...Down :-)

Happy Monday Everyone!! I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was fabulous!! First, I'll do recap and then share my exciting news!!

Food was pretty darn good. Friday I went shopping with two of my girls. We had dinner at Noodles and I got a small Pad Thai with a lemonade. My dinner was delicious!! And suuuper low calories. I think the website says somewhere in the 300 range for a small. Sounds good to me :-) Saturday we went out to eat at Red Robin after our walk (more on that in a bit). I had the apple harvest chicken salad which was divine!! I ate half of it and boxed the other half to have later. I also had water with my dinner instead of soda even though I was very tempted! Saturday as a snack I had the other half of my salad because we ate dinner pretty late. For dinner we ordered chinese. I was going to order one of their "special diet" meals but instead I got the sweet and sour chicken with a pt of steamed rice. I ate half and had the other half for breakfast on Sunday. I also had a few crab rangoons. I just can't resist those!! Sunday was a pretty small for food. I had the other half of my chinese for "breakfast", but it was more like 12 so I guess it would be considered lunch. I didn't have much else if I'm remembering correctly but I really wasn't hungry so I didn't eat. Today I had grilled chicken for breakfast and lunch but with lunch I also had some asparagus. Snacks were 1 hard boiled egg white and string cheese. Nothing else yet but probably an egg white omelette for dinner. I'm doing pretty good with food so that's a relief. That's usually my worst part.

Exercise has been pretty good for the most part. Saturday was awesome! Me, my step-mom, her sister and her sister's dog got up and took a walk at 8. We decided to walk around the lake...10.7 miles!! Wow I still can't believe that I did it!! The first 3 miles seemed the longest. It was hard to get past those but once I did, miles 4-6 just flew by. I was feeling very good and they went super fast. At about mile 7 my feet started hurting. I have insoles in my shoes because I have flat feet that cause kneed problems. Because of those insoles and my knee problems, I have trained myself to walk on the outside of my feet and that's where I was feeling the most pain. Miles 9 and 10 were the worst. My feet were killing me, I could tell I had blisters forming on the outsides of my feet. I finished it though and the only time we stopped was for about 5 minutes and a local bike shop to get some water. I was pretty tired the rest of the day and pretty much layed around. I think that was probably the best for my feet because once Sunday came my feet felt pretty good. I definitely want to do the walk again. Maybe in a month or so once I get used to walking more. I'm going to start walking nightly about 2 miles with my mom and 4 miles with my step-mom on Tuesdays. I am also going to get myself doing more circuits, hopefully daily or close to it.

So for the good news...I lost 4 pounds!! I am currently at 266. Yay, I'm so excited. It's nice when you start to see your hard work pay off, it reminds you why you're working so hard and it makes it worth it!!

Well have a great night everyone!! Good luck in your endeavors and with your goals

Same OId Same Old

Almost Friday!! Hurray!

Things are going pretty much the same, I'm finally getting off of my high that I was on earlier and I'm starting the do that day to day stuggle of trying to find time to work out and making good food decisions.

Food was ok yesterday. Breakfast and snacks were the same, lunch was a sub from subway with no cheese and mustard instead of mayo. (I think I mentioned this in my last post?) When I got home from work though I had a bowl of popcorn and a few gummy bears. Not my greatest moment. Dinner wasn't great either. My mom and I were out shopping until about 7 and at that point I wasn't in the mood to cook so I picked up one of those asian noodle dish thingys at the store. It was in a package and microwavable so basically it was a processed noodle dish with lots of salt. It was 450 calories which wasn't horrible considering I had calories to spare. I had two cups of chocolate milk with dinner though which was probably about 300 calories alone. I'm not sure if dinner pushed me over my limit but I'm sure I was close. After dinner my mom wanted me to go get a sundae with her but I said no. (yay me!) It kind of made me feel bad though so I might buy her one today or tomorrow since I know she loves Dairy Queen Blizzards. I need to go grocery shopping to get more veggies and chicken so I can have my salads again.

I didn't exercise yesterday. I could have, I should have, I just didn't. Today I'm going to see my boyfriend in Milwaukee right after work so I probably won't work out. (Unless you consider some lovin'..ha sorry if that was wayy inappropriate ;-) Anyways I plan on doing a lot of exercise this weekend so that will get me back on track.

P.S I haven't had a soda since Monday...

Yay!

Hump Day ;-)

Happy Hump Day!! Halfway through the week thank god!!

Yesterday was very successful again, which is very exciting! Food was good, exercise was good and I'm feeling good! :-)

Food was about the same as Monday with lots of veggies and chicken. I definitely need to work on water though! Only 1.5L again yesterday and today I haven't had any. :-( I really need to kick that up a notch. Last night for dinner we had scrambled eggs, potatoes, Boca sausage links and hashbrowns. Not the healthiest but I made sure to keep the portions small so I think I did alright. I also had 2 cups of orange juice and a cup of 1% milk. Today food has been about the same again but we ran out of chicken so instead of having a grilled chicken salad for lunch I headed over to subway and got a 6 inch turkey breast sub on white with lots of veggies and mustard instead of mayo (my fav!) I also didn’t have any cheese on the sub because I know how that can rack up the calorie content. I had a can of apple juice with it instead of soda which is big for me because I am a soda-aholic. Food has been pretty easy thus far which I am very happy about, that has always been my downfall.

Exercise yesterday was good as well. My step-mom and I walked 4miles after we got off of work. We did it in about 1hr 10 minutes just like last time. I thought we were walking a little slower because it seemed easier but I think it seemed easier because it was. It was still hard, I was still sweating and out of breath at some points but it was somewhat easier than last time. I know that it will become easier each time we do this which is awesome. Mentally I felt good and physically I felt good. No tight calves, no numb feet or anything of the sort. I have a small blister on the bottom of my left foot but I wasn’t wearing very thick socks so I'm pretty sure that's why. Other than that it was good and refreshing. I look forward to many more of those nights. I didn't lift any weights when I got home though so I'll have to do that tonight so I can tighten up my arms :-)

Great Success...(in your best Borat voice)

Hello everyone, Happy Tuesday!! Things are going very good and yesterday was a great success.

Food yesterday was awesome. For breakfast I had 4oz of grilled chicken breast with about 2tbsp ketchup (I really need to break my ketchup addiction) and about 2 cups 1% milk. For my first snack I had 1 hard boiled egg white with about 3tbsp homemade guacamole. Lunch was a salad with green peppers, red peppers, onions and 4oz of grilled chicken. I also put about 2tbsp fat free bleu cheese dressing on top. My 2nd snack was an apple and string cheese and my 3rd snack was 2tbsp peanut butter. I then made a delicous egg whtie omlette for dinner with green/red peppers, onions, low fat mozarella cheese and a little grilled chicken. I had a cup of green grapes with it and a cup of V8 tomato juice. Today will be mostly the same but I am eating dinner at my dad's so basically whatever he cooks I will be eating. Meals are usually pretty healthy at his house, my step-mom is a vegetarian and they are both health-conscious so it shouldn't be a problem. I only drank about 1.5L of water yesterday so I need to kick that up a notch. I've been trying to not drink any water 30 minutes before or after I eat because I'v e read a lot that doing so takes most of the nutrients from the foods that you are eating. I think I'm going to buy some individual cans of V8 to take to work to drink with lunch. Or maybe like apple juice or something would be good? I'm not sure, any thoughts?

Exercise was also good yesterday. I did my very first circuit and I LOVED it. The time absolutely flew by because I was switching exercises every minute. I think this will definetly be my workout of choice from now on. Yesterday I only did a 20 minute circuit but I was dripping sweat. I'd like to eventually get up to a 45 minute circuit but I knew I couldn't start with that. Last night I did legs and abs. I did 3 leg exercises and 2 ab exercises. Each one lasted 1 minute long and then I moved on to the next. I repeated that circuit twice and walked on the treadmill for 5 minutes after each rotation. I think next time I do it I'll do one more rotation and add another treadmill walk. Eventually I want to be up to 10 exercises and 3 rotations and 3 treadmill walks. That will put me at a 45 minute circuit which should be perfect. Tonight I won't be doing a circuit, instead me and my step-mom will be doing another 4mile walk. Hopefully this time I will have better luck with the calves and feet. I will probably lift some weights afterwards just to get in my arm exercises that I'll be missing by not doing my arm circuit tonight. I've also been looking into joining the Dairyland Walkers Walking Club. Hopefully I can get one of my friends or my mom to join with me because I think it would be really fun.

Well I'm about to eat lunch so I better go. Things are looking up so I hope they are looking up for everyone else as well!! Have a great day!

:-)

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is...

Hello everyone hope you had a great weekend!! So thanks to Prior Fat Girl I am starting the "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" Challenge. My goal by August 1st is to be down 10lbs and FINALLY start this process. From the comments on her blog it looks like most people started last week so I'll be about a week behind but I'm not too worried about that. If I don't meet my goal by August 1st I will be donating $50 to the Wisconsin Children's Hospital - Cancer Center and if I do meet my goal I will buy a new pair of jeans. I currently own none because I'm too afraid to face the music and see what size jeans I am now. I'm guessing I'm somewhere near the 18-20 mark. Yuck.

So last night I went grocery shopping and bought some veggies so I can start back on track eating healthy. I will be logging daily in my food journal again and drinking at least 3L of water a day. So far I'm at about 1 so I'm doing alright. I bought a green pepper, red pepper, onion, avacado and a bag of lettuce so I can start having salads for lunch. I also grilled up some chicken breasts to put in the salad. I bought this really cool salad "container" that has a bowl for your salad and then a top the has a dressing holder and little compartments for other food ( I put my morning snacks in there). In the lid part of it there is an ice pack to keep the salad cold until lunch time. I also bought these little mini containers and chopped up all the veggies I had and put them each in their own container. I knew this was important to do otherwise I would make the excuse every morning that I didn’t have time to cut up the veggies. Now I can just pour a little from each container on my salad with the lettuce and chicken and I'm good to go in about 2 minutes. It's also good for throwing in an omlette quick! I'll probably have an eggwhite omlette for dinner with an apple or piece of fruit. I think I'm headed in the right direction with food and I'm hoping to stay there.

I'm going to exercise tonight since I didn't this morning. I have the house to myself tonight and I have a lot to get done: laundry, cooking dinner, shower, research and exercise. Don't worry exercise is definitely it's on the list! I think I will do a circuit, probably arms or legs. It'll be the first circuit that I'll be throwing together so hopefully I do an alright job.

This weekend really put a lot of things into perspective for me. My family is going on a vacation at the end of June and I had to buy a swimming suit. Blah. I haven't bought a suit in probably 3 years and it was quite embarassing to say the least. I tried on suit after suit and nothing fit. I realized why nothing fit; I haven't really been looking at myself as being that overweight. I know I've gained weight but I still picture myself as 220lbs. I went to try on a XL swimsuit instead of heading straight for the plus size department. I've never shopped in the plus size department and quite frankly I don't ever want to but I know that if I stay doing what I'm doing that's exactly where I'll be. I'm not sure how I got away without doing so for this long but it won't last much longer if I keep this up. I made a promise to myself after I found a swimsuit that fit (size 18! Yikes) that I won't let myself get any worse. In terms of my weight, this is the tip of the iceburg. It's all downhill from here.

:-)

Back on Track...kinda

Happy Hump Day!


Yesterday was an ok day. Food was pretty good I suppose but definetly not excellent. I had an amazing salad for lunch from the local grocery store near my work. They have a salad bar and it's like $4.50 per pound so my salad cost around $3.50 which wasn’t too bad at all. I put in tonssss of veggies and a few chicken strips for some protein. Overall, I drank a little less than 3L of water yesterday. I did really well at work but when I got home I got distracted and forgot to drink more..oops.


Exercise actually wasn't too bad, my step-mom and I did a 4mile walk around our neighborhood. She walks very fast and it was hard to keep up, I was actually about a step or two behind her the whole walk haha and I was huffing and puffing it was kind of embarassing. But I finished without stopping so that was a great accomplishment. I know once I get into the swing of things again with exercise I'll be able to keep up with her and maybe push her a bit as well. Something really weird happened though and I'm not sure why, maybe you guys can give me some insight. Right away my calves were BURNING and really tight. I think this happened for a couple reasons. 1) I was kind of surprised at how fast she was scooting, so I think for the first 5-10 minutes I wasn't really walking properly. 2) My shoes aren't the best for walking so I definetly need to get shoes that are better suited for activity. 3) I forgot to stretch before the walk which I know is ESSENTIAL! Also, about 35 minutes into the walk my right foot went numb. It stayed numb for about 15 minutes and then was fine again. It was really weird. Again I'm not sure if it was my shoes or the fact that I'm an overweight person walking 4 miles?
Hmm I don't know…any thoughts?



Have a wonderful day and night!!

Back and...Better Then Ever??

Hello Again! I've been on hiatus from blogging for what, 2 weeks now? I've still been here enjoying reading what everyone's had to say but I've held off on what I've needed to say just because I felt like reflection was best at this point. I know that losing this weight will not only make me healthier but much happier; however, I somehow cannot seem to convince myself of that when I'm sitting on the couch watching a good show or at 5am when my alarm goes off and without second thought I reset it for 5:50. I'm drinking 2-3 sodas a day and I've had so much McDonald's in the past week I'm considering making a sequel to "Super Size Me". So I've layed out a "baby-steps" game plan because that's the only way I'm ever going to get this ball rolling.


1. I will be drinking 3L of water a day. This will be replacing my disgusting soda habit that I've formed and overall make me feel and look better. I even bought this really cute little water bottle to help inspire me to drink more. (I'm at work now, but I'll post a picture of it when I get home) The water bottle holds about 1/2 L so if I drink about 6-7 of these a day I will hit my 3L a day goal. A good thing about it only holding 1/2 L at a time (I'm trying to think positive here) is that the water fountain at my work is about a 2 minute walk away because it is on the other side of the building. I figure I'll get in a little bit of exercise walking over there a couple times a day.


2. I'm done with fast food. Yep, you read right. I know that you aren't supposed to cut anything out of your life completely like that but really what is fast food good for? It makes me feel sick afterwards because everything is so greasy and fried, it's expensive and it obviously hasn't done anything relatively good to my waistline. It's disgusting and without a doubt my worst enemy. I don't need it in my life nor do I really want it. It's fast and convenient hence the reason I turn to it so much.


3. My eating is getting re-vamped. I did really well for the week or 2 that I stuck to 6 meals a day including healthy snacks. The problem came when I felt like I didn't have enough money to go grocery shopping so I skipped for a week and everything else fell apart. Ironically, I had enough money to eat fast food, just not buy myself anything healthy. Funny how that works huh? Basically it was easier to drive through versus cooking a meal and planning everything out. Well I'm going shopping again and getting lots of veggies, fruits and lean chicken. (I've discovered I'm not really a fan of turkey) I've decided to try to incorporate some of the ideas of the raw food diet into mine. The raw vegetable pasta looks amazingly delicious so I can't wait to try that one :-)


4. Mm the dreaded exercise. I'm trying to get my mind back to how I felt about 2 years ago when I lost 40 pounds and exercised almost everyday. I was sooo happy and looked/felt wonderful. I enjoyed my nightly trips to the gym and didn't mind the exercise. If only I could get in that mind frame again I would be golden. It's no longer an option as to whether or not I get up at 5am. I will get up and I'm not going to let me stop myself any longer. That's what I've been doing for 20 years and look where it got me. I also would like to start walking nightly with my mom. (she walks about 2 miles a night) Me and my friend are starting a weekly walk around the lake (about 14 miles) and every Tuesday night I exercise for 45 minutes with my step mom. When I read everything I'm going to do it looks really good: Circuit train in the morning with weights, cardio at night and a nice long walk on Sunday mornings. Now if all of that actually happens I will be surprised to say the least. But why? Why should I be sooo surprised for being successful? That's a big problem that I'm having. I don't believe in myself and by not believing in myself I'm not really letting anyone (including me) down by not losing weight. So today is the start of believing and knowing that I can do this.


Blah, I hate writing all these "today's the day" and "this is what I'm going to do" posts because I feel like I should only have to write one of those and that would be it. I would stick to it the first time and just be writing posts about how amazing I feel and what I've been doing and all my progress. I guess if I wasn't struggling with this I probably wouldn't have turned to blogging huh? Haha anyways have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!!


...I still miss Biggest Loser :-(