Quick Update

I'm hovering between 146 and 151 depending on the day. Wearing a size small or 8.

Wish I knew how to make the progress show at the top of the blog. Here's my progress:

I am a 27 year old mom of 3, well as of June I'm 28:

Date Weight Body Fat
June 1 185 41.2%
June 5 181 41.8%
June 7 178.8
June 8 177.8 40.9%
June 9 179.2 40.9%
June 11 178.8 40.7%
June 12 177.2 41%
June 13 176.8
June 14 175.4
June 15 175.4 40.7%
I went back up to 177.something and hovered there until Sunday June 24
June 27 173.0 (Time 9:01am) (:
June 28 173.0 (6am)
June 29 171.8 8am
June 30 169.4 (8am) 40.7% Woo hoo!!!!
July 4th 169.0
July 18 167.something
July 24 166.6 5:30am 39.something bodyfat

August 2 162.4 35.8% body fat night time (night time body fat % is lower; weight on scale is higher)

August 3 3am morning 160.2
August 3 7am 160.0

August 16h 8pm 158.6 33.something body fat

September 9 10:52pm 160lbs 34.something % body fat

(I did the Atkins diet for a few weeks to jump start my weight loss, again, then I went back to high fiber, low cal and lost some more. I'm currently plateaued, but that is due to business travel and having my period. I'm a little concerned about Thanksgivng tomorrow, but will probably do the Master Cleanse a few days after Thanksgivng when the leftovers are gone)

November 21 8:26am 149.0 34.0% bodyfat

Sept. 29 Happiness is...

Why do I have a problem being happy? Dr. Laura might say it's because I was raised in turmoil, strife and conflict and it is a learned pattern that no one is happy in my family, so perhaps I feel deep down inside that I don't deserve it. I realized about a year ago that I have drama queen tendencies, in other words, sometimes, I create problems where there weren't any, because, I feel I don't deserve to be happy and content. What's the difference between content and complacent? I am a survivor, a goal setter and achievement-oriented. But sometimes, you just have to step back and say "life is good" and let the rest of the drama go.

And what does this have to do with weight loss? you ask. Since I have plateaued at 160 from an original weight of 185 it has been hard for me on a daily basis to appreciate my accomplishment. I see this pattern of thinking reflected in other areas of my life as well. I achieve something really nice that is pretty much what I wanted or more than I thought I wanted, and then I make myself set a new goal, rather than enjoy and appreciate where I am at that moment, which if I stand back and look at the situation is a good place. My neighbor just told me he can tell I've lost the weight and that I seem to glow. I know the things he said are true, but why can't I be happy with that inside if me. But I did need to hear that. I've been feeling down this week about some other things. Oh, the need for approval some of us have.

So, my commitment is to exercise 4-7 times per week for an hour 30 minutes high heart rate / cardio; and 30 minutes aerobic for fat burning. I don't see how after a year of that I could be overweight anymore.
One online calculator http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm said that I burn approx 400 calories per hour (I walk/jog about 4.5 miles in 1 hr)
another chart said Running: 5 mph (12 min/mile) 581.8 calories
Walk: 4.5 mph (13 min/mi) 458.1

And since my current activity level is active (it used to be sedentary or moderate) I need X number of calories to maintain my current weight. I keep thinking there has got be a way to eat and lose weight and have fun. But salt is evil. You retain water weight / pounds for a few days.

Calories Req'd
Heavy Exercise
2,531 cal = 160lbs 2308 calories = 130 lbs

Moderate Exercise
2,233 calories = 160 lbs 2008 calories = 130 lbs

When I'm all done losing weight, in case I don't want to exercise,
little to no exercise
1697-1765 calories = 130 lbs

so... I'll try to do 2000 calories per day right now. 1765 is kind of low for me right now.

Assume right now caloric intake = 2,382

Go down to 2000 = 382/day deficit = 2,674 / week = .75 lb per week. Which will take up to 40 weeks. Maybe I'm OK with a long term goal since I kind of like where I am right now, anyway.

Let me tell you about the ways this busy mom fit an hour of exercise into my life this week:
I haven't felt like going to the gym. But I did want to run. My husband started a new job with a new schedule on Monday, so after I helped make him and the kids lunches and after he left for work, I took my run all by myself at about 6:40am. I was back on time to take my kids to school. I did my full hour. I ran into my child's teacher from last school year and she called me "skinny lady". I loved that. It makes me glad when people can see it, since I can't always see the weight loss.

