End of Week 3 Progress

Today was weigh in day.  I was pretty nervous when I stepped onto that scale this morning.  Thanksgiving was last week and although I didn’t think that I did too bad, I still feared seeing something ugly on the scale.

I stepped onto the scale and held my breath and it calculated.  When my current weight popped up on the screen I wanted to do a little touchdown dance in my bathroom.  I lost weight over Thanksgiving holiday!  How is that even possible lol.  I’m down 3 more pounds, bringing my total weight loss for the last 3 weeks to 11 pounds!  My first 10 pounds is gone!  Woohoo!!  My goal was to lose 15 pounds in the first month and I think I might be able to get it done!!  I only need to lose 4 pounds this week.  I am going to work my butt off and get it done!

What was even better than seeing that loss on the scale this morning was being rewarded for my hard work when I got to work.  I was in the breakroom preparing my wheat toast for breakfast and one of my coworkers came to me and said, “You are really coming down!”  I smiled and told her thank you, but inside I was jumping up and down for joy.  Personally I don’t feel that it is noticeable when I look in the mirror, but apparently it is.  I can definitely tell a difference in my clothes.  They aren’t falling off of me yet, of course, but they definitely feel more comfy.

So today, I plan on drinking as much water as possible (which I do every day…....water is the only thing I’m drinking these days).  I’m going to make sure to get up and walk around very briskly for 5 minutes every hour while I’m at work.  That alone will add up to 40 minutes of walking.  I’m also going to continue my daily routine of walking the stairs at lunch time for a good 10 minutes.  And then later on tonight I’ll get in my cardio and arm exercises.  I usually do some sort of aerobic activity for at least 30 mins every night.  Last night was abdominal crunches….I did 200.  I thought I was going to die.  Tonight I will focus on my arms and probably do a little cardio boxing.

The wonderful thing is that I’m starting to look forward to my exercises.  So I’m getting used to them instead of dreading them.  Makes it a lot easier to do when you want to do it! 

Health Hazards of Obesity

As I was perusing the internet today, I came across an article about World Health Day.  In this article, the statement below was made.

"In 2009 approximately 100,500 cancers were attributed to excess body fat."

I don't know about you, but I never really attributed obesity to cancer.  Never really thought about it.  I know that obesity can lead to diabetes, heart disease, gall bladder disease, etc.  Just never thought about the fact that it can contribute to your risk of developing cancer.  Cancer is all around me in my family history.  My mom's parents both died from forms of cancer.  My dad's mom was a breast cancer survivor.  My mom has had skin cancer removed.  That's a little too many instances of cancer for me to ignore!  Yet another reason why I need to get this weight off!


I already mentioned diabetes, but here is a little factoid about obesity and diabetes for you to chew on.

"More than 85 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight."

Again, there is a family history of diabetes.  My dad's mom was diabetic.  I am currently insulin resistant.  This can lead to diabetes.  The cure = weight loss.


Gallbladder disease.  Yep.  Been there, done that.  I spent July 4th in the emergency room feeling like I was dying.  The culprit?  A bum gallbladder.  Two days later I had it removed.  Apparently people who are overweight produce more cholesterol and this leads to the build up of stones in the gallbladder.  Mine was also enlarged, which is another common occurrence in overweight people.


We all know that obesity can cause heart disease not only because of the excess strain it puts on your heart to carry all that extra weight around, but also because of the additional health problems that obesity causes.  For example, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  Having high cholesterol increases your chances of blockages in your arteries, which can break off and travel causing strokes and heart attacks.  If the blockages are in your heart vessels, this can lead to heart attack and sudden death.  High blood pressure only exacerbates this problem by helping to push those blood clots around.  It also puts you at a high risk for hemorrhagic strokes in which blood vessels in your brain burst and you bleed internally.  Heart disease is rampant in my family as well.  Especially on my dad's side.  His mother died from heart failure and now my dad is in heart failure.  He is currently on the transplant list waiting on a new heart.  I definitely don't want to go through what he is going through nor do I want to put my family through that pain and stress.  It's scary and it's depressing and you just feel helpless.  I don't know if I will end up with this when I get older, but I know I'm going to try my hardest to stall it if nothing else.


