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90 Days Left

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

We’re 10 days in and that makes it time for an all-around update on The Hot 100. Here goes:

Keep running! I want to be able to run 5 miles without having to walk by the end of the year. Yesterday, I added an addendum that specifies how I plan on doing this – by running a minimum of 10 miles per week.

So far, I haven’t been doing great at this; I’ve only been out running once this week. That being said, though, that one run was VERY successful (3.44 miles without walking!). After that run on Sunday, once again, life got in the way and I didn’t get out again. Hence yesterday’s addendum, which I think will keep me on track.

I was planning on going out today, but at yesterday’s softball game I took a hard grounder to the shin and I’m all black & blue and swollen. *sigh* I’m so damn accident-prone. Hopefully the swelling will go down enough to not hinder my performance at my 5k on Sunday…

Lose some more weight. The goal was to lose 20 pounds by the end of the year. And then I thought about it. I don’t know that that’s a reasonable goal considering my current weight. When I was 80 pounds heavier, sure. But now? Not so much.

That doesn’t mean that I’m giving up; I’m going to get as close to that 20-pound mark as I can, but I’m aware that it’s going to be incredibly tough to get all the way there. You never know, though, right?

Of course, I’m not off to a great start. I’m actually the same as I was last Friday, but that’s 2 pounds more than I was when I wrote out my goals. Meaning rather than being down at the 10-day point, I’m up 2. My current weight is now 177.5. Again. (grr grr grr)

Clearly I need a new game plan here as well. I’ve known for a while now that I need to go back to logging my food and tracking my calories in and out on a daily basis like I did before. I know it works – that’s how I lost 90% of the weight to begin with (thank you My Food Diary!) But it takes a lot of time and dedication – almost obsession – and I’m not obsessed right now. I really need to work on keeping close track, while maintaining a balance with the rest of my life. That balance is tough though. I’m working on it.

Eat out less – cook more. I’ve been doing really well here. Not too much eating out these last 10 days; far less than usual. And it hasn’t been horrible! The husband is on board and we’ve been cooking a lot lately. I just need to keep up with it. It’s quite easy to have a long day and in a moment of exhaustion, order take out or stop to pick something up.

Also, my birthday is on Monday and my husband is taking me out for dinner. That’s a meal out that I didn’t plan on, and I’m trying to decide if I should just say, “Yeah, but it’s my birthday” and just add it in, or cut out one of the other, regularly scheduled meals out. I’m very tempted to say the former, but part of me thinks I should resist and say the latter.

Maybe I’ll eat out both times and just log it :)

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, The Hot 100, Trials and Tribulations, Weight Loss, Workouts | 4 Comments »

Ten Pounds?!

Monday, September 7th, 2009

My husband and I went on a spur-of-the-moment trip to New Orleans this weekend. I know, I know – I was just there about a month ago. That was without my husband, though, and we’d been talking about a weekend trip there for quite some time. Spontaneity won out over careful planning, and on Tuesday we booked a trip that began on Friday.

And it was great! We listened to a lot of fabulous live music and ate a lot of great food. It was nice to have a relaxing, no-worries trip.

But now I’m back. And I’m worried.

I got on the scale this morning to see what kind of damage I did over the long weekend, expecting to see a slight gain.

I was up ten pounds though. Ten pounds! TEN!

I was NOT ready for that.

It’s my own damn fault. I definitely threw everything out the window while we were away. I don’t know what happened to me! I went into complete vacation mode and ignored the little voice inside of me telling me not to eat certain things – or that I’d had enough of them. I ate and ate and ate. And I drank far more than usual, too.

I didn’t work out much, either. There was a lot of walking, but it was a slow, ambling pace more conducive to people-watching and checking out the shops than burning calories. On Sunday, I attempted to take advantage of the hotel fitness room, but after five minutes on the rowing machine, five minutes on the stair climber and a few (annoying) minutes on the treadmill (whose incline wouldn’t go increase past 0.0), I ended my workout and went back to the room.

I really enjoyed my vacation. But now I’m feeling incredibly remorseful about it. Ten pounds?! I didn’t even think it was possible to gain that much weight in three days!