Tuesday I ran with my baby in his jogger stroller.

Wednesday I took my kids to school and had to be back at their school within 45 minutes (it's almost 30 minutes driving from home to school) because one of them was getting an award, so I parked my car at the school and ran around the neighborhood near their school. Then in the evening I left for my child's sports practice 35 minutes early and ran/walked with my kids by my side before the practice.

Nothing Thursday

Friday, (today) I felt like riding my bike so I did with my baby on the back. We did the full hour. I have no idea how many miles but probably 7-10 miles.

Each of my work outs is 1/2 high intensity and 1/2 aerobic, not so hard.

After being preservative and refined sugar and artificial flavor free for the most part for so long, I get sick when I eat these things. Splenda gives me headaches, white sugar makes me feel ill, processed wheat bread is addictive just like potatoes used to be, so I'll stick to whole wheat, which is also good, but is good for you, too.

maintenance 9.13.07

I should be glad I'm maintaining, and I am. But I still want to lose weight. I have begun doing cardio 4-6 days per week and strength training most days. As a result, I am hungrier. I have been thinking about what to do about the hunger. What
I really want is to do some research on nutritional needs while strength training. Interestingly, I haven't found that info on the Internet. I'd like to know how much protein I need, so I can tell the difference between my body needing protein and my simply craving it. I also really want to learn about how much exercise a body needs. It really helped me to lose weight when I found out how many calories it takes to create / lose 1 lb. I also learned how many calories you can lose through exercise and all the details of how many calories are in various foods. I want to know the same things about exercise. I really did not find any good books about this at borders. I am thinking about taking some classes on personal training. Since I don't feel that my free personal trainer at the gym is helpful in these areas.

I think that if I do the following:
focus on drinking more water to quench hunger cravings,
snack on veggies and protein and maybe fruit
control portion sizes
add healthy fat to my diet
keep lean proteins available

I should be back on track to losing. But I really want to cut my calories back but don't know how far to do so while strenght training.

At the gym, I don't enjoy strength training. I feel self conscous. Plus, I like to have lots of options for how I maintain my healthy lifestyle-stuff I can do at home as well as at the gym, so I don't want my stenght training routine to be dependent upon the gym.

I know I still need to lose about 30 lbs to get to what the Dr calls healthy. I really want to get htese. I guess the question is, how bad do I want to get there?

If I knew what I was supposed to eat I would make myself do it. That kind of thing really helped me to say no before. Just knowing I did not physically need 2 slices of bread at each meal helped me to not eat it. I really want to know how much excercize I need-cardio, aerobic and strength. It is the type A / control freak / OCD / ADD part of my personality. I need to know why.

August 22, 2007

For dinner, yesterday, I had some delicious zucchini and squash with onions and parmesean cheese and chicken. I probably only had 1 serving of chicken, but due to the oil in the food, and the cheese, it was not the lowest calorie meal in the world.

The scale said I gained some weight, but I'm hoping it is due to increased mucscle mass. All I know is I have been hungry, but am trying to eat healthy, even if I am hungry.

Today:

7:30am

75-100 steel cut oats-1/2 to 3/4 serving
30 organic grade B maple syrup
15 butter

bottle water

I said "No!" to Starbucks, too. Are you proud of me? And I resisted the temptation to eat crakcers in my fiends car.

11

80 1 1/2-2 oz chicken
9 few pieces of zucchini with onions
80 oil
20 parmesean cheese


11:30

homemade stirfry
55-65 -brown rice - 1/4 - 1/3 cup
60 2 servings veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)
30 ginger and oil homemade sauce

454-494

I do feel full, but want to make sure I'm full since we're headed out to the mall and there is a lot of temptation there.

The goal will be to eat a low calorie snack and a healthy dinner.

Tuesday, August 21

After and Before:




Hmmm...I'm not sure if the difference is evident, but the difference is there or should I say, less of me is here, now.

I would like to report on my successes. I am down to 156.6 and wearing a size 10 at most stores. This equates to a size small or medium in women's or a size medium to large in juniors. I can hardly believe that I wear a junior size anything... I bought a pair of junior size 11 skinny jeans. It is really unbelievable to me. My bra size went from a 36DD bra down from 38DD. I wonder if a size 36D would fit... I notice more flab on my body and don't like that, so I'm trying to strength train. My areas of focus are legs, arms and stomach.

