In and then Out for the Holiday

Luck appears to be on my side as I haven't gained any weight in two weeks.  Of course, I haven't lost any either.  I suppose one could interpret that as luck being against me, but I prefer to look at the glass half full.  Besides, my eating habits haven't exactly been stellar lately.  There is too much good stuff tempting me. 

However, today I age a year.  I'm glad to be around for it, but one thought tumbling around in my mind is that I'm still fat.  Yep, sorry to put it out there like that.  But I've felt for some time that I could be at a healthier weight if I would just try.  I just haven't had the motivation to try.  But I really, really want this to be MY year to make that change.  So, when I come back after the new year, it is my goal to be a lot more disciplined.

Wish me luck. 

Hope you all enjoy your holiday, if you get one.

Surviving Thanksgiving & Weighing In

I survived Thanksgiving.  I didn't conquer it.  As you may know from reading my posts to date, I'm only half-assing this whole diet thing at the moment.  I'm taking baby steps.  I want this to be a life-style change, not just a diet, and I am very self aware when it comes to my will power.  I have nearly none.  So, for Thanksgiving I ate.  I had truck loads of people at my house and we had a potluck feast of oh-so-tempting goodies. 

Despite my best laid plans to increase activity during the long weekend, immediately following our feast, I fell ill.  I'm still not at 100% as far as feeling well goes, but I now weight 196.6.  Yep, that's more than I when I started blogging.  I've gotta admit, though, that I feel very little remorse.  I'm just not wired that way.  It's done.  I ate delicious holiday goodies and failed the weight loss battle.  But, it was, after all, only one battle.  I will win the war!  (In the interest of full disclosure, I probably won't win the war during December.  I have two birthdays to celebrate in additions to The Birthday on 12/25.  Chances are, I'll eat then, too.)

Weighing In

So my scales read 195.6 this morning.  I can't say that I'm terribly excited at the half a pound a week rate at which I'm losing, but at least I'm losing.  I'll take it!  I have to keep reminding myself that I'm really not trying too hard yet.  I have yet to make 5 days of exercise a week.  But I have ended my love affair with Dr. Pepper.  Oh, sure, I'll always be a little weak in the knees for his 23 flavors, but I'm done.  I'll never go back.

I purchased two magazines last week.  Both had cover stories about losing between 25 and 30 pounds by Christmas.  I don't know why I fall victim to the lure of quick weight loss, but I do, almost every time.  Both diets were relatively reasonable, but so far I've withstood the temptation of jumping on either bandwagon.  However, the very fact that I purchased the magazines got me to thinking.  All of a sudden I wondered how much I've spent in the interest of weight loss.

I looked back over what I could remember of the various efforts exerted over the last decade.  I know that I don't recollect them all.  I've done everything from the cabbage soup diet to Atkins and from Weight Watchers to Metabolic Research Center.  Of what I could remember, the total cost exceeded $1600.  That doesn't include any magazines I'd ever purchased for the sole purpose of getting a look at the diet advertised on the cover. 

Depending on what "ideal" weight I try to reach, I've already spent between $25 and more than $30 per pound on what I need to lose.  Keep in mind, too, that there are plenty of options (more expensive than any I've tried so far) that I haven't tried for losing weight, but seriously considered.  The fact is that anything I do from this point forward just makes that $ per pound figure grow. 

The sad thing is that nothing I've tried has had permanent success, at least not for me.  Whoever pocketed those $$ may have considered themselves successful.  But I've still got the weight to lose.

Day 8 - Weigh In

My post will be short today. The first thing that I want to share is that I weighed 196.2 this morning. That is exactly what I weighed last Monday. I’m content with that since my only change was to end my relationship with Dr. Pepper. If you read my posts last week, you knew that there were a few times I hopped on the scale last week and my weight actually went up. I received great advice last week, though, to only fret about the scale on the one day of the week I actually assigned as weigh-in day. The numbers don’t lie, that was excellent advice.


So, my goal this week is 30 minutes on the tread mill for five days. I already did one day yesterday.

My food for the weekend was pretty normal for me. Saturday was toast and oatmeal, a BLT and potato salad for lunch and ice cream for dinner. Yes, ice cream. Not very nutritious, I know. Sunday, I had shredded wheat cereal for breakfast, cheese and a tortilla for lunch, a small dish of ice cream for snack and a new dish I tried for dinner that was essentially chicken, carrots, and onions on egg noodles. I wake up later on the weekends, so I don’t usually snack. During the week, though, I’m up early and to bed late and snacks are essential. I have a tendency to snack all day at my desk, especially if I am bored or stressed. That habit doesn't work so hot with weight loss efforts. So, I’m going to try to go ahead and start getting my eating plan a little more structured. It is one of my goals later down the line anyway, might as well try for a head start. No pressure, though.

Day 5 - Checking In

To be honest, Day 4 sucked and today ain't looking too hot either.  Yesterday was incredibly crappy and frustrating day in the office.  So while I made it through the day with no Dr. Pepper, and my meals were even kinda decent, I had Pizza for supper.  Cheese pizza and a cupcake with buttercream frosting (had to make 'em for the kiddo to take to school).  Of course this week, my only goal is to cut out the Dr. Pepper.  But when I got on the scale this morning (and I'm not supposed to do that again until Monday), I weighed more than I did 3 days ago!  I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything.  But, it was incredibly deflating and did nothing for the headache I woke up with.

