struggle to try an eat healthy. but for my appetizer i am bringing fruit with a fruit dip and fruit is free on WW. yay for trying to be healthy :) haha. and i am not going to have the mentality i had last year of "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we DIET!" :) haha. i need to change that way of thinking...because "starting tomorrow" on my diet has never worked for me and i need to make the changes TODAY!

anyways, i hope you all have a goal in mind for the NEW YEAR! Let's give ourselves a chalenge and something to work at and accomplish!

and i will leave with the quote i left with at WW.

"The greatest thing you have is the 24 hours in front of you. The past is gone, the future is distant. Today you can succeed! Set a goal you can achieve within the next 24 hours." -Joann Pillifant, WW Leader

*my 24 hours goal is going to be: write everything i put in my mouth down. because then that will help me visualize how much i have ate so i don't overeat at the party*

Dear Bed,

You are so warm and cozy and i, of course, LOVE YOU...but you make it really hard for me to want to get out of bed at 6 in the morning and go the the gym...especially on a rainy, cold day! But i did...just 20 minutes later ;) So thanks for pushing me out.

Love,
Tay Tay

*walked for an hour on the treadmill and accomplished 3.28 miles*

So yesterday wasn't a completely successful day, but it also wasn't a complete failure :) always a plus. One of my goals is to track everything i eat...which has been a real struggle for me. And actually i am suppose to even find the PointsPlus values for Weight Watchers, which i never do. (yea, i act like i don't even know what the program is. hehe) but yesterday i tracked!!! woohoo. didn't figure out the points (and i know for certain i would have gone way over), but i wrote everything down! GO ME! here is what my day looked liked:

(B) orange

(L) leftover turkey soup
12 saltine crackers
salad
croutons
light balsamic vinegarette

(S) 4 pumkin cookies
1 chocolate dipped pretzal
(YIKES!)

(D) 3 chicken roll-up's
scoop cream of chicken
1/2 C white rice w/ some butter

(S) TOO MANY peanut butter M&M's (my downfall)
popcorn with butter and salt
[[me, the marmy and seesters watched "Eat, Pray, Love"...which i actually liked! but involved too many treats]]


So i am proud that i actually tracked. Today, maybe i can track and figure out atleast a few of the points that i ate. i am taking baby steps here :)

oh and on another plus...i lost 1 pound yesterday at my weigh-in! woohoo! i was pretty shocked to see that number since i ate AWFUL that week during Christmas vacay. (i was actually expecting to be depressed again and gain some more) but the previous week aunt flow gave me a visit and i had gained a whopping 3.6 lbs...so i think it balanced out. the topic at WW yesterday was on new years goals and how we are going to make this year different than our previous...so i will do another post on that :)

anywhooooo...time to get ready for work! i will check in later.

It's beginning to look alot like...

NEW YEARS! :) which is that wonderful time of the year to reevaluate our lives and set new goals. We are so pumped and excited to actually achieve our goals this year...and we don't want anyone telling us we can't. this year we are banning CAN'T from our vocabulary! There have been many different things that have forced us to take action and we each have different motivators to help us along. Like Taylor's desire to go on a cruise/find a HOT boyfriend (wink wink) or Jonni's plan to move to Hawaii next year and be seen in a bathing suit...by everyone!

Now, let's just say for the past 3 years we have been "planning" a family Biggest Loser...but it's actually going to happen this year! :) The money is going in to the pot and we are weighing/taking measurements. woot woot...here comes the new and improved skinny clark family!!

So, you will be hearing back from us soon. no more weigh-in's...but just our every day to day life and challenges. be prepared for our wonderful words of wisdom ;)

love you all...