Best of all, I can wear a size 10 at most stores. At some stores this is a 12 and some stores this is an 8. My goal was only to be a size 8. So, I am almost there. I am just a pound or 2 past the halfway point. So, I've come a long way and also have quite a bit in front of me. But, this is such an accomplishment. It has been so long since I was a size 10. Probably about 7-8 years. For a former fat girl, I feel skinny. High heels are more comfy. My feet may have shrunk, too. I finally bought some new clothes. Just a few items, though. I don't want a closet full of clothes of all sizes, I'd like to get rid of all of my big clothes.

I have had a serious case of the munchies...aughhh! I have chalked it up to the strength training increasing my metabolism and have given in to the repeated cravings in moderation. Usually, what I like to do is determine why I'm having a craving and do something else to satisfy it. For example, if I really want chocolate milk, I may need fat or be having a sweet tooth. For a sweet tooth craving, prunes will usually kill the craving. For a cream/fat craving, it means my diet has been too low fat. But I have had chocolate cravings, mocha cravings and coffee cravings for about a week and they won't go away. I don't know what to do.

Today I ate:
*110 cal 2-3 bottles of cocoa bean flavored diet mix. It is called Right Size, and tastes very good to me. It has fiber and protein. I use less mix than the directions call for.
* free 1 bottle water
*275 Some espresso filled chocolates from Trader Joes
(Yesterday I drank chocolate slim fast)
*485 I also ate a quesadilla with at least 2 servings of cheese approx 300 on a flour tortilla 130 with refried beans 55
*150 2 boiled eggs today. I was freaking hungry...WTF?!
*I also had a sip or 2 of some diet pepsi-whew! yesterday I drank about 1/2 bottle of diet pepsi that made me feel ill...like I used to feel all of the time. And it was not due to the caffeine alone, since I drink black coffee nd drink green tea and sometimes drink low cal energy drinks and take diet meds with caffeine on occassion. It must be the chemicals in the soda. ewww.
*80 appetite curbing drink with hoodia, blueberry juice, etc.
*200 Today I also ate some broccoli, cahsew and mushroom sauce in a frozen bag at Trader Joes and ate about 1/2 or 3/4 bag of that, it was slammin!

1300 total

That is a lot of calories and I haven't had dinner yet. Maybe I'll skip it or have veggies only. Thiis what happens when you don't plan your meals or track what you eat. And I may have had more cheese than is reported. I didn't measure.

On the bright side, I only ate 1300-1600 calories and that is right around my goal weight maintainance. I will try to log in and record my food intake tomorrow, too, so I can at least stay on track for maintenance. It's a good thing hat on a fucked up day I still didn;t go crazy. This is the thing about weight loss, keeping up good healthy eating habits even when life is crazy.

Also on the bright side, I did a few hundred cruchies and reduced my work obligations.

Some ideas for tomorrow:
Drink water! Lots of it before every meal. and between each meal.
Eat a small breakfast even if I'm not hungry. With all food groups.
Don't eat the chocolates. They dodn;t give me much energy and took a lot to curb my chocolate craving.
Eat all veggies for lunch. Not quesadillas or eggs. If I'm really wanting quesadilla and eggs, eat whites only or just 1 yolk or a mostly veggie or mostly bean quesadilla with veggies and just a sprinkling of chese on 1/2 tortilla.

Did I tell you I have been tired? Really tired like I don't know what to do. Shoot. And cranky/grumpy. I wonder if I should do the master cleanse again? I quit on day 6 last time. Lately, I have been wanting to feel full. What is that about?!

I will try to see if taking better care of myself will help me to take care of my health. I should go to bed early. I will try to.

August 4th Saturday Master Cleanse

Well, it is Saturday at 6:19am. I've been up since 4:30am and have completed some work assignments and washed and folded 1 1/2 loads laundry. Since being on the MC (this is my 6th day), I've been going to bed a little earlier-more like 9 something instead of 10 something in bed, and have had energy to do a few loads of laundry each day. I wake up every day at 4:30, which not coincidentally, I've been trying to do since earlier this year, My son started soccer this week, so I have committed to walk him to practice each day-it's only 10 minutes each way. I also will do a few laps around the park. I need to figure out how to make exercise part of my life, rather than make time to exercise. Doing more household chores is 1 way I have been doing this.

