Inspiration

One of my friends has been losing weight too. She was probably about as heavy as I was/am. And now she is amazingly small!

She is such an inspiration! So I asked her how she did it and she told me what I knew to be true - that she just trimmed down by eating smaller portions and exercising. She specifically said that she uses interval training on the treadmill and she only eats until she is no longer hungry, as opposed to eating until she is full.

It got me thinking about my own diet and exercise plans.

I still haven't broken it down for you all the things that I don't like about the JM.com meal plan, but the size of the meals is one of my problems with it. In general I don't need to eat that much food and being poor I can't afford to eat that much good quality food. It's just too damned expensive. For instance today I went to the store to buy myself some food... I purchased a bag of fresh spinach, a bag of frozen corn, and a 6 pack of eggs. I was not going to buy anything else because I haven't really got the money for anything else...but Knorr brand rice side dishes were on sale buy one get one...so I decided to buy them - even though I can't even pretend they are in any way healthy. I'm trying to cut down on my carbs, but they are filling and so damn cheap. I can't get filled up as efficiently on spinach.

If I am mindful I can make one package of that rice last for 3 or 4 meals easy and I might even be able to spread it farther if I am creative with my food.  It would be difficult to make the spinach last as long and the spinach cost nearly twice what i paid for both bags of rice mix. :/ Granted they were bogo. But that still means that 1 bag of rice for $1.60 = (lets be conservative) 3 meals. A cost of $0.54 per serving where as the bag of spinach cost $2.50 = (being generous) 4 meals. A cost of  $0.63 per serving.... I guess thats not that big of a difference. However I can eat just the rice and fee that not only have I filled my tummy, but that it was a tasty and satisfying way to do that. For the spinach to do that I need to add something tot he meal...a dressing and protein etc. That adds to the cost. It is very difficult for me to eat healthy when I am wondering if I will have enough money get to work (gas/tolls etc).

Sigh.

No one said it would be easy. And if I can work on shrinking my stomach it will make it cheaper to buy groceries, as I can stretch the foods I east.

Here's is today's damage:

Breakfast: Belvita biscuits and red bull

Lunch: 1/3 a Knorr rice bag with added - fresh spinach, frozen corn, frozen mango, diced red pepper, frozen peas, and 4 turkey meat balls

Dinner: Not yet eaten.

Exercise: 50 minutes on the elliptical and 15 min of stretches and random exercises (squats, push ups, chest press)

Weight: 197

Working on goals? 

Not really. I have skipped soda at work the last 2 days I worked. But I ate fried food so it kind of balances ( one step forward - one step back). I have not been logging my food here or anywhere.

(Roughly) 1 Month In

I started this weight loss journey again on January 15th 2014. Though it is only the 12th I suspect I will be too busy on Saturday to write so I will go ahead and check in today.

Hows it going?

Ok.

Food?

Cooking slightly more than I was before. The blog is most definitely helping in that respect. I want to show people new recipes...If I'm going to do that I'm going to have to cook new things. So yeah that's am improvement. I still have some serious road blocks. I want convenience foods to east especially at breakfast. And doubly so on the days I work which was only 3 days a week all of January but starting this week I will be getting 4 days of work each week...for the foreseeable future.

So what am I eating? I have reintroduced myself to oatmeal on my days off...which I do really love. I wish i could easily obtain coconut yogurt as I like Swiss Breakfast even more than oatmeal but I can't eat dairy. My sister found a pin about making your own yogurt...mayhaps I will look into trying that out with coconut milk, which I can get all day long. On my days I work I eat Belvita Breakfast Biscuits.  I like these, they are at least reasonable as far as nutrition and you really cant find argument with their convenience.  Occasionally I will eat a banana on the way to work, or on my days off for that matter.

Lunch is often whatever I can scavenge around work or the house. If i'm at work I'm normally eating a bowl of soup or some noodles with cream soup instead of sauce. Occasionally I will take the time or effort to make a wrap sandwich. Rarely will I eat fries, even though they are available all day - every day I am at work. If I'm home, I will likely eat some convenience protein - frozen meatballs, frozen chicken nuggets - and I will pair that with salsa or frozen vegetables (warmed up of course) and most of the time I will make a starch like a slice of frozen garlic bread or a bundle of noodles.

