Slow to Change

Hello!  I hope this finds you well.  As I sit here and write I've been thinking of a pattern that has been developing in my weight loss journey.  Though I've been losing, or at least, maintaining my weight I haven't been losing as much as I could.  I find that I've fallen into a pattern with my exercise.  Though I've been pretty good with what I've been eating and my portions, I haven't been doing as much as I can when it comes to exercising. 

I think that part of it is that I've been sick.  First, a couple of weeks ago, it was a double ear infection.  This week my doctor said I had strep, and now I think allergies are kicking in, (thank you cedar fever!).  However, it seems that I don't go to the gym the first part of the week and then at the end of the week I really hit it hard.  I suppose now that I've seen the pattern I can work towards changing it.  I guess some things are just slower to change than others.

In other updates, I tried something that I saw on Pinterest that I had pinned onto my Motivation board!  Here's the results:

One is for the pounds that you've already lost while the other one is for the pounds you have left to lose.  Each stone is a pound.  It's a good visual and helps to put your goal into a bit more perspective.  Plus, it's a daily reminder of the work I have left to do to reach my goal.  I look forward to the day when the jars look the opposite of each other!

Well, that's about all for the moment.  Until I blog again!

1 Week Later....

So it's been a bit over a week since I last wrote.  I'm still doing the Daniel's Fast and unfortunately haven't been to the gym in about 2 weeks.  YIKES!  I know.  Remember in my previous post when I mentioned getting sick?  I thought it was a passing thing, you know, my body not happy with the junk that I was eating after eating healthy, but I was wrong.  After a week of feeling sick, running low on sick time at work, and a particularly nasty nausea spell I went to the doctor.  What was the mystery illness?  Both my ears were infected, the inner ear to be exact.  Fun, huh?  So, it is my goal this week to get back to the gym now that I'm feeling better and have dealt with the infection.

Some good news, I'm down to 214 as of Saturday.  My measurements continue to go down as well, much faster actually than my weight has been.  Also, I got my first compliment!  On Monday night my roommate came up and told me, "Hey, you've been losing weight, haven't you?  I just really noticed.  Whatever you're doing, keep it up!"  That felt good, to have someone see the results that I've been feeling and starting to see in myself.  It makes me want to work that much harder and adds fuel to the proverbial fire!

Aside from those few things, I have nothing new to share. 

Until next time!

Birthday Week

Hello!

Well, last Tuesday was my birthday.  I'm now officially 26!  As it was my birthday last week, I was celebrating from Tuesday until Friday, (since some of my friends couldn't make it to celebrate during the week), which means my eating habits slipped a bit. Oh dear!  I didn't even log my calories for the majority of the week.  I suppose we all have weeks like that though.  Unfortunately, I paid for it by getting sick.  I have no idea what bug I managed to pick up, since there's so many going around, but I did and I still am not feeling 100%.

Things are getting back on track though food wise.  My church started is corporate fast today...er, I mean, yesterday.  We're doing the Daniel's Fast for 21 days.  Think of it as a vegan type diet but more extreme as we can't have bread, caffeine or sugar where as vegan's can.  I've been looking forward to this fast for various reasons.  Mostly spiritual reasons, but the added benefit is the weight loss.  It's also a great detox because you're not eating anything refined, drinking nothing but water, and eating a bunch of fruits and veggies.

There's a tumblr account that's called #reasonstobefit that have some great motivational posters.  The one that I would make for this tumblr is "So that I don't have to wear control top anything anymore."  That's one of my goals for becoming more healthy and fit.  I want to be able to wear the outfits that I want to without having to wear anything that's "control top" or "shaping".  I can't wait for that day!  It'll take lots of work, but I'll get there!

Well, that's all for now.  Until next time!

Complete Free Day

Hello!

I hope you had a great weekend!  I know that I sure did!  I kept my promise to myself and went to the gym on Saturday and made up for my lazy Friday.  I got there and starting working out at 7:45am.  I did the treadmill for a little while, then did a Bodypump class at 8:15, followed by a spin class at 9:45.  After the gym I went home and spent a couple of hours cleaning, which burned more calories.  After that it was a pretty quiet Saturday!

Sunday I did my usual thing.  I went to church for Sunday School and service.  I did do some dancing during service, enough to work up a sweat!  Eating after church on Sunday, well, I had a burger and fries and some ice cream after that.  Yeah, not the best of days for me food wise!  lol!

Monday I didn't go to the gym, but ate well.  Now Tuesday, well, yesterday was my birthday.  I'm now officially 26! lol!  I didn't count any calories or go to the gym, it was a complete free day for me.  However, everything comes with a price!  Yesterday's free day means that I have to work that much harder for the rest of the week, starting today.  I already have a couple of classes that I want to go to later on tonight.  I'm a bit tired from the beginning of the week so I think I'll go to the gym this evening instead of this morning. 

Besides that, things are going fairly well.  I know that I'm going to regret waiting 3 days to go to the gym, but that's life.  I've been thinking about getting a month pass for drop-in classes that include ballet and bollywood dance for fitness.  Either that or getting a few sessions with a personal trainer at my gym.  Any thoughts? 

That's it for now.  I'll write more later.

Lazy Friday

Hello!

I hope you had a good and productive Friday! Myself? Well, it could have been a little more productive. lol! I was planning on going to the gym this morning with my friend, but it was cold & raining/sleeting out so we decided to go later. Yeah, that didn't happen. lol!

On the plus side, I have some things at home to help me workout. You don't need a gym to stay fit ya know. That's one of the main excuses people use for being overweight: "I can't afford a gym membership" or "There's not gyms close to my home/work for me to join". Granted, I've been guilty using the same excuse, but as the old saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way"!

So today I did a bit of work at home instead of going to the gym. I have a Gold's Gym brand stability ball, a Gold's Gym brand total-body fitness kit (includes resistance bands of various types, jump rope, and handles), a 10LB kettlebell, and 2 5LB hand weights. I want to add pieces slowly to this little home gym of mine. Heavier hand weights, more kettlebells, a mat. Anyway, I did some jump rope for cardio, did some work with a resistance band, and the weights (hand & kettle). Overall I spent about 30 mins working out.

I know 30 mins isn't a whole lot but I look at it like this: A) at least I did some activity today, B) I'm still sore from yesterday's workout so I look at today as a down day & C) I plan to tare it up at the gym tomorrow. And that, my friends, is why I must bid you ado so that I can go get my fitness sleep! Must get plenty of sleep to help shed pounds. Plus, I don't want to be fatigued for my workout tomorrow. G'night!

One Day at a Time

Hello there!

Well, the last 24 hours have been rather uneventful.  I went to my gym yesterday and torched some calories at my spin class.  I hadn't worked out since Saturday and oh Lord could I feel it!  It felt like I was going to die!  lol!  Ok, maybe I'm over exaggerating a little.  I guess I learned my lesson though, never go so long between workouts.  I think I may try the new water Zumba class that they're offering at my gym.  It's something a bit different and it'd be easier on my joints.

I'm excited about this weight lose journey of mine!  I don't know why this time feels different than all the other times that I've tried.  I guess I have a new found motivation, a new found passion to be healthy and workout.  It's kind of weird, almost like I want to become a health nut. lol!  I feel like I really want to put myself out there and show people through my journey that it's possible.  I know I'm not morbidly obese, nothing you'd find on one of those Extreme Makeover shows or anything, but I'd still like to make an impact.

I've been overweight really all my life, it wasn't until my early 20's that I really started packing on the pounds.  I suppose I have no one to blame but myself for that.  I'm not going to sit here and pretend that society or my friends made me fat.  They didn't put the utensils or fast food in my hand, hold a gun to my head and force me to eat it.  It's all personal choice, and I made some bad ones.  I think that really that's one of the first steps in weight loss, admitting that you did this to yourself.  Take ownership over the choices, the poor choices, that you made to get you where you are now and realize that you have to start making better choices to get you to where you want to be.

I know that in the past I've stopped because I hit a plateau early on in my weight loss journey.  I think it's because I need to change up my workouts a bit so my body doesn't get into a comfort zone.  I also get impatient with not seeing the results that I want right away.  I guess that's part of the society that we live in though, the microwave generation.  We want everything and we don't want to wait for it.  In some respects, I'm just as guilty.  However, this go around I've noticed that I'm seeing results even after this couple of weeks.  Maybe it's my new found positive outlook, or maybe it's just that I'm taking the time to appreciate the small little victories OR maybe it's because I'm doing something better this time around then the previous ones?  Either way, I'm liking it!

Ok, So, I decided to add some pictures of myself.  I guess you can consider these "before" pictures.  I'll add some as I go on.  I think it helps to see pictures of progression, not only as a sort of motivation but also because a lot of people are visual, and let's face it, being overweight looks different on everyone.  I did, and will continue, to crop others out.  It's one thing to post pictures of myself but another to post pictures of other people without their consent. 

 

 Taken October 13th, 2012

Taken October 20th, 2012

Taken December 7th, 2012

 

Taken December 23rd, 2012

So there ya go!  Some "before" pictures.  I'll continue to post some as time goes on, and I'll even try to get some pictures in the same outfits for a better comparison.  With that, I hope y'all have a great day!

It Starts....Again

   Welcome to my blog!  I'm sure there are plenty of blogs out there of people chronicling their weight loss adventures, or mishaps, or what have you: I now count myself among them!  I've had this tendency in the past to start a blog, keep up with it for a bit, then slowly fade away from it, but I'm hoping that this will not be one of those.
   As my very first entry I suppose that it's only fair to give you a little intro to myself.  If you're one of those people that don't read the "About Me" section of profiles, (it's ok if you don't), then you don't know that I'm 26 and a female, (really, that's about all I put in it so you didn't miss much anyway!).  Those are facts one and two about moi, the very basics. :)  I have a fairly, ok very, sedentary job which means it's easy to gain weight and difficult to lose, (here's seeing if I can change that!).  A lot of my weight gain I attribute to stress and poor food choices while I was in school.  I gained 40 pounds during my senior year of undergrad...and here I thought you were suppose to gain the weight during your freshmen year?  Not in my case.
    So here I sit, at a not so healthy 217 pounds as of today with a height of 5'8".  My goal weight is 140, a whopping 77 pounds to lose.  I know weight isn't everything, that's why I measure myself as well, but I may not post that info....we'll see.  I know that I am considered "obese" and I don't like it.  I want to be healthy, be able to walk up stairs without getting winded, for my clothes to fit better, etc, etc, thus why I'm getting more serious about this battle then ever before.
    Right now my method of madness is exercising 4-5 times a week and cutting my calorie intake.  I got the MyFitnessPal app for my iPhone and have started counting calories.  I actually already started all of this a couple of weeks ago.  Why wait for the holidays to end to start being healthy?  So far I've lost 4.2 pounds, (I started at 222), have lost 2 inches off my waist and 2.5 from my hips.
     As for the exercise portion, cleaning my house helps, as does walking everyday, to burn some extra calories.  However, my main sources of exercise come in the form of classes at my local 24 Hour Fitness.  I love spin classes and Zumba is fun.  I also do weights and spend time on the treadmill.  
     When it comes to the calorie portion, I'm sticking to 1250 calories a day.  I have to say that the fitness pal app is really helping.  It makes me more conscious of what and how much I'm eating.  Every little change helps!  I've been staying away from sodas and drinking more water.  I do still drink coffee, as this is a vice for me.  I'm hoping to give it up though and switch to tea, which I know is better for me.  I still go out to eat, but I make sure to order off the lower calorie menu, which pretty much every restaurant has.  If they don't, then I look up the nutrition info on my phone and order a lower calorie option.  Something else that helps is when your meal comes to ask for a box right away.  Box half of the meal before you even start eating, if it's not on your plate then you won't be tempted to eat after your already full.
     So that's it in a nut shell.  I'm getting serious about it again and going to stick to it.  I'm hoping that if I keep up with MyFitnessPal app, the website that goes with it, and this blog that it will help keep me going.  I've tried having a weight loss buddy in the past, NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, LoseIt!, and various crash diets but none of that has worked.  So, here's hoping that with this new year my new approach will work better than years past and methods past.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.....