I have not had a problem with being hungry bored or wanting to chew while on MC. The only hard part has been behavior associations I have with food. For example: Friday at my friends home, she was getting ready to get some already cooked fried chicken from the store. That gave me a craving/taste for fried chicken. But, I did manage to cook popcorn with butter for my kids without eating it, so victory. As of yesterday, I weighed 160.2lbs and my fat was down to around 35 or 36%. (from over 42% fat and 181lbs June 5)

I have been having desires to cook vegetarian meals for my family. I know I can't eat them, but I want to blend herbs. When I get done with MC, I could see myself going salt free. I have no craving taste for salt, but I still sometimes crave breads-corn bread and white bread and biscuits. Stuff I don't even normally eat.

I really want to stay on MC until I reach my target weight of 130. As Eric Carle would write: "Can I do it? Yes I can!" My mini goal is at least 10 days and then do detox.

It will be nice to lose weight over weekend for once. It has been so difficult to keep up healthy habits over the weekends.

I've been giving a lot of thought to maintenance and lifestyle. I never want to backslide. Some people lose weight and become slender and then gain it back. I don't want that to happen, so I've been thinking about how do skinny people live? I've been thinking about what happens when life becomes hectic, because stresses do happen change happens and I really want to keep up this things I do when that happens. But how will I? Can I simply never allow myself to not make time for my own health? Is that too broad of a goal? Is it impossible to control the world like that or am I simply saying I will not allow myself to be controlled by the world. What will I do?

Maybe it's just about commitment to continue healthy living: Here's what I have been doing and what I will have to continue to do:

-measuring my food portions
-making sure that the bulk of my meals is vegetable based
-making lower calorie food choices
-not eating after 7pm
-Not eating with family when we are out to eat or visiting and they only have unhealthy foods. I have not been successful with this one. I've got to substitute an activity for the food, like taking a walk or drinking water or eating a different vegetarian dish, because seriously, even the vegetable dishes at restaurants and at families house have so much fat added that I have gained weight from them. Do I pack a snack/pack a meal? I don't want to appear rude. I will have to limit myself to only eating the unprocessed whole versions of foods. Ex: corn on the cob or salad or picking the skin or batter off my chicken. I hope my 130lb body will motivate me to do these kinds of things and I pray I won't be viewed as rude by my family.
-I can probably commit to light excercize 3 times per week for 15-30 minutes max excercize-but that doesn't allow you to eat much more food. I do love the way I feel-way more energetic and i feel like doing chores and things it is amazing. Maybe that will motivate me. If I can remember how I used to have no energy and now I have so much more.

I've determined I will exercise harder for 30mins - 1 hour on the holidays in order to deal with that. But it seems like in my extended family, we have a holiday whenever we get together. It's funny, I used to consider it great to eat all the time with family that can cook such great foods, but now it just scares me. It;s also funny that I have realized that I feel more comfortable around family who know and verbally support me in my weight loss. But some people have said nothing. Like they don't see it. I wonder if they are jealous or upset or really haven't noticed. I've lost 20-25lbs and have gone from a size14-16 to 10-12. Maybe they haven't noticed. Maybe I'm paranoid.

Or maybe this is all too much to do long term, and I need to keep it simple like:

• exercise 35 mins -1 hour 4+ days per week.
• skip 1 meal per day or replace it with a low calorie diet shake or yogurt or an apple or a bowl of cereal.
• Continue to drink water before each meal
• when with family or out to eat, drink 2 waters before each meal and 1 glass between each plate/serving
• Try to start eating 15-20 mins after them
• Get control of the weekends so I can eat somewhat normally during the week.
• or substitute meals on the weekends
• understand that weekend and family time do not mean eat crazy bad food. There are other ways to bond and have fun.
• Just say no to comfort foods for no reason. Only in strict moderation, and since many comfort foods are addictive to me, just say no.
• Stay busy doing other things. my life shouldn't revolve around eating.
• Tend my garden-this burns calories and is a distraction
• Clean my house
• Take a walk with my baby or son or the others in my home.

Weight Loss Progress 2nd third

I am a 28 years old married Work at Home mom to 3 children

My Weight Loss Progress:
164.6 lbs 38.7% Body Fat July 28 2007 6:30am