Unless I have cooked for the blog that day that is what dinner will look like on my days off too. On the days I work I often will eat a dollar menu item from a fast food location on my way home. But Since starting the diet I have not once stopped at Dunkin Donuts on my way home, so that's good right?! My financial situation (only working 3 days a week really bites into your wallet) has prevented me from getting take out except for 2 or 3 times all year. Again that's pretty good, right? I'd like to say I'm not tempted to eat the unhealthy take out Chinese food, but I check my bank balance nearly every day (at least mentally) to check and see if I can buy it.

Liquid calories...

So yeah...I drink Red Bull. But I only have 1 a day. This is not only due to financial concerns, but I am being a responsible person here. I feel like Red Bull is maybe not the best thing to drink. I really should drink more water. It would be easy for me to drink water at work...especially since soon they will be swapping the soda contract at work from Pepsi to Coke. As long as they don't get Mello Yello on the fountain at work I will have no problem switching to water. I can put the MiO back into my purse and I will swap to water...I'm promising myself to make that change this coming month. Also I want to get into drinking more tea. Research has said lots of great things about tea (yeah the link goes to Teavana but the sources cited on the link are to honest to goodness research). I don't care for the tannin taste but I could learn to like it.

Exercise?

Back in December - before I rededicated myself to losing weight - I went to the gym only a single time. I have been averaging 2 times a week this past month. Not bad...Not good... But not bad. I like seeing improvement. And i can see improvement in the coming month as well.

Blogging...

Massive improvement in the blogging front. It had been literally Years since I had written anything. and now I have 5 (counting this one) posts in the last month. I would like to blog at least a brief food journal check-in every day. And I would like to have more articles and more recipes. I want to really become active on this blog. That would be awesome.

Results So far...

Weight 199  from a starting weight of 206 So a total loss of 7 pounds in 4 weeks!

Inches...I only measured my waist anf hips when i started this...Though I feel like I should measure more things and track them here starting this month. But at any rate my Starting waist was 44.5 and is now 42.0 and my Hips were 49.5 and are now 49.0. So I have lost inches.

Dress Size...No change yet. But my size 16s which is what I was wearing at the start of this are getting pretty lose. Probably only a few pounds away from size 14.

Goals.

In the coming month (by March 15th) I will lose an additional 5 pounds, and be wearing a size 14. I will also be able to sustain 30 minutes on the Arc trainer. And I would like to break the 12 minute mile on the elliptical trainer. (I can't seem to get the photo to post facing the right side up...what ever. This is from Feb4 Just over 13 minutes for my mile on the elliptical trainer.)


Plan.

I will eat more protein at breakfast. I will try out and hopefully find an better alternative to the breakfast biscuits for my work morning breakfasts. I will go to work out 3 days every week. I will log my food every day at JM.com and I will also log them here every night.I will write no less than 1 article every week and 1 recipe every week.

Absolute Beginners

So as I wrote about last week...I have started using the BodyBug activity monitor in conjunction with Jillian Michaels.com (JM.com). I laid out the general info about the site but I only alluded to my personal complaints with the site. Today I'm going to cover my issue with the exercise routine that the website has offered to me as its beginner workout plan.

This...more than anything else...proves to me that Jillian Michaels is not actually involved in the website. In theory, she knows that a beginner would look like (Biggest Loser competitor) however she has this incredibly challenging setup for the workout listed as for the beginner.

First off I want to say that I do not consider myself to be a beginner...I'm more like an out of shape dabbler. I never go for more than a month without going to the gym...but I seldom go more than 3 times a week. When I signed up for the program I was given options for the level of experience I had in the gym. I selected beginner, because I wanted to make sure I had the basics down before I advanced too far. I expected the exercises to be not exactly easy...but I did expect them to be do-able.

I realize that exercise is important for weight loss. It needs to be a part of everyones day-to-day life. But I have difficulty doing an exercise routine everyday (How will I ever get it to be routine if I don't work at it everyday?!) JM.com wants me - the beginner - to work out 5 days out of 7. I'm really not sure this is a possibility for any real beginners either for reasons of lifestyle or ability. For me the big issues here are:

1.) I work 9-12 hour shifts and simply don't have the energy or location I can use at 5 am to exercise before my shift.

2.) I'm really sore the day after I do these exercises and need a rest day between or something as I'm not going to be able to do these exercises every day.