Sleep apnea is another big problem in obese individuals.  If there is a large amount of fat stored in the neck area, this makes the airway smaller and thus makes it more difficult for the person to breath properly during sleep.  A lot of people don't feel that this is a big deal, having sleep apnea, but if left untreated it can lead to some serious problems including heart failure.


Osteoartritis.  Carrying around all that extra weight puts a strain on our joints.  I know my poor knees crackle and pop all the time when I'm climbing stairs.  They say losing 5% of your body weight can yield a slight improvement.  Over time, if the joints are continuously subjected to the extreme pressure and weight of your body, the cartilage will begin to wear away and it will become very painful.


Fatty liver disease.  This is exactly what it says.  It's a build up of fat in the liver cells that interferes with the livers function.  I don't know if you are aware of how important your liver is....but you can't live without it!  There is a reason why the transplant list for livers is long!


These are just a FEW of the complications that can occur because of obesity.  These are the main ones and each of them can be prevented.  Losing weight is just one piece of the puzzle.  But for me, right now it's the main piece.  Once I get through this obstacle, then I will tackle the others.  I have too much that I want to do in life to be plagued by any of these things.  If I can do something to lower my risk of developing any of these things, then I'm going to do my best to do it!

One down, one to go.....

I made it through Thanksgiving!  Yay!  I don't feel like I did too horribly either.  So now it's back to my normal routines and I will just exercise extra tonight just in case!

The only thing I regret is not taking today off of work.  This is torture!  There is nobody here and this day is taking foreverrrrrrr.  I feel like I have been here for 12 hours.  Ugh.  Next year I'm taking this day off.  For real.

Now I have to survive Christmas.  I have much more confidence now though!  If I can do Thanksgiving, I can definitely do Christmas! 

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families!  If you go out shopping on Black Friday, I hope you're safe!  There are some whackos out there!

Ten of the Worst Foods You Can Eat

1. Chips
One ounce of potato chips has 152 calories and 10 grams of fat (three grams saturated). If you eat just three ounces a week, in one year you'll have consumed 23,400 calories and added about seven pounds to your waistline. And that’s from just a couple handfuls – which barely constitutes a full and satisfying snack for most of us.

 2. Non-Dairy Toppings
As luscious as they are, Cool Whip and its kin are mostly corn syrup and hydrogenated vegetable oil − stuff you don’t want floating in your arteries. One tablespoon is 32 calories, but who stops at just one?

3. Doughnuts
White flour, vegetable shortening, white sugar… and deep-fried to boot. One glazed Krispy Kreme packs 200 calories and 12 grams of fat, including heart-stopping saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol. An old-fashioned cake doughnut has 300 calories, 28 grams of carbohydrates and a whopping 19 grams of fat, including 5 grams of saturated fat and 4 grams of trans fat. Only 30% of our calories should come from fat, says the American Heart Association. That’s about 65 grams in a 2,000-calorie daily diet.  Nosh on a couple doughnuts with your coffee, and you’ve reached your daily fat quota.


4. Fettuccine Alfredo
Strips of pasta drenched with butter, cream and parmesan cheese – what’s not to love? How about its fat and calories! A 3-ounce serving (about the size of your fist) has 543 calories and 33 grams of fat (19 of which are saturated).


5. Sausages
Whether you fry them for breakfast or boil 'em in beer, sausages are a health hazard. A single pork link packs 217 calories and 19.5 grams of fat.

6. Fried Chicken
A fried chicken breast has nearly 400 calories and 22 grams of fat. The Colonel wouldn’t be happy to hear this, but those platters of fried fowl have to go. What do you expect when you batter and fry chicken, skins and all?


7. Imitation Cheese in a Can
Some people love this stuff. But they ignore their protesting hearts: Two tablespoons – about the amount you’d put on two crackers – packs 276 calories and 21 grams of fat, 13 grams of which are saturated.


8. French Fries
One large order (6 ounces) of fast-food fries from a typical commercial restaurant contains roughly 570 calories, half of which are from fat. (That's probably why we love them, and usually polish off the serving!)
If your restaurant order includes a large hamburger (such as Burger King’s Whopper), tack on 670 calories and 39 grams of fat.

 9. Soft White Bread
You may as well have a candy bar. A slice of white bread offers little more than 65 calories of white flour, a simple and rapidly digested carbohydrate that causes your blood sugar to rise and crash, like any simple sugar.  And, because it has so few nutrients, white bread leaves you feeling hungry for the fiber and vitamins your body needs.

10. Fried Wontons
These delicate triangles, often filled with meat, shrimp or cream cheese, are deep-fried to a crispy crunch. Often served as appetizers, these bite-size morsels seem harmless, but pop a few too many in your mouth and they’ve added up to a whole meal. Unfortunately, just four crab and cream cheese-filled wontons have 311 calories and 19 grams of fat - too greasy a treat for anyone trying to stay fit.





 
www.lifescript.com (2011) Give It Up: Top 10 Worst Foods, [online] Available at: http://www.lifescript.com/body/diet/lose-weight/give_it_up_top_10_worst_foods.aspx [Accessed: 23 November 2011].

Hey, it's ok Tuesday

I almost forgot that it was Tuesday and time for Hey it's ok!  Lucky for you (and me too, I guess) I remembered!

Here we go.....

Hey, it's ok....

To daydream about soda when you know you can't actually drink it.  My mouth is salivating right now thinking about a tall glass of ice cold Mountain Dew.  Mmmmm....

To think that Chris Rene on the X-Factor sucks.  His story is great, but he really cannot sing.  It's time to go.

To think that Paula cries to dang much.  Good grief.  Dry it up.  Stop acting like a giant vajayjay.

To admit that you are addicted to weighing yourself.  I weigh myself 2-3 times a day.  Yes, I know that it's not going to change that quickly, but since I started this whole diet\weight loss thing I have become OCD about it.  I can't help it.

To still be salivating over that Mountain Dew dream...

To cry when you watch Christmas movies.

To admit that you're even watching Christmas movies...it's not even Thanksgiving yet!

To wish that NKOTBSB would make a Christmas album.  Yes, I said NKOTBSB.  It's also ok to see them in concert...which I did.  AND IT WAS AWESOME!  haha

And lastly, it's ok to diet on Thanksgiving...because I am lol.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Successful Weight Loss

If you want to lose weight….I mean REALLY lose weight, not just talk about it…..then you need to read the following.  Based on research and personal experience, I have compiled a list of things that I think are key factors for successful weight loss.

SUPPORT –

Having a cheering section is helpful.  Is it necessary to have support during weight loss?  No.  Does it help?  Absolutely!  It makes it a little easier knowing that people believe in you, because sometimes it’s hard to believe in yourself.  At the same time, though, it’s important to point out the difference between supporters and enablers.  You want to surround yourself with those who believe in your weight loss goal and will help you sustain it.  You don’t want people around who are going to be telling you that it’s ok for you to indulge every now and then.  It’s ok for you to eat that chocolate cake to reward yourself for all that hard work you did last week losing 3 pounds.  You don’t want to get into the habit of rewarding yourself with food items for weight loss goals.  It’s a reversal of all that hard work you just did!  And those people probably don’t mean any harm by saying those things to you, but chances are….those people have never done what you are doing.  They don’t know how hard it was for you to get those 3 pounds off.  They don’t fully understand the consequences of indulging. 

ENDURANCE –

This is not going to be an overnight journey.  If you’re going to do this, you have to understand that it takes time and you have to stick to it.  You have to be committed to your weight loss and to yourself.  You are doing this first and foremost, for yourself before anyone else.  It might be easier to say that you are doing it for your family or for your children, but in actuality….the most important person you are doing it for is yourself.  So you need to stick with yourself for the long haul.  Understand that it is not easy and sometimes you will want to give up.  I am only in the beginning of my journey and I have already wanted to give up about a million times because it is easier just to be fat than all this business of losing weight. 

PATIENCE –

This brings me to patience.  Unfortunately, weight loss is a slow and painful process.  You are reversing years of bad habits.  This takes time.  Just remember all those old sayings about patience…..”Patience is a virtue”……”Good things come to those who wait”……”Slow and steady wins the race.”  They are all true.  Cheesy, but true.  Don’t get frustrated when you don’t lose as much one week as the last.  Just keep pushing forward and be patient.  Your weight loss will come.  Hard work is always rewarded.  If you put in the effort, you will see the weight loss. 

STRONG WILL –

Temptations are all around you at all times when you are trying to lose weight.  There is always going to be a birthday party, holiday or some kind of special occasion where they have cake and ice cream or other various carb/sugar/fat overloaded goodies.  If you work in an office like me, there is always somebody baking something and bringing it in to share with everyone.  Having to turn it down is hard, but if I want to lose weight it’s what I have to do.  The holidays are coming up.  I’m terrified!  There are going to be tables of food lined up in front of me and I have to make sure that as I fill my plate that I’m making good choices and not overeating.  The good news is, the further into your journey that you get, the easier this part will get.  You will get used to eating certain things and not eating other things.  It will become second nature to you to pick up an apple instead of a muffin or donut.  Think of your will as a muscle.  You have to work it out to make it stronger. 

This also applies in the department of exercise.  There are going to be plenty of times when you are not going to feel like working out, but you have to get yourself into a routine.  For a while it will feel like a chore if it is something that you did not previously do.  Once you get used to working out, you won’t mind it. 

In addition to these character traits, here are some things that you should be doing to assist in your weight loss according to research.

EAT LESS CALORIES –

I personally eat around 1200 calories each day give or take a few.  I don’t go over 1300 and I don’t go under 1100.  Any less than 1200 will cause your body to go into starvation mode after a while and you will stop losing because your body will hold onto everything that you are eating for reserve.  This is especially important if you are exercising.  If you are only eating 800 calories and you are exercising and burning 400-500 of those, then you are going to end up making yourself sick or end up in the hospital.  Counting calories sucks.  I’ll be the first to admit that, but you get used to it just like everything else.  And it really does matter.  If you don’t count calories then you have no idea how much you are putting into your body and it is easy to go over 1200 if you’re not aware.  Some things that you THINK are healthy, might not be so healthy.  Prime example….salads from restaurants.  After all the crap is added to the salad at some of these places, the caloric total adds up to over 1000 in some of those salads.  That is just ridiculous for a salad.  So you really do need to count those calories and pay attention to what goes in.  There is truth to “garbage in, garbage out.”

DRINK MORE WATER –

Water is a natural appetite suppressant.  It also helps the body metabolize fats.  And guess what else?  When you are retaining water, the best way to get rid of it is to drink more water!  Why?  Because the reason you’re retaining water is probably because your body needed it.  So therefore, if you give your body MORE water, then it will release it’s stores of water because it’s getting what it needs.  If you are constantly retaining water, then you probably need to check your sodium intake.  Water helps your muscles maintain their tone.  It gives them the ability to contract and work to their fullest capabilities.  It also helps to minimize sagging skin that goes along with extreme weight loss.  Not to say that you won’t have ANY, but you will have LESS.  You should be drinking at least 8 glasses a day.  Overweight people need more than skinny people.  You need to add one 8 oz glass for every 25 pounds you are overweight and also increase your intake if you are exercising on a hot day.  Also, cold water is absorbed into the body more readily than warm water.  So be sure to drink it while it’s nice and cold! 

EXERCISE DAILY –

You might not be able to do much at first, but every little bit helps.  You have to start somewhere right?  Eventually you should work yourself up to an hour a day.  Some doctors say 5 days a week is sufficient, some suggest every day.  3 days a week is called maintenance exercise.  This is only good enough if you want to stay at your current weight.  Unless you’re working out for hours on end, that is.  Otherwise, an hour a day for 5 or more days a week is your eventual goal.  If you’re busy like me, it tough to figure out where to fit this into your day.  In case you were wondering, here is what I do.  I take a walk around campus during lunch every day at work.  This usually ends up being about 20 minutes.  Then I spend about 5 minutes walking up the stairs in the building.  Then when I get my son in bed at night, I will pop in my Just Dance or EA Sports on the Wii and do that for about 20-30 minutes.  And I will throw in a little floor ab exercise as well for about 10 minutes or so.  This way it’s broken up and it works well for me.  So you just have to figure out where you can fit it into your day.  It doesn’t have to be all at the same time, just as long as you get an hour in along the way.  And remember, the more vigorous and the more you get your heart rate up, the more calories you are going to burn.

TRACKING FOOD AND ACTIVITY –

Keeping a journal might sound like a pain in the rear (and it is) but it’s extremely important.  It helps you figure out what works and what doesn’t.  If you have a week where you don’t lose, you can look back and see what you did differently and figure out what happened.  It helps you see what times of the day you get hungry and how you might need to spread out your calories a little more to keep from eating more at those times.  It also makes you accountable because it’s there in black and white.  This will keep you from eating things that you don’t really need because you don’t want to see it in your journal.  There are lots of online resources and smartphone apps to help out with this.  Some really great online sites are sparkpeople.com, loseit.com, and livestrong.com.  For smartphones, I highly recommend MyFitnessPal.  I use this daily.  It includes a calorie counter, a food index, weight tracker, nutrition tracker, and a handy bar code scanner so that you can scan food containers to see what the nutritional information is and add it to your daily food diary entries. 

If you do these things, you will lose weight!  It works.  You just have to do it.  That’s all there is to it.  Just do it.  No more excuses.  No more procrastination.  DO IT!

End of Week 2 - Weigh In!

This morning I weighed in and was down 3 more pounds!  It’s  not much, but it’s better than nothing!  I’m going to make sure to get in as much exercise time this week as I can to maximize my weight loss this week.  I want to see that 5 pounds loss again!!  Thursday is Thanksgiving though….which makes me SUPERRRR nervous lol.  But I think I can handle it.  I think I will be ok.  I’m getting used to eating smaller portions now and it’s awesome because I don’t even have to really think about it anymore.  It’s becoming second nature to just put a little on my plate instead of a lot.

Even though I am doing pretty good so far, I gotta say…..this is one of the hardest things I have ever done.  Losing weight is hard.  Changing your mind frame and how you think about food is HARD.  Giving up things you enjoyed eating before is HARD.  Counting calories is HARD.  Exercising when you don’t feel like it is HARD.  But seeing those numbers going down every week on that scale is totally worth it.  The end result is worth it. 

The Cold Hard Truth

I was browsing through some of the blogs that I follow today and I came across a post that really put things into perspective for me.  It lays out on the table things that we already know, but don't want to say.  It calls out our BS and tells us to wake up and be accountable.  This blog was exactly what I needed to read this morning.  I would like to share it with you in hopes that you will be empowered to CHANGE just as I was.


This blog post is from www.priorfatgirl.com and is copied from Jen's posts.

You are unhealthy.

by Jen, a priorfatgirl on November 10, 2011

You are unhealthy.
Do something about it.

It is as easy as it sounds. And as hard as it sounds. I know. I KNOW this. I did it. And I continue to fight for what I’ve worked to accomplish. You think this is so easy? You think your “hard” is any different than my “hard?” Get over yourself. Suck it up and do something about it.

Stop waiting to hit rock bottom. THIS IS YOUR ROCK BOTTOM. This is your life and you are letting it pass by you. The decisions YOU make result in your life. Changing your life means changing your life.  It is as easy as it sounds. And as hard as it sounds. I know. I KNOW this. I did it.

Don’t put the blame on me like I should have helped you. Like I should have patted you on the back and encouraged you to keep going. Don’t whine and complain that you had some flippin’ excuse because guess what? I’ve had my fair share of excuses. In two years, my mom died without me getting to say goodbye, my dad started dating 6 weeks later, I switched jobs TWICE, our house was destroyed by a tornado and now I’m planning a wedding without my mom and might have to walk myself down the isle because I don’t know if I can go to my dad’s wedding when he marries his most recent fiance 6 weeks before my wedding, {original sentence in published post deleted}. You think your “hard” is any different than my “hard?” Get over yourself.

You are unhealthy.
Do something about it.
Or don’t do anything about it.

Continue to live life as you have and get what you’ve always gotten. But don’t you dare complain. Don’t you dare waste your breath crying about something you are CHOOSING to do. Don’t you dare come to me and whine when you don’t want to fight through the hard.You are making your own choices so stop weeping when you don’t like the results. Smile because you made the choice.

Live your life. Stand up and be proud of your decisions. Live your choices and be proud.

This is your life. Love it or change it.

How can you read this and NOT want to do something?  How can you read this and not think to yourself, "What an idiot I have been."  I have wasted so much time making excuses.  

I don't have time to work out.

I don't have time to eat healthy.

Healthy foods are expensive.

I indulged because it was a special occasion.

I had a traumatic event.

The list goes on and on.  Any excuse you can think of, I used it to justify allowing myself to get to the weight that I reached.  Granted, some of it was out of my hands (depo provera....stayyyy awayyy) but the majority of the blame is mine and mine alone.  Eating is an addiction, just like alcohol and drug addiction.  The outcome is obesity, just like alcoholism and drug abuse.  The first step to recovering and changing your life is to ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY.  Hold yourself accountable for what you have done in the past and then decide how you are going to fix it.

My favorite part of that post is "This is your life.  Stand up and be proud of your decisions.  Live your choices and be proud.  This is your life.  Love it or change it."

So today, I'm proud of the decisions that I have made in these past few weeks.  I'm changing my life so that one day I CAN love it.  Not just parts of it, but all of it.....and myself. 

End of Week 2

Tomorrow is the start of week three and I’m super nervous about weigh in tomorrow morning.  I haven’t felt the same this week on the Phen as I felt last week so I’ve been afraid of the scale.  Last week I’m sure I weighed myself at least a hundred times because I just knew something was working, but this week…..I’m a little doubtful.  I guess I’ll find out in the morning when I step on that scale.  I just hope that the numbers go down instead of up.  I will probably be just as upset if they stay the same as I would if they went up.  So let’s hope for a good outcome!

I feel like I have still been doing a good job on making wise food choices and staying within my calorie allowance for the day.  So I guess that either the Phen is still curbing my appetite or I’m learning to do it on my own.  Or both.  Either way, this is a positive.  I’ve been slacking on writing stuff down, so I’ve got to get back on track with that.  I’ve kind of just been keeping up with it in my  head, which I know is not as good.  So this week I will focus on getting that back under control.

I’m going to start setting mini goals for myself because I feel like it’s easier to meet those than to think about the big picture.  So my first mini goal is 10 pounds.  Last week when I weighed in, I was down by 5 pounds, so I’m halfway there!  Once I reach that goal, I will go from there!

In other news, I went to see The Rockettes last night……AMAZING!  I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome the show was.  My favorite part was the live nativity complete with camels and sheep.  It was beautiful.  Brought tears to my eyes.  Great family show, if you haven’t seen them, I HIGHLY recommend it.  In all, there were 6 scenes.  The dancers were pristine!  Not a kick out of place, very well trained and talented!  The special effects were out of this world.  During one scene, the girls are dancing on a tour bus and the back screen is showing the streets of New York around Times Square.  The wheels on the tour bus are moving and so is the screen behind it, so it seems as though you are literally driving through New York city.  I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want to ruin it for someone who has not seen the show yet and is planning to.   

Now I’m trying to get tickets to go see The Christmas Story Musical!  That is my all-time favorite Christmas movie EVER!!!  Turning it into a musical, GENIUS!  I think I have found a new love.  Broadway shows!  So look forward to hearing more about the shows!