*sigh*

Ok. I’ve ranted. It’s over. There’s nothing I can do to change what’s already happened. I’ll learn from it, do better next time, and re-lose those 10 pounds as quickly as possible.

Think I can lose 10 pounds in three days, too?

Just kidding. But man have I got a lot of work to do…

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Trials and Tribulations, Weight Loss, Workouts | 7 Comments »

Mind/Body Disconnect

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Man oh man, this is hard!

This has been a very difficult week: I was out of town Tuesday and most of Wednesday, and a good friend was visiting from out of town Wednesday night and Thursday. This equated to eating out for dinner three days out of five, as well as multiple breakfasts and lunches. And as we all know, restaurants and the scale do not get along. To top it all off, today I went to a party that had TWO different kinds of pie – and a cobbler! Oh, the temptations!

As much as I know that I shouldn’t eat certain things – or that I should only have a little of it – I’ve had problems this week with listening to what my head is instructing me to do. I don’t want to even list the things I’ve eaten this week, but you’d be correct if you guessed that it included two different kinds of pie and a cobbler…

What’s weird is that while I feel bad about some of my poor decisions, I still feeling confident that I’ll reach my weight loss goals. I mean, I know I have to make up for this awful week, but I know I can do it. I just know it.

I don’t think I’ve ever really thought that before the last few weeks. Even after losing over 80 pounds, I don’t think I ever really thought I’d make it to my goal weight. But I do now. I’m not sure what inspired that change but I like it. And hopefully, my mind will go back to controlling my body.

As good as that pie was, I gotta get back in the game so I don’t prove myself wrong!

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Trials and Tribulations, Weight Loss | 1 Comment »

Mastering My Metabolism

Monday, August 17th, 2009

I recently finished reading Jillian Michaels’ newest book, Master Your Metabolism. Straight off the bat, let me tell you that I thought it was a fascinating read, and I recommend that you check it out for yourself.

The book is all about your hormones and how they affect your overall health, including, of course, weight loss. There are hormones that help you to lose weight, and others that make your body hold on to fat. Everything we eat – as well as products we use in the home (cleansers, cosmetics, plastic, etc), and environmental toxins – mess up our body’s natural hormone balance and makes it more difficult for us to lose weight.

It starts out with a chapter about Jillian. She talks about being overweight and binge eating as an adolescent, and then how she lost the weight. Even as recently as the first few seasons of The Biggest Loser, she had a hard time just maintaining her weight. So she “consulted top experts in the field of metabolism and discovered that she’d inadvertently been abusing her endocrine system for years. After “fixing” her own metabolism, she decided to share what she learned by devising this simple, 3-phase plan that engages all the weight-loss hormones (including the friendly HGH, testosterone, DHEA; and the not-so-friendly: insulin, cortisol, and excess estrogen).” - From Amazon.com product description.

The next few chapters were pretty heavy, for me at least. She goes over all the major hormones, what they do and how they are affected positively or negatively by our food and environment. In fact, she even says at the end of the first chapter that if you want to jump right into the plan that you can skip a few chapters and come back to it later. For me, though, I didn’t want to blindly follow a bunch of rules without knowing why. So I read the heavy chapters.

Incidentally, Jillian Michaels is not a doctor or a nutritionist. However, she’s done a ton of research on the subject and there are over 20 pages of references in the back of the book. And she clearly knows how to help people lose weight…

Let me just tell you, this book is a bit frightening. We all know High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) isn’t good for you, but do we all know why? I know I didn’t. And it’s in everything. What about hydrogenated fats? And refined grains? And artificial sweeteners? It’s crazy to think about all the terrible things we’re putting into our bodies – and our children’s bodies.

I know that it will be incredibly difficult to follow this plan to a T. However, I have decided that I will do my best. To cut out as many processed foods and non-organic meats as possible. To eat whole grains instead of refined grains. To eat as much real, whole food as I can (which will be necessary since I’m cutting out all the processed garbage!). In fact, my husband and I cleaned out the refrigerator this weekend and threw out all the crap – and there was a lot of it, believe me.

(Interestingly, most of my low-fat/low-calorie foods got thrown away. After reading the list of ingredients – and knowing what to look for – I was appalled at what I’d been eating on a regular basis, under the guise of eating healthy. I feel a little tricked.)