More importantly, I feel. I'm not that much of a beginner. What are these exercise expectations going to look like to a true absolute beginner? If you weigh over 300lbs are you going to do squat presses?! No, of course not! It would fuck your knees up.

Here is an example of one of the circuit training routines you - as a beginner- would be asked to do:

Not a bad routine if you are already in shape but not for a weak ass obese person like me. I do what I can in hopes that by pure stubbornness I will get to the point that I can do all of these exercises.

I think that its terrible that JM.com doesn't have truely begining exercises so I'm going to come up with some truely beginner exercises to share with you all so I can do my part to help everyone get healthy.

Here's is today's damage:

 Breakfast: Nothing I was feeling really sick so I stayed in bed until 11

 Lunch: Ham sandwich with mayo and a red bull

 Dinner: Not yet eaten.

 Exercise: Not yet...But now that I'm feeling better I'm feeling like hitting the gym.

Weight:  201

One Year Later

Renewing my commitment.

I promise to cook. I promise to go to the gym. I promise to be aware of my drinking. I promise to avoid Ramen.

But like all New Year's Resolutions these will have no power if I don't do something else first...

I must schedule them.

My new iPod will be the best friend I can have for this purpose. If I schedule it I will have another layer of accountability. And the iPod has a calendar built into it. I will cook on Mondays and Saturdays. I will go to the gym on Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I will Blog on Thursdays and Sundays and/or Mondays.

Short term goal...

To lose 10 lbs by the end of February

Mid-length goal...

To lose an additional 10 lbs by June

Longer term goal...

To lose an additional 10 lbs by Labor Day

Obstacles...

My new lifestyle...I have recently begun going out to the club much more regularly and the drinking has therefore increased. Unlike last year I am not willing to forgo the alcohol for the weight loss. This means I will have to work doubly hard and be more aware of my alcohol intake.

The continuation of my former lifestyle...In that I am working 2 part time jobs and still broke. I need to remember to eat breakfast even though I am generally frazzled in the mornings, and more difficult...eat lunch after I have been cooking for 4 hours or so. Working with food really kills my appetite.

Original starting weight...207lbs (or so)

Current weight...186lbs

2009 weight goal...156lbs

Ultimate weight goal...125lbs

Today's log:

Food: No breakfast. Lunch was leftover Chinese food...Mai Fun (rice noodle dish) and some stir fried mixed vegetables with a Red Bull. Dinner was half of a ham and provolone sandwich with spinach a dill pickle and some mayo on a French roll. Post Dinner...an Effen Cherry Red Bull at the club and I am making some pasta right now for eating before I go to bed.

Exercise: Went to the gym and used the Elliptical trainer for 45 minutes went 3 miles! Did a little dancing at the club.

Hey!! Watch out for that Karma!

I got an unpleasant dose of Karma yesterday. I decided not to go to the gym yesterday. I was feeling very tired, my asthma was acting up, and my home computer was calling my name (I really wanted to get home and play Heroes of Might and Magic); so I didn’t go to the gym when I was done with work yesterday.

If I had gone to the gym I would have probably walked over to Transfer Point to catch the bus. But instead I choose to skip the gym and walk just up to the corner to catch the bus. As a result of this, I slipped on the ice in front of the house on the corner and messed up my back. Karma.

My back is better today and I’ve learned my lesson. I will be going to the gym even if it means not pushing myself because I’m tired or my lungs are acting up.

Diary: Yesterday: Breakfast – A yogurt, Banana, Red Bull. Lunch – A serving of Hamburger Soup with Crackers. Dinner: Country Fried Steak (frozen) with rice, cabbage, and corn.

Today: Breakfast – Banana and Red Bull. Lunch (planned) – A serving of Hamburger Soup.

Gym: At least 30 minutes at the Nat.

Month 2 Check In

Today is February 27, 2008 and that puts me 2 months into the lifestyle change. Hows it going?

Food:

I have not hardly cooked at all this month. Some of this lack can be blamed on my horrid flu that I had in the middle of the month, some of it can be blamed on my sparse bank account, some can be blamed on my being too busy/too lazy ( a combination that is truly winning!).

Exercise:

I’m still averaging 5 days a week, I might even say (when I’m not dying from the flu) that I got in 5.5 days a week on average. I am going to the gym for a longer amount of time than last month so I can say that I am improving in this aspect. I even went in to see a personal trainer last week and got some new weight training exercises to do!

Self-Denial:

I still haven’t had any alcohol or Ramen. And although I do miss having both as options I can say that I could go forever with out them if I needed to (thank goodness that is not likely to happen)

Weigh In:

I hopped on the scale that is at the gym (Supreme) in the women’s locker room this afternoon just before my work out. I have decided that this is the most reliable scale I have available. (Though I do appreciate the gift of the new scale from my dearling sister) According to this scale I weighed just under 195 today.

Verdict...I've lost another 3lbs. Total weight loss in 2 months….12lbs!

Reflection:

This was a tough month on me. I got sick which is never anything I bounce back from easily. It always takes me a little time to get back into my routine. I would have liked to see more weigh loss (especially if I am going to be able to have booze with my sister when I go visit at the end of next month), but I am still pleased to see some progress. And I can in fact say I do see a difference now. My clothes fit looser and my face is a bit slimmer (no more double chin!). I don’t have more energy yet. But I have seen a fairly dramatic drop in my appetite. This is both a boon and a bane: I eat less overall as I am less hungry and I nearly never want a snack between meals, but I have to force myself to eat breakfast as I have no appetite in the mornings anymore. Oh well, I still do what I can.

Plan:

I want to try and cook something next month as I will soon be out of frozen home-made dinners. This may be a bit of a challenge as I am flat broke and can not even afford Red Bull (though I keep buying it as the thought of giving it up too makes me want to cry). I need to go to the gym 6 days a week for at least an hour each time.

Today's food log:

Breakfast: A banana and a Red Bull

Lunch: A left-over Hawaiian Chicken Sandwich from Falbo’s

Dinner: Some hot wings from Sentry and a slice of Sentry pepperoni pizza with a Red Bull
Snack: A bunch (literally) of green grapes and some blueberries

Gym: Supreme from 3:30 to 5:30 Cardio on the elliptical and arm weights

Month 1 Check In

Well... I starting this Diet Blog on December 27, 2007 and today it is January 27, 2008. One month into the diet-exercise-life plan. Time to check up on my progress.

Food:

My cunning plan is turning out to be much more difficult than I had made it out to be. I am averaging one home cooked meal a week totaling on average 6 servings. I am supplementing the dearth of home cooked meals with packaged stuff of dubious nutritional value and by eating out far more than is recommended when you are supposed to be on a diet. In my defense I will say that I have been watching my serving sizes in general and feel that I am overall eating less than I was a month ago. I couldn't hazard a guess as to how many calories I was taking in in a given day but i'm still fairly sure it is in excess of what i ought to be taking in.

Exercise:

I'm not getting in every day. I am failing to go nearly every Sunday and Tuesday. But that still leaves the other 5 days of the week which I regularly manage to get to the gym on. So I would say I go 5 days a week and sometimes 6. I've been lengthening the time I work out until just yesterday I was on the elliptical trainer for a solid hour! I've been doing mostly aerobics on the elliptical trainer but I have started branching out into the weight machines for a little variety and because gaining muscle is a way to encourage weight loss. I now consistently get 2 miles or more in the first 30 minutes I'm on the machine. I do ache for spring and summer when I hope to do some exercising outside.

Self-Denial:

I have not had a drop of alcohol since New Year's Eve. I did have that one Ramen I noted on January 15 but I've not bought any more and I've not found anymore lurking in dark corners of my cupboards (other than that crab flavor one I bought in Aruba but that is more like a souvenir than food...I have no intention of learning what crab flavor ramen tastes like.).

Weigh In:

Scales are funny things. Since I've started this diet I have has the opportunity of weighing myself on 4 different scales. I have even had the chance to weigh myself on 3 in one day. They never agree on my weight. For this reason I have to say that my starting weight and my current weight have to be taken with a large grain of salt. I have no actual idea what I weigh except for alot. But according to the scale in the ladies changing room at Supreme Health and Fitness my "Starting" weight was 207. (I lied on my original journal entry but I've since edited it to reflect a more likely starting value) According to the same scale I weighed in at 198 on Thursday.

Verdict...I've lost 9lbs.

Reflection:

Obviously something is working. I've lost more than 2 pounds a week. I don't think I look any better. I might look a little different but not thinner per se . My clothes don't fit any different. I don't have any more energy.

Plan:

I want to keep at it. Something is working and I don't appear to be having any adverse reactions to anything (last year I tried a radical low calorie diet and began to get sores on my arms and legs - vitamin B deficiency). I'm going to endeavor to cook more and eat out less. I am going to keep going to the gym 5 to 7 days a week. I am still going to lay off the booze until I lose the first 20 pounds (I'm nearly half way there).

Point of Note:

I am no Saint. I did spend 2 days sitting on Eric's couch eating dough nuts and watching tv. I was PMSing and needed to be bad for a couple of days. I'm not proud of it but I'm also not going to beat myself up over it. I get PMS. When I do I need to comfort myself. If that means white cream filled bismarks and Rough Science for a couple of days I'm going to do what I need to in order to get better and on an even keel. The same should be said of yourselves. Everyone cheats eventually...some more than others, but everyone cheats. The important thing to remember is that one or two days is not the end of everything.


Today's food log:

Brunch: Parmesan chicken and risotto (no spinach as I used the rest of the leftovers in lasagna)
Dinner: Onion Rings and a chicken sandwich at BW3's
Snack: 1/2 a Clementine (shared with Eric)

No gym today

Notes from the Kitchen: Missing Ingredient

Honeymoon Suite-The Missing Ingredient

Every recipe, no matter how often you’ve made it or how simple, can present a learning experience. Or a reminder of previous learning experiences.

I’ve been making Hamburger Soup a couple times a year for a decade. Nearly every ingredient is something I keep on hand. So when I went to the store spontaneously last Monday to get some stuff to cook I thought: “I’ll make Hamburger soup! I have nearly everything I need for that at home. I only need to get burger.”

Now, as I said yesterday I was being lazy and I haven’t cooked a damn thing all week. So last night at 10:30 PM I finally got up enough gumption to get out there and cook. I decided that it would take too long to make lasagna (at least 2 hours) and definitely too much time to make beef stew (4 hours) so again my mind settled on Hamburger Soup. It is simple and fast -at less than an hour to make with all the food prep thrown in.

I chopped up my onion and threw in some minced garlic with some oil and sautéed until translucent. Added the ground beef and cooked until nearly all the pink was gone. Then I added the frozen peas. I was on a roll. Everything was going smoothly.

I was also testing out the second hand camera I had been given and it was working well despite the warnings I had been given about its finicky nature.

I went to the cupboard to retrieve the next ingredient and found to my dismay that I didn’t have any cream soup. None. How could this be? Of course, the answer is easy. I scrimp when I go to the store and some staples – even cheap ones – just don’t get bought when they are used up. I also frequently go to the grocery store on the bus. You just don’t want to buy anything extra when you have to haul them on the bus when you are done shopping.

So…Pop Quiz! What do you do when you are missing an ingredient needed to finish a meal? There are lots of answers.

1.) Substitute. What could I substitute for cream soup? Gravy would work and I could easily make some. Just be sure you know what to substitute with or you can end up with lumpy purple fondue like Mary did once ("Gruyère and gorgonzola both start with the same letter of the alphabet I bet I can substitute one for the other").

2.) Go and get the missing ingredient either from the store or ask the neighbors. I frequently do this one. Hell…I even borrowed the downstairs neighbor’s oven once.

3.) Stop cooking. You can nearly always stop cooking. I can’t actually think of an example when you can’t stop cooking because of the food. Obviously…if you need to have dinner on the table in the next 20 minutes or you will be horribly murdered- not cooking would not be recommended. I would recommend option 1 in that instance.

In my experience last night at quarter to 11:00 I decided that I should just stop. I put a lid on the whole business and tossed it in the fridge.

So...What was the learning experience that this little cooking drama presented? Always check all your ingredients before you start cooking, and preferable before you go to the store.

And how goes the diet?

Today’s food – Poor.

I had a sausage patty and some very mushy hash browns from the Student Union for breakfast.

Lunch was leftover Chinese from Asian Kitchen – and as usual they gave way more food than even 2 meals worth but I ate it all in 2 meals.

Dinner? I have not had any - it’s 2:30 in the afternoon. I expect I’ll be having a bowl of Hamburger soup after I stop at the store on the way home and get the missing cream soup.

Exercise? I expect to get at least 30 minutes at the Nat.