New Changes

I feel like it's been FOREVER since I've written. Truth is, I was in a huge funk there for a while. Nothing really to write about. In the past 2-3 weeks I have really had a break through though and I'm super excited about it. I had totally reached a plateau and truthfully I knew what I had to do to get out of it, I just didn't want to. I had to change my eating habbits. I know that I wasn't eating "bad" food before- but I wasn't eating as good as I should have been either. I was watching my calories pretty closely during the week, but saying "screw it" on the weekends and totally canceling out the work I had put in thoughout the week. The other thing I finally came to grips with food-wise was that I was ONLY looking at my calories in vs. calories out. This worked for the first 6 months. It was simple. 13 fat grams? Oh well, it only has 100 calories. I realized that if I really wanted to take it to the next level I had to start paying attention to WHAT I was putting in my body instead of how many calories I was putting in my body. Bodybugg has a free program that will write meal plans for you, so I played around with that to learn how it worked. I liked it, but I was still not sold. I contemplated for a good week, I really didn't want to change the way I was eating, it seemed "too hard" and I was afraid I was going to miss things (food is VERY important to me). I buckled down for a week and measured EVERYTHING I put into my mouth, thinking maybe before the scale wasn't moving because I was estimating calories instead of being really honest about them. Got on the scale the next week and nothing changed.
So, I came to the conclusion that I had two options. I could keep doing what I had been doing, not take the risk, and (most likely) not reach my goal by new years. Or, I could take a risk, give it a try, and maybe meet my goal. I decided to give it a whirl. Yesterday I got on the scale and saw a number that I don't ever remember seeing before. 151.6. So, it worked! And guess what? It wasn't hard! It is going to take some adjusting because it's not how I'm used to doing things, but for the most part, it's not difficult. I also increased my cardio exercise to 45-60 minutes 4-5 days a week.
The other ah-ha moment I had this past week came while reading a blog of my former personal trainer. She was talking about the holidays and how it's so easy to get wrapped up in the holiday parties and such and hard to stay on track. She said you have to go into everything with a plan and stick to it. "I will allow myself to have 2 glasses of wine tonight, if I want to have 3, that's fine, but then I add 10 minutes of cardio tomorrow". A light bulb went off in my head. I've done this in the past, but I always have an extra word in mine, "Try". "I'll TRY to only have 2 glasses of wine" and then when I get to the party 2 glasses turns into 5 and I'm too hungover to do any type of cardio the next morning!
I went into Thanksgiving with this huge plan, threw it out the door the second I got to dinner the night BEFORE Thanksgiving, and ended up weighing in at 5-6 pounds more then next week. NOT COOL. I do have holiday parties to go to, and I'm not going to try to stick to my plan, I'm going to stick to my plan! I will get through the holidays and weigh 150 by new years day!

Trying to keep a positive attitude!

I got really frustrated this morning. I got on the scale and was 158. Although I'm super proud of myself for what I've accomplished, I still can't help but get frustrated that I've pretty much stayed between 155-160 for the past 2 months...no change. Especially the past two weeks, I've been REALLY good about keeping on track both food wise and exercise wise and no changes. Nic reminded me that the scale isn't everything and that I have been weight training. I measured my waist today for the first time in a month or so and it has gone down about a half inch so I am proud of that. Trust me, I know I'm not gaining weight, but for SO long I was used to seeing that number go down every week with (what seemed like) little effort. Now I feel like I'm putting a ton of effort out there and not getting results. I decided today that I'm going to try to just weigh myself once a week for a while. I know this won't change the outcome, but I'm hoping it will keep my mind off of focusing so much on that number.

Goals for the weekend:
This weekend is BUSY! Tonight we ARE going to that italian place that I talked about last Friday, so my goal is the same, just stop when I'm full. Then after dinner we're going to a bar to have a going away party for my cousins. My goal is to stick with just a couple of drinks (2 or 3) and not get carried away!
Tomorrow at 11 we're going to the Gopher football game. This will probably be my biggest challenge of the weekend. My plan is to either take a walk or go to the gym before hand (depending on what time I get up) and eat a lunch before I go so that I'm not tempted to eat bad stadium food. Saturday night is Ella's birthday party, we're having sloppy joes so not the healthiest food ever, but also not aweful, I'll just watch my portions. Sunday the only plans we have is going to my in-law's for dinner (which will be highly caloric) so just going to have to watch it again!

How the weekend went- 2.0

Well this morning I was lazy...My alarm went off at 6:30 to take a walk and I quickly reset it for 8:00. I was tired. I'll go on a walk tonight. So then at 8:00 when I got up I went to the scale. 158.0. A little bummed. I thought I did really good this weekend, and I did. I know I'm not as strict on the weekends so I know they'll be a little bit of a gain, so honstly I'm not that dissapointed. 2.2 pounds. Hopefully it'll come down from that by my official weigh in day on Wednesday!

How the weekend went

It's Sunday night and I'm feeling pretty good about how the weekend went for the most part. We had a change of plans on Friday night and didn't end up going to the place for dinner that we thought we would. Instead we went out to dinner and a movie with friends. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with kettle chips and wine for dinner. We had an appetizer that we shared (tortilla chips and dips), so by the time dinner came I wasn't super hungry anymore. The chips were gross so I didn't eat those, and I only ate half of my sandwich. At the movie I had a small pack of reeses pieces that only ended up being about 200 calories so I really don't regret that. On Saturday I went to the gym and then took the dog on a walk like I planned on, and had a sensible lunch at home. I was really excited because I got to wear my bodybugg to the wedding we went to because my sleeves were long. The wedding was fun I don't feel too bad about what I ate (even just had a tiny piece of cake) but I drank way too much and paid for it today. Today I took the dog on a walk to my mom's house after lunch and made a couple of healthy dinners that will help feed us for the next couple of weeks. Then my mom made chicken on the grill for dinner! We'll see what the scale says in the morning, but I don't think I did too bad this weekend!!!

Good week

I did pretty good this week, I'm really proud of myself. I brought my lunch to work every day (going out for lunch today for the first time in 2 weeks), I worked out every morning even though I was sick, and I took went on a walk 2 nights this week (I was striving for 3 but I didn't feel good and Tuesday night I was just beat when I got home from work). I'm a little bummed that I didn't get 3 night walks in, but at the same time, I'm proud of myself for doing as much as I did! Now to make it through the weekend :/
Weekends are definitely my weakness, so I need to come up with a plan. Tonight we're going to a restaurant that we've never been to before but we have a gift certificate for it that expires soon. It's just a little Italian joint and there's no website so I'm not sure what their menu looks like. My goal for tonight is to make good choices based on the menu, and to stop when I'm full! I think that's one of the hardest things for me to do when I'm eating out- I feel like I have to eat everything in front of me, and then I regret it right away. Tomorrow we don't have any plans during the day so my goals are to go to the gym and weight train, and then take the dog on a walk like I did last Saturday and to eat a healthy lunch at home. We're going to a wedding tomorrow night which is scary because I have no idea what kind of food they will serve, so again my goal is just to stop when I'm full. Sunday should be a pretty easy day to stay on track- I'm going to spend the afternoon at my mom's house preparing meals to freeze and eat next week. My plan is to walk to her house in the morning and then have her drive me home at night with the food! I know I'll eat healthy because she doesn't keep a lot of crap food at her house!
My ultimate goal for the weekend is to not gain weight. I weighed myself this morning and I was 155.8 so my goal is to be no more than that on Monday morning! We'll see!!!

What to do....

UGH! So after my post yesterday I was feeling awesome about my goals. Even though I have a cold, I wasn't feeling too bad after work last night so I took another walk (beyond my goal of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night walks this week!). Then went to bed. I woke up this morning feeling ok, went to the gym and got my work out in. As the day has gone on I just feel more and more sick. I'd really like to get at least a little walk in tonight. We'll see how I feel when I get home. It's just so frusterating, it seems like EVERY TIME I finally recommit to my goals something like this happens- I get sick, or I get injured, or something! I'm going to try my best to not let it get to me. If I don't go on a walk tonight, oh well, I went on one last night and can still get 3 nights in this week right??

Update time!

Yesterday I took the dog on a walk and had a conversation with myself. Since I last posted, I’ve had a major internal battle going on. On the one hand I’m VERY proud of my accomplishments and how far I’ve come in the last 9-10 months. On the other hand I’m rather disappointed with myself that I’ve come so far, and let myself stay at such a stand-still for so long now (since July-ish). Last Sunday I made a deal with myself that I was going to start really trying to take a walk at night some nights (so two work outs a day essentially). I’m proud to say that I did this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday last week. On my Friday morning walk I came up with goals for the weekend. My goal was simply to take a walk on Sunday (something I’ve been quite lazy about lately). I did my weight training on Saturday and then immediately took the dog out for a walk when I got home from the gym, which I was proud of. I woke up Sunday morning with a cold. Went to brunch with friends (bad choice food wise), and then came home and took a 2 hour nap. I knew we had dinner plans (pizza) with my in-laws at 5:30- it was 4:00. I put on my work out clothes and took a walk. I was proud of myself but this is when I had the conversation with myself. I decided that I’m ready to leap over this next hurdle and get through this plateau. I told myself that I’ve been working WAY too hard during the week to essentially throw it all away by eating (and drinking) like crap on the weekends.

Oh, forgot to mention- I also made a deal with myself that I’m going to stop eating out for lunch so often (every day) and bring my lunch the majority of the time. I’m proud to say that this has been another major accomplishment of mine this past week. I only ate out once last week and it was for my grandma’s 97th birthday- so I think that’s allowed!

So, I still have to come up with a battle plan, but I need to get my weekends under control. I’ve discovered that it’s really easy for me to make excuses for myself on the weekends and that it all comes down to making better decisions. This is the best time of year for me to do this because Nic’s usually occupied with a football game on Sundays so I’m on my own (and for some reason it’s easier for me to eat at home when I’m on my own, maybe because I don’t want to eat out by myself?). If I could stick to one meal out per weekend I would be SUPER proud of myself. I know there are going to be weekends where this isn’t possible, but I’m going to try really hard! I also know that on those weekends when it’s not possible, I can make better choices about where I eat out, or what I eat when I’m out.
Right now on my bodybugg system I have a goal of 145 (I think) by Christmas (which will be 1 year from when I started doing the program). Realistically if I get to 150 by then I’ll be elated! Heck, if I could just get consistently under 155 I’d be happy!
My goals for this week are to keep up with the eating in for lunch, keep up with the 2 work outs per day, and make better choices this weekend!