I know that I’m still going to eat out a few times a week, and that I will occassionally eat food that friends and family have prepared. In these situations, I know that I will have little control over what I am eating.

But that’s ok.

I figure, if I do as much as I can as often as I can, that I will certainly create a positive effect. I’m not one to have a defeatist attitude and say that because I can’t be perfect I shouldn’t put in any effort.

The Master Your Metabolism plan is not an “all or nothing diet,” like Atkin’s, for instance. It’s a lifestyle. I’m going to remove as much of the worst things – processed foods and nonorganic meat and dairy – and do as much of the other things she talks about in the book, as possible. I suspect it will get easier as I go along, and if there’s any truth to this, I’ll notice a difference in how I feel and on the scale… and that will make it even easier!

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. In the meantime, I think you’d get a lot out of this book as well. Check it out, and Master Your Metabolism, too!

Posted in Diet, Health Information, Personal Stories, Weight Loss | 9 Comments »

Ravenous

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Ravenous \ˈra-və-nəs\ adjective: very eager or greedy for food, satisfaction, or gratification <a ravenous appetite>

This has been me all day today. I just couldn’t seem to eat enough!

My meals started out normally enough: I had my usual breakfast of homemade oatmeal with granola and almonds, which successfully got me through to lunch. At noon, I made chicken salad using some leftover rotisserie chicken, a few chopped grapes, almonds, and onions with lettuce on a high fiber wrap, and had that with a side of watermelon. This held me over for a while, but by 3:00 I was hungry again. Usually I don’t need a snack until about 4:00.

I’m a big proponent of eating when you’re genuinely hungry, so I had some pudding. I was still hungry, so then I had some applesauce. Then some more chicken salad. Then a peach. Then some grapes. Finally, I chewed some gum to keep myself from eating more, which I would have easily and happily done.

I then went to kung fu and afterward a bunch of us went out for sushi. I partook in a delicious sushi boat, my portion of which should have been more than enough. But then the boat was empty, and I was raring for more. There was a l-o-n-g wait for our meal, so they brought out some pineapple on the house. I ate a bunch of that, and was still hungry! In fact, on the walk back to the car we passed a restaurant that smelled of chicken wings and I was totally up for that, though that would have been insane.

This is an unusual thing for me. Typically, I am satisfied with the amount that I eat and don’t feel deprived. Today I ate so much, and I still wasn’t sated. Very strange. I hope this isn’t the new thing.

That would be bad.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who has days like these! I’d hate to be alone with my sometimes insatiable appetite, not that I’d wish it on anyone.

At least, not anyone that I like.

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Trials and Tribulations | 4 Comments »

And We’re Back!

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

The Great Road Trip of ’09 has come to an end. I had a fabulous time with my friends, but I’m glad to be home. All told, we drove over 2300 miles – through 10 states – in 6 days. It was a wonderful experience that I won’t soon forget.

Ok, enough of the touchy-feely stuff. Time to get down to business: How successful was I at following my plan? Overall, I’d give myself a B+.

First for the food:

Breakfast each day was pretty good, though not perfect. I did the best I could with the options available to me at hotels. Nothing crazy, and anytime I had something that wasn’t particularly healthy, like a bagel, I split it with one of my friends rather than eating the whole thing myself. I also had a ton of light yogurt – much more than usual – but it was nice to have something cold in all those hot Southern states!

I was REALLY good at every lunch break on the road, too. I had salads with minimal dressing, fruit & yogurt parfaits (love those), good choices at Subway, etc. Since I knew I was going to have delicious dinners, it was easy to make smart choices for lunch.

I was also exceptionally good while we were actually in the car: Before we left El Paso, we went to the grocery store and filled a cooler with healthy snacks – apples, nectarines, baby carrots, bottles of water, and some 100-calorie snacks like cocoa roast almonds. This was KEY and I highly recommend it. It would have been so easy to buy junk food at gas stations on the way if we didn’t have healthy food at hand.

And then there was dinner. Oh boy, was there dinner!

As planned, I enjoyed the local cuisine for dinner in each of the places we visited and didn’t feel guilty about it. We went to a fabulous Mexican restaurant in El Paso, had some delicious Italian in Austin (though I don’t think Austin is really known for their Italian, this place had the best lasagna I’ve ever had), all sorts of tasty creole dishes in New Orleans, and some awesome greek salad and spinach pizza in Nashville. I didn’t go overboard on any of my portions – in fact, we usually ordered a few dishes and shared.

I did more drinking than I had planned on, but even that wasn’t out of hand. A margarita in Texas, a hand grenade in New Orleans, and then a few rum & diet cokes here and there. Nothing crazy.

Now, the exercise:

I’m sorry to say that I never made it outside to run. It just never worked out, for one reason or another. I’m a little disappointed about that, but what can you do, right? That’s certainly not to say that I didn’t work out, though. We made a point to go to the hotel fitness center a few times and get in a real good workout. I love doing a treadmill workout next to someone – I always push myself harder and further than when I’m alone, so that was really cool. I don’t get that at home very often.

Unfortunately, the push ups and sit-ups have fallen to the way-side. I’ll pick that back up this week. I may even repeat the week I completed last since it’s getting really challenging. Did you guys stick to the program while I was away, I hope? If not, start back up with me now!

In addition to the explicit workouts, there was a TON of walking. We walked for miles in each of the cities we visited, and I loved that, especially since there was so much time spent on our butts in the car.

I knew that the real judge of of my efforts would be the scale, so this morning I broke it out, even though I traditionally weigh myself on Fridays. Ready for this?

175!

I find that incredible. Not only did I not gain weight while on a week-long vacation, I actually managed to lose a pound. That just goes to show that if you make a plan and stick to it, you can enjoy your vacation – and your life! – and still meet your weight-loss/health goals.

I just proved it.

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Trials and Tribulations, Weight Loss, Workouts | 4 Comments »

So Far, So Good!

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

I’m pleased with myself so far: I did a great job with my food and exercise in Buffalo, and have been sticking to my Road Rules thus far!

On Monday, one friend and I flew from Buffalo to El Paso to meet up with the third of our trio. We bought healthy snacks for the car, and I have been eating well for breakfast and lunch, and then enjoying local cuisine for dinner, with drinks in moderation. Even after the all-day traveling, I managed to get in a 30-minute workout at the hotel fitness center. Granted, much of that was due to the prodding of Friend #1, but I was easily persuaded (and glad I told her prior to the trip that I wanted to be prodded!).

Yesterday, we drove from El Paso to Austin, and today we’re headed to New Orleans, where we’ll be for two nights. As I mentioned, I’m hoping to get outside to run in some new cities, but I don’t think Austin’s going to work for me: Our hotel is basically on the highway – not exactly what I had in mind for a run! Our hotel in New Orleans is near the French Quarter and very near the river, so I’m definitely planning on getting out for a run there.

All-in-all, I feel it’s going quite well. I’m not denying myself things that would make me feel like I’m “missing out” on my vacation – and I’m not feeling guilty about enjoying them. I’m also not eating junk that won’t provide any real enjoyment and would make me feel guilty. (For instance, I had Subway for lunch yesterday, and an apple and some cocoa roast almonds in the car.)

If I can stick to my plan for the rest of the week, I’ll call this trip a huge success! Wish me luck!

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Workouts | 3 Comments »

Road Rules

Friday, July 24th, 2009

I have a very exciting week coming up: I’ll be spending the weekend in Buffalo with my family and then on Monday morning, I’ll be flying out with a friend to El Paso. There, we’ll meet up with another friend and – over the course of 5 days – will make our way back up to Buffalo. By car.

This should be a very fun vacation: I love driving and being in the car. (Hopefully I’ll still be saying that at the end of the trip!) The girls I’m traveling with have been friends of mine since high school, though we haven’t been able to spend long periods of time together since then. Geography will do that to you.

Here’s the thing: This trip has the potential to be detrimental to my weight-loss efforts if I’m not careful!

Therefore, I’ve made a plan. We’re spreading out the driving so that we can spend the evenings in neat cities (Austin, New Orleans and Nashville), meaning we won’t be in the car non-stop. I’ve already spoken with my travel companions – both of whom are fit, health-conscious people (that’ll help!) – and told them that I want to work out while we’re away. They both quickly said that they are up for that as well. This might mean running outside on new city streets, taking advantage of hotel gym equipment, doing some fitness videos in the room – or all three!

I’m actually really looking forward to running outside in other places. I imagine it will be quite a different experience to run in a different climate and landscape than what I am used to. It’ll also be interesting to run with my friends – I hope I can keep up!

The other big thing is food, of course. This might be more tricky. As I’ve mentioned before when discussing holiday eating, when I’m on vacation, I will eat the local cuisine because I’ll feel like I “missed out” otherwise. So I’m going to do that, and not feel guilty… ideally.

However, we’ll also be on the road a lot, and that means we’ll likely be stopping for quick lunches every day. Mark my words: I will not waste calories on crap food from McDonald’s! Every fast food place has some decent options, so I will stick to those. I’ll save my calories for real food that you can’t get just anywhere… Crawfish Etouffee, anyone?

With any luck this will be a fun vacation that doesn’t put me back in my weight loss efforts. I’m lower than ever (176 this morning!) and I don’t want to ruin it. If anyone has any additional tips for me, chime in! Your thoughts are welcome :)

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Workouts | 4 Comments »

200 Sit-Ups, Here I Come!

Monday, July 20th, 2009

As promised, I’ll be starting the 200 sit-up challenge this week! Over the weekend I did the initial test, and performed 56 good crunches consecutively. That’s right about where I thought I’d be, and it’s more than a quarter of the way there. That’s further along at the start than I was with the push ups!

I plan on doing the sit-ups and push ups on the same day, at least to start. Since they’re different body parts, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. If for some reason it doesn’t work for me, though, I’ll switch it up and do sit-ups one day and push ups the next.

Anyone else joining in? Let me know, kids!

On another note, I learned today that I have poison ivy (or oak or sumac). I don’t know where it came from, but I suspect it’s in my yard somewhere. A few months ago, I had something similar, so clearly it’s in the vicinity. My dermatologist informed me I am no longer allowed to eat mangoes or cashews*. I’m not too upset about the cashews, but I’m a huge mango lover (they’re mangolicious!). Mangoes are so much a part of my diet that when I got home I had a lot of stuff to throw out – what a delicious waste.

I know it seems silly, but I’m weirdly upset about this. I really like mangoes! And now I can’t have those OR cherries.

Ah well. At least I still have watermelon, strawberries and bananas!

* From Wikipedia: Mangoes and cashews are in the same family with poison ivy and poison sumac. Mango peel contains urushiol, the chemical in poison ivy and poison sumac that can cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis in susceptible people.

Posted in Diet, Health Information, Personal Stories, Workouts | 3 Comments »

Crackers Are Evil

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

I’m sad to report that yesterday I was sick. I don’t know what caused it, but I woke up feeling nauseated, and that feeling didn’t leave me all day long.

I didn’t eat much all day: A little cereal, some yogurt, a few bowls of light soup. Since I wasn’t eating nearly as many calories as I usually do, I decided to splurge on the “good” crackers with my soup (not the wheat-thin like Special K crackers that I usually have). These would be the Butter Toasteds from Keebler. I love them. Unfortunately, there are 80 calories in just 5 crackers. I keep them around because I’m usually able to restrain myself to just 5, which I’ll have with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese for a lite snack.

Not yesterday, though.

Since I was splurging on a low-calorie day, and figured that crackers would be good for my upset stomach, I brought out the entire package (half a box), rather than my typical 5. By the end of the night, I had eaten the entire thing.

I ate 560 calories worth of crackers yesterday. FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY CALORIES WORTH OF CRACKERS! That’s absurd.

Had I done the math in advance, I probably would have limited myself to half the package and been ok with the 280. But no. I wasn’t feeling well and I wanted crackers, gosh darnit!

Since I didn’t eat a whole lot of anything else this wasn’t a huge deal, but on a normal day, this would have been detrimental to my weight-loss efforts.

I’m telling you: Crackers are evil. Beware.

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories | 5 Comments »