So, here is what I ate yesterday:
IHOP for brunch (hubby had an appt. w/the cardiologist and we were celebrating that the heart is okay...)
- two eggs over easy
- hashbrowns
- 1 pancake
- two pieces of bacon
Peanut butter & jelly sandwich
Peanut butter crackers
Two pieces of cheese pizza
cupcake

Oh, yes...I can see that my diet need MUCH improvement.  That'll come later.  I broke down and had a diet Dr. Pepper today to try to get rid of a headache after 8 advil.  At least it was diet.

See you tomorrow!

Day 3 - Checking In

So far I’m doing okay on my week #1 goal to give up my Dr. Pepper dependency. But, I’ve gotta admit, I’m really kinda craving one as I type this.

I thought today would be a good day give you, my dear reader, a little background on what brought me here. In my mind, I’ve always been overweight. I’m not sure that technically my weight has always measured clinically obese, but I’ve always felt larger than my peer groups. I can remember this feeling from back in junior high when I first noticed that my thighs rubbed when I walked and not everyone else’s did.

I can recall trying a couple of diets while in high school.  But, I can’t say that I really got interested in concerted efforts at dropping pounds until after I had children. Since that time I’ve tried weight loss drugs including phentermine and meridia. The thing about phentermine was that if I lost ten pounds the month I was on it, I’d gain back 18 when I went off of it. It was a very self-defeating experience.

I’ve also tried Metabolic Research Center, Weight Watchers, LA Weightloss and various fad diets like Atkins, the Cabbage Soup Diet, etc. Some worked for a little while. None resulted in significant or permanent weight loss. I should throw in the mix that along with all these diet attempts were sporadic attempts at exercising.

Along the way, I probably dropped a fortune in diet books and those womens’ magazines that have a new diet in them every month. But, I also spent some of that fortune on health oriented magazines like Prevention, Shape, Self and Fitness. I recognize the advice in these magazines to be mostly sound, but it still seemed geared, for the most part, toward people who were already somewhat health conscious and not still struggling to get there.

However, it was in these magazines and other similar printed material, that I kept reading about the lifestyle change. There is a whole mindset out there that is more about adopting a healthy lifestyle, and not trying for any quick fix. The weight loss piece of the deal seems to be the, “if you build, it will come,” sort. So that is where I am today. I’m going to adopt those small steps toward a healthy lifestyle. I’m also going to hope and pray that doing so will result in some significant weight loss for me over the course of the next year.

Now, I promised to post my daily food intake. Keep in mind that I'm not modifying my diet yet.  Here is yesterday’s:

Bacon sandwich (made with 100 cal Orowheat bread)
Chocolate milk (1% milk and nestle quick)
Vanilla Almond Shredded Wheat + 1% milk
Peanut butter crackers
Lean Cuisine
Apple Sauce
Hot Chocolate
100 Cal popcorn
Skittles
Roast Beef
Instant Taters (last night was a basketball night for the kiddo)
Tortilla
And there were a few pieces or hard candy in there throughout the day.

Day 2 - Weighing In

As promised, I weighed in this morning.  The scale (digital) has me at 196.2.  I'm 5'5".  That gives me a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 32.6, which means I'm obese.  According to the Center for Disease Control, BMI is a measure of fatness.  It is supposed to be fairly accurate, though I believe you can easily find debate out in cyberspace on the topic.

The last time I checked, my weight would have to get down to somewhere between 145 pounds and 150 pounds for me to register as "Normal" based on the BMI charts.  I can honestly say that I don't recall when I might've last weighed in that range.  I can recall weighing around 165 shortly after having my second child, and I felt good at that weight. 

According to the measurements I provided yesterday, my waist to hip ratio measures a .87.  For a woman, anything higher than .85 is an indication of potential future heart troubles. 

So, much like the pictures on the previous post, things just don't look good at the moment.  I haven't had a soda today.  So far so good.

Day 1 - Getting Started

So today is day one. I’m committing to this blog for one year. For one year I will slowly adapt the better habits that are supposed to help me get naturally to a healthy weight. I will not follow any fads or try anything that promises quick and easy weight loss. I’m going to test the advice of all those experts who say its all about the small change, the lifestyle, etc. I’m hoping they’re on to something. I guess we’ll see.

Here is how it’ll work. Today I’m going to post some of my stats and some rather lovely pics of yours truly. Every three months I’ll update the stats and the pics. At the start of each week I’ll announce what one change I’m going to make during the week in the interest of a healthy lifestyle (always with the ultimate goal of losing weight). Every day I’ll post about my success in sticking to the weekly goal. I’ll also post my daily food intake and, when I start, my daily exercise routine. Periodically, I’ll probably also blog a bit about my general opinion of certain subjects relative to the weightloss industry or my particular experiences with this project.
So here are some lovely snaps of me as of today:

Full Frontal (yes I am embarrassed)

And the Wonderful Rear View

I didn't weigh in today, so you'll get that tomorrow, but here are my current measurements:

widest area around the breast = 43.5 inches

around the belly button = 39 inches

3 finders down from there = 42 inches

wides area around the butt = 45 inches

bicep = 14.5 inches

thigh = 25.25 inches

My goal for this week is to cut out soda completely.  My drink of choice is Dr. Pepper, but I'll drink pretty much any dark cola.  So this week I cut it out completely.  I've read that if you regularly drink one soda a day and cut it out, that change alone could amount to as much as a twenty pound weight loss in one year.  I guess we'll see.

My goal for next week will be to do at least thirty minutes of exercise three times a week.  I'm telling you now because if I can get a head start by squeezing in a session or two this week, I will.

So, that is it for now.  I'm guessing that's enough public humiliation for any one person in a day.