Start Small

Yesterday I did very well with my goals! I only had one decaf americano with caramel and half and half at work -- a far cry from my two or four drinks with lots of syrup and calorie-filled toppings.

I can feel myself getting addicted to the caffeine even in the decaf though, and I don't like it. I'm going to cut it back to just one shot of decaf espresso.

I ate 56g of sugar yesterday -- my current goal for the week is to eat fewer than 80g of sugar. That's a LOT of sugar, but it's not at all unheard of. Start with fewer than 80g. Work it down until it's around 40g. Sounds a lot better than just cutting it off alltogether!

I ate very lightly yesterday, and I mostly focused on eating proteins instead of carbs and sugars. I was still hungry when I went to bed, but I had a DietBet to win this morning! I weighed in at 6 ounces less than I needed to win the DietBet, so as soon as it gets verified, I'll let you know how much money I won off that ;-)

I've won two out of the three DietBets I've finished this year; this win would be number three. It hasn't really helped me break out of this plateau I've been in for over a year, but it does help me from going any higher, plus I win some money! I won $11 with the first one, and $17 with the second. Nothing to quit my job over, but it's more than I had before, and it kept me honest when I'd binge!

I try to join the big, popular games over a small game with people I may know, because the odds are better with a big group and a big pot of money that more people will fail and my payout will be bigger :-) This isn't the only way I monetize my weight loss! Tomorrow I'll write a summary of all the things I do to make money off weight loss.

Do you track your sugar intake? Do you feel like you eat a lot of hidden sugars during the day? You'd be surprised!

Rodeo Week!

It's rodeo week in Tucson!!

Which is apparently kind of a big deal, but I wouldn't know, since I'm from the midwest. I know the a lot of the schools in the area close for the rodeo. We get to wear our western wear to work on Wednesday, but since I'm from Ohio, I'm just going to wear normal clothes.

I was trying to think of a way to link the Wild West and the rodeo to weight loss, but I just can't come up with anything. Unless I die of dysentery, but that's really more a pacific northwest thing. Lucky bastards.

This week! I was pretty good! I went to the gym four times, thus honoring my pact with Gympact. I can't wait to see how much money I get for last week; since I added an extra day, I get an extra share of the winnings. REALLY looking forward to that Hulu+ subscription!

Yesterday I weighed in four pounds down for the week. Which is very yay! And then there was the monkey bread. I really wanted to have a nice, homemade breakfast with Boyfriend -- I'd been thinking banana bread, these bananas in my kitchen are almost goo -- but he suggested monkey bread. Actually, he suggested french toast AND monkey bread, but I talked him back down to just the monkey bread.

(What the hell is monkey bread? Also called pull-apart bread, it's basically refrigerated biscuits, cinnamon, sugar, butter and brown sugar. SO GOOD. SO FULL OF FATTY CARBS.)

 

 

 

 

There's no way this is good for you.

At first I was good. I counted the calories for EVERYTHING I ate, even if it meant I used up most of my daily allotment by 2pm. But I discovered something, which is probably a very DUH realization, but it just hit home yesterday: empty carby sugar makes me HUNGRIER. I'd done pretty well with the hunger all week. I'll have you know I had NO ICE CREAM and DID NOT order pizza! But as soon as I had a serving of that monkey bread, I was ravenous. I went back several more times during the day, then ate dinner, had popcorn at the video store, and had MORE monkey bread.

As a result, my net loss for the week on the scale this morning was 2.6. I'm 183 even.

I have seen my enemy, and it is sugar. I even saw it a little with the lowfat frozen yogurt I bought. I could be full and satisfied, have a small helping of frozen yogurt to kill the ice cream craving, and then suddenly I was hungry again!

Now that I know my weakness, how am I going to avoid it? No ice cream and no pizza again this week (I did have one Lean Cuisine pizza last week, and it helped). No baking things I know I can't control myself with! There's leftover monkey crack, but I'm not eating any more of it. If I don't start, I won't lose control.

Four gym workouts this week is the goal. REALLY hoping to see the 170s by next Monday!

There is Something Wrong with Me

There is seriously something wrong with me that I can eat 5 small creme puffs, a pint of Ben and Jerry's, a dinner, and still be looking for more food in the same evening. That was my Tuesday night.

You may have guessed from my radio silence that the dieting has not been going so well.  The exercise was doing all right, but took two weeks off for surgery and recovery. Tonight I'm determined to go for a run again -- right before surgery I was able to run 1.5 miles without stopping! That's the most I've ever run in one stretch.

I had to go out today and buy larger tops for my new job, and a larger pair of jeans. It's so humiliating to buy clothes in a size UP instead of DOWN. I've been flipping through diet plan after diet plan and just eating everything anyway. Time to just simply count calories for awhile, I think. I know weight loss is more complicated than "calories in, calories out," but I can't get control over my binging any other way.

Today I was 177.8. That's the highest weight I've been since 2007. I am so disappointed to have backslid so far. I'm determined to lose 2.8 pounds by Monday. I have to think small and manageable. I have to get control of my life again. 

A new way of eating, a new way of life.

I'm taking a break from agonizing over an applied linguistics paper to update on my progress with Slow Carb after two weeks. The results? Not bad.

I barely lost any weight this week, but things got muddled with the Yom Kippur holiday, and I essentially took three cheat days (with a 24 fast within that 72 hours). This led to me only losing a pound, HOWEVER, my measurements look much better! My stomach is definitely getting smaller, and my body fat percentage has gone from 43.85% on 9/26 to 39.2% today. I like being in the 30s...looks much less like half my body is made of fat.

The cheat days proved to me what I discovered last week. Popcorn tastes like cardboard. Olive Garden is just disgusting. Sweet things generally taste too sweet (my beloved chocolate marshmallows? Not so beloved anymore). I still love ice cream with every fiber of my being.

I noticed how I felt over the weekend. Too full, too uncomfortable, too tired. I feel healthier when I'm eating Slow Carb. Don't get me wrong, the only way I've lasted this long is the cheat days. If I had to eat this way straight through the week with no break, I'd fall off the wagon in a big way.

I mostly succeeded in eating beans twice a day, either with breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner. I'm trying to stick with that plan this week. I'm also limiting my almonds; the book warns that they can get out of control -- but when they're covered with cocoa powder and cinnamon, they're just SO GOOD! This week I'm limiting almonds to three days.

I'm also recommitting to Zumba. I haven't been since before I went to Cincinnati a month ago. It's time to get back, even if it's just two times a week.

I'm disappointed that my weight is still so high, but I'm really encouraged by the body fat drop. I checked the book back out from the library, and I'm going to stick with it through another week!

Week One and Keeping on

Yesterday I weighed in at the completion of my first week on Slow Carb. I lost a net weight of 4 pounds for the week (cheat day bumped me back up 2 pounds). Still, I'm happy to be four pounds down (and five as of this morning). I took my measurements and although my stomach measured bigger (HOW THE HELL?) my thighs were one inch smaller than last week. I did lower my body fat percentage, but only by less than 1%.

I feel it was successful enough and produced enough benefits to keep at it for another week. My goals for this week are to include beans in at least 2 out of 3 meals. Yesterday and today I had eggs, spinach and black beans with turkey bacon. Yesterday for lunch I had my DELICIOUS balsamic chicken leftovers, and there are black beans in that. I bought a white bean soup that I'll probably have for lunch today.

I've run and walked one mile every day of October so far.

--OH GOOD GOD, NEIGHBOR, WHY ARE YOU RUNNