I thought I would NEVER say this but I am actually starting to enjoy my workouts. I think the challenge of making the Fitbit vibrate that I meet my goals has a lot to do with that. I have one complaint though. What the Fitbit considers a mile to be and what my elliptical says is a mile are "miles" apart. You see, I walk for about 25 minutes every day at work. My office is in a converted mall so we have a built in walking track. After my walk yesterday it said I had done about two and a half miles of my five mile goal. When I got on the elliptical last night I did three miles and then synced my Fitbit. It tells me I still have one and a half miles to go to reach my five mile goal! WTH? How is that even possible. I go back on the elliptical and do another mile and a half, sync the Fitbit again and it says i still have a half mile to go! I ended up doing five miles (according to the elliptical) before the Fitbit said I had made my goal. So technically I did a little over seven miles yesterday. I'm going to have to figure out why there is so much difference between the two because I was wore out! On the positive side, I slept AWESOME! (Yet another perk of the Fitbit - knowing how well you slept.)
You have to love that feeling of waking up, pulling out your favorite skinny jeans, slide them on and they aren't as tight as they should me. That's what has happened to me the past few mornings. It feels great! But it's also sad because they were my most comfortable and favorite pairs of jeans. I can still wear them, they just aren't as snug as they used to be. Just another sign that I am moving in the right direction with this diet! It did take me forever to get ready for work this morning because I ran into a problem of every shirt I put on was too big or too tight. I am apparently in that in-between stage/size. Part of the problem is we had a cold snap and all my winter clothes are my "fat" clothes and the new clothes I got from my best friend are spring/summer clothes. So while I do have clothes that fit, they were the wrong season. We are supposed to start warming up later today and have a nice weekend. That's great news for Mardi Gras parades on Saturday & Sunday!
I thought I would NEVER say this but I am actually starting to enjoy my workouts. I think the challenge of making the Fitbit vibrate that I meet my goals has a lot to do with that. I have one complaint though. What the Fitbit considers a mile to be and what my elliptical says is a mile are "miles" apart. You see, I walk for about 25 minutes every day at work. My office is in a converted mall so we have a built in walking track. After my walk yesterday it said I had done about two and a half miles of my five mile goal. When I got on the elliptical last night I did three miles and then synced my Fitbit. It tells me I still have one and a half miles to go to reach my five mile goal! WTH? How is that even possible. I go back on the elliptical and do another mile and a half, sync the Fitbit again and it says i still have a half mile to go! I ended up doing five miles (according to the elliptical) before the Fitbit said I had made my goal. So technically I did a little over seven miles yesterday. I'm going to have to figure out why there is so much difference between the two because I was wore out! On the positive side, I slept AWESOME! (Yet another perk of the Fitbit - knowing how well you slept.)
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I made it to the 16 week mark! As I walked in for my screening visit I was excited. The girl doing my screening was excited for me too. The first thing she said was "Congrats on making it this far! Are you excited to be getting off the shakes?" Of course I answered yes. 16 weeks of the same thing over and over got to be annoying. But when I look at how far I have come since November, the monotony was worth it! As promised in yesterday's blog, here is the latest comparison picture: As I look in the mirror every day, it seems like nothing is happening and I get discouraged. Then I see a comparison like this and I am amazed at the difference. Even my husband, who takes these lovely pictures for me, was surprised at how far I had come. I can't believe how far I have come or how big I actually was. While liking what I see in the mirror is a large part of why I wanted to lose weight, getting healthy was an even bigger part! My blood pressure has gone down a lot, as has my cholesterol. I am no longer at risk of developing diabetes. My knees and joints don't hurt as much as they used to. I don't get as winded just walking across my building. (Let's face it, I'm always going to have that problem because I have asthma, it's just not as bad now because I'm not carrying around extra weight.) I can do 20 minutes of cardio and not have a pounded headache and be close to passing out. It feels good to be me right now and I know it will feel even better when I reach my next goal. Speaking of goals, last night I made my husband laugh. I set a goal through Fitbit to get in the recommended 10,000 steps daily. After doing my elliptical workout I synced the Fitbit only to see I was 622 steps shy of meeting that goal. I immediately turned around and got back on the elliptical until the Fitbit buzzed/vibrated letting me know I had reached my goal. He laughed because he couldn't believe I was going to get back on the "pain machine" to get those steps. The old me would have shrugged and said, "Close enough." Now I want those steps. While it may seem insignificant, those few steps are the difference between being able to eat a piece of King cake this weekend or having to stick to carrot sticks. Dammit, I want that piece of King Cake! I decided I needed a new profile picture for my Facebook page and since I wore a really cute outfit today I had a coworker take a picture. The outfit I am wearing is all normal size clothes! Nothing is plus size. It feels good to be able to wear clothes that don't have a W behind the size. When I posted both the comparison picture and the new profile picture to Facebook I got a lot of responses. Everyone kept going on and on about how great I look and what a great job I am doing with the weight loss. It's that type of motivation that makes this diet easier. Here's my new profile picture: Thanks again to everyone who has encouraged me along the way and continues to push me and help me along this journey. You are appreciated far more than you realize!
During Monday's group session we talked about our successes and struggles. Most were dealing with temptations and avoiding them, etc. My biggest struggle seems to be meeting the goals I have set for myself. I am great at setting goals; I just fail with the follow through. That's probably why I have a Rubbermaid bin in my garage full of pictures that STILL need to be put in scrapbooks.
My brother's girlfriend has loaned me her Fitbit Flex and I must say it is helping me with my activity goal problem. For one, it gives me alerts when I have reached a goal. It also allows me to compete with friends on nutrition and fitness goals. It scared the crap out of me yesterday. When I met my 10,000 steps goal and it started vibrating I just about jumped out of my skin. I also like how it tracks my sleep and lets me know how much rest I am getting at night and how many times I am restless. The only think I don't like is that it will not connect with my phone. I have an iPhone 4 and it will only sync with an iPhone 4s or higher. That makes keeping up with my calories burned and my steps difficult because I have to wait until I get home in the evening to sync it up. But, I would still like to get one of my own. If I do, I will just have to upgrade my phone! It's time to anyway. I have to give a BIG shout out to my best friend Adrienne! She has been cleaning out her closet and she gave me 3 huge bags of clothes yesterday. I was able to wear about 75% of what she gave me. I can actually go into my closet now and find something that fits! And the best part is that she said she didn't even make a dent it her closet. That means there's more to come. I'm happy to take hand-me-downs. There's no shame in that, especially in today's economy. Plus, it's recycling which is good for the environment. Tomorrow is my 16 week screening visit. I can't believe it has been four months already. People at my office are telling me how great I look and what a great job I am doing with this diet. I have to tell you, it feels good to hear folks say that. No matter how tough this diet has been or will be, to be able to hear people tell you how great you look and they are proud of the progress you have made, that just makes it all worth it. I will be taking my progress picture this evening so be on the lookout for it tomorrow. Spring will be here soon and the thought of shopping has me a little down. Trust me, I want to go shopping, I just don't want to spend the money. So I decided, let's go shopping in my closet and dresser. I have a whole drawer in my dresser that is nothing but capri pants and shorts that I haven't worn for years. Then there's the whole back section of my closet that is nothing but shirts and pants that I haven't been able to squeeze into for who knows how long. To my surprise, most of the items I pulled out fit or were pretty close to fitting.
First up was a pair of denim capri pants. They were a size 16. Not 16W but 16. They fit perfect! In fact, I venture to guess they won't fit so well here in a month or so. Next up was a pair of white capri pants that I bought and only wore once. They were actually a little big. Then I pulled out my Dockers khakis in size 16W short. They are very close to being too big. I had to tighten my belt really tight to keep them up. I only tried a few shirts but one of them I decided to wear today. It's a cute purple shirt with purple and white flowers on it from Old Navy. It's an extra large and I am close to swimming in it! It feels so good! I really have to get my behind in gear with the exercise though. I haven't really done much this week. I've been so busy with work and school, by the time I get everyone situated at home I am wiped out. I know that is no excuse. I need to make the time to do it. Today I have been running from one end of the office to the other and they told us Monday that any movement, no matter how much, is better than being sedentary. I'm going to try and get a few laps in around the building this afternoon. I have to enjoy it while I can because they told us we are moving downtown to the Claiborne building in a few months. I won't be able to do my walks in a nice climate controlled facility once we move. I haven't posted a picture in a while so I thought now was as good a time as any. The picture below was taken at a co-worker's retirement party last Friday. (Valentine’s Day) You can see I am starting to get a more defined waist. Next week I hit my 16 week mark and I will take another comparison picture. I'm really anxious to see how it turns out. Happy Wednesday! I know, I know. I said I was not going to complain any more, but today I'm making an exception to the rule. No one particularly likes Mondays, but today has been particularly rough.
First, I have a MAJOR toothache. I mean, it hurts to drink water. I am literally living on Aleve and oragel. I got a Diet Coke when I was at the CVS getting the oragel and I am waiting on it to warm up. The cold kills me! I know you are thinking, "Go to the dentist," but have you seen a dentist lately for something other than a checkup? You have to take out a loan to get any work done and that's with insurance. Right now, I am just going to have to live with the pain for a while. (Maybe I'll get lucky and my husband or I will win the Powerball Wednesday night!) Second, my child had a meltdown this morning about going to school. I have NEVER had her act like that about going to school. She was shaking and crying that she was scared to go. We have found out that she is being bullied and that one of the key attacks is about her glasses. She is in kindergarten! When I was in kindergarten we were too busy getting to know each other and playing to worry about how a child looks. This makes me so very sad. It's hard to imagine that at five years old, my daughter is already getting teased about her looks. Thank goodness for great people in her life that continue to lift her up. It's going to be a long road ahead though. Why is it that people think it is okay to make fun of others about their looks? Why is it that people look the other way when their children pick on another child who is different? We have worked very hard to raise a child who is tolerant of others and embraces differences. I think that is why it hurts so much that she is being picked on over her glasses. She's so cute in them. She gets complimented on them everywhere we go. It's just sad. We attended our first Mardi Gras parades of the season this weekend. These were two smaller parades in the New Orleans area so we were not out there all day. That test comes this weekend with the rolling of several parades in Baton Rouge. The Krewe of Artemis parade rolls Friday evening at 7:00 and then on Saturday the Krewe de Mystique de la Capitale and the Krewe of Orion roll through downtown Baton Rouge. Saturday will be an adventure as there will be a couple of hours in between the two parades. We will be parading with my brother, his girlfriend and my sister. We plan to do a picnic dinner. Now normally a parade picnic will consist of Popeye's Chicken, snacks, at least one king cake, drinks and other sweets. This year we are trying to plan a more healthy parade picnic for me and Amanda, my diet buddy! I know for sure we will have vegetables and fruit. I will be almost to my 16 week status and the start of my new 1200 calorie menu, so maybe I will pull some ideas from there. In any case, it should be an interesting parade picnic. So I gave in and went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. I'd had enough of the coughing and being tired all the time. After waiting an hour, the doctor finally came in to see me. He ordered a flu and strep test, chest x-ray, blood panel and a breathing treatment. After all that the diagnosis was bronchitis with a touch of "pre-flu". Basically, my white blood cell count was up indicating some sort of viral infection, possibly the early stages of the flu. Two antibiotics, prescription cough syrup and an inhaler later I am feeling better. I haven't been coughing near as much. My cough medicine makes me very dizzy and drowsy though. I told my boss that if she looked in my office and I seemed drunk, it was just my cough syrup. I wasn't having hot toddy's at work. (Although that would probably clear me right up too!) The doctor also gave me a prescription for Tamiflu, just in case I start getting fever and the aches and pains associated with the flu.
I haven't got a good workout in this week and that has me a little down. I know I need to do it, but I am just so tired. I tried walking on Wednesday but it made my chest hurt. We're going to a few Mardi Gras parades this weekend so I'll at least get some exercise in running after the kids and beads! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine's Day. I thought not getting any candy or sweets today would make me sad, but to be honest, I don't miss it at all. My husband called to ask me out on a date tonight and that made me smile. It's the little things. Chocolate and flowers are nice, but being asked out on a date by the father of my children made me feel more special than any flowers or candy could! Today I had my 14 week screening visit. As they called me back, the nurse looked at me and said, "14 weeks. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel can't you?" Yes, yes I can.
I lost another 3.7 pounds in the last two weeks. That brings my total lost (according to their scales which add 3 pounds of clothing) to 35.4 pounds since November. I literally have lost the equivalent of my five year old daughter! It feels good. My boss told me today that she's starting to see a more defined waist when she looks at me. (Making the hour glass shape with her hands while she talked.) I put on a pair of pants the other day and they were HUGE on me. When I put a belt on with them, they bunched up so bad it looked like they had pleats! I really like those pants too. Sorry to see them go, but not really! I will have to get a new favorite pair of pants now. Today, when they handed me my bag of shakes and soup, they also gave me a post card. The nurse said this was how to get more shakes if I felt like I needed them to supplement the 1200 calorie menu my nutritionist gave me. I take that as a sign that the bag the handed me will be my last! I looked at her and said thanks, but if I didn't see another Health One shake/soup mix for a long time, it would be too soon! She laughed and said she understood. So when I go for my 16 week screening, I will start my new 1200 calorie menu. I can't wait! I can have so many things back that I have missed. The nurse also suggested I go see my primary care physician for this head cold I am battling. She said my blood pressure was up and I had a little bit of a fever. She asked how long I had been dealing with this and I said a few days. It kind of just slammed into me out of nowhere Monday night, Tuesday morning. She asked if I had had my flu shot and I said yes. She asked if I knew which one they gave me, I said no. She said there are several strains going around and to be safe, she was suggesting I see my doctor. Now, I don't have the major aches and pains you hear about when people talk about having the flu, but I am going to err on the side of caution. I called my PCP and was told he could not see me until this time next week. This is the third time I have tried to get in to see him and been told he is too busy and I should just go to the urgent care clinic. So, needless to say I am on the look out of a new PCP and I will be leaving work at noon today to go to the Lake After Hours Clinic. Thanks doc! Instead of paying a $15 copay to see you, I have to pay $25 to see someone else. It's just aggravating. I wish my kids' pediatrician would see me. He always gets them in the same day! I ran into Albertson's last night to pick up ingredients to make my husband some Red Beans and Rice for dinner and right by the register was something that caught my eye. It was a new popcorn snack from Popcorn Indiana that is only 37 calories per cup! I was giddy with excitement. On top of that, Albertson's had them 10 for $10! Double the excitement. I grabbed 3 bags. I sent the link to their website along with the nutrition information to my nutritionist and she wrote me back that it looks like a great snack food and to just be sure to stay within my calorie limit. No arguments here! This stuff is delicious! Of course, the kids got excited about it and I looked them both square in the eyes and said, "This is mommy's special diet popcorn. YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY!" I know, I'm a horrible mom, but those too would eat the whole bag in one sitting!
Also, have you seen this gadget called the Fitbit? My boss got one for her birthday and it is the neatest thing. It links up with My Fitness Pal and it keeps track of your movement, the intensity of your activity and get this, how well you are sleeping! I gotta have one of these. It encourages you when you need it, it lets you know if you have burned more calories than you have taken in (meaning you get to eat a little more) and it let's you compete against friends. Now that's cool. I really want one. One of the major things that separates my success with this diet program from the failure of others is the care and attention provided to me by Pennington. I reached out to my nutritionist with my concerns about stress eating and she called me directly and spent more than an hour on the phone with me discussing what my triggers were, what was and wasn't working for me and how I can deal with it in the future. It was wonderful to know that someone out there besides my immediately family cared about my success and wants to see me continue with my weight loss. Talking to her really helped. I now have a new strategy in fighting my stress fueled cravings.
Prior to her calling me she sent me an email letting me know that she would like to increase my calorie intake since I was in week 14 of the program. She asked for my current height, weight, age and activity level and the time I spend exercising each week. I responded to her, let her know the information she needed as well as letting her know about my issues with stress. Her responding email was a ray of sunshine in my gloomy day. Starting with week 16 (unless the tell me otherwise at my screening visit this Thursday) I can increase my calorie intake from 900 to 1200 calories daily. I can also start adding protein back into my diet as well as a limited amount of dairy. You have no idea how this excites me! She even sent me a 28 page sample menu for 2 weeks to help me plan out my meals. I can't wait to start this new menu. Some of the items listed...whole wheat bagel with 1tbs of cream cheese, beef taco (no cheese), chicken breast, pork chop, beef roast, raisin bran...the list goes on. Although I know that in order to keep up my weight loss, this means I will have to keep my activity level up or increase it. Our group session was short last night, just 45 minutes instead of the hour and a half we are supposed to meet. We had a guest lecturer who talked about the choosemyplate.gov website. If you have not been to this site you should go. It is a fountain of knowledge. One of my favorite things is the fact that they have done away with the food pyramid and instead have a plate that shows how much of protein, dairy, grain, fruit, vegetable and oils you should have on your plate. It's a much easier diagram to understand than the traditional food pyramid that I grew up with. I encourage you to check the site out. They have a lot of great tips on eating healthy. Stress...I've been under a lot of it the past week and I am starting this week off with it too. I won't go into what is causing the stress but let me just say, it is wreaking havoc with my mind, body and soul. Tonight in our group session we are scheduled to talk about stress eating briefly. It could not come at a more perfect time. Usually, I will eat and eat and eat when I am stressed. Right now, I am being good about it. I haven't given in to my temptations or cravings. What is it about stress that cause me to crave salty & sweet foods? I decided to do a little internet research before this evening's class. I found a really interesting chart on helpguide.org and saw it again on stress.about.com. Here it is:
- Emotional hunger comes on suddenly. Physical hunger comes on gradually. - Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be satisfied instantly. Physical hunger can wait. - Emotional hunger craves specific comfort foods. Physical hunger is open to options–lots of things sound good. - Emotional hunger isn't satisfied with a full stomach. Physical hunger stops when you're full. - Emotional eating triggers feelings of guilt, powerlessness, and shame. Eating to satisfy physical hunger doesn't make you feel bad about yourself. That pretty much sums up how I have been feeling. I have tried exercising, but it hasn't helped. This stress is deeper. It's more of an anxiety borderline depression. There are times when even the thought of eating something makes me sick to my stomach. Then there are times that I REALLY want to eat some Tiger Stadium nachos and hot dog followed by a big hunk of Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro Turtle Cheesecake.
I have reached out to our group session leader in the hoped that we can go a little deeper into stress eating that was planned for this evening. I am sure it is a discussion that would benefit us all. Fingers crossed that what is causing the stress/anxiety will be remedied soon. Thanks for the continued support and encouragement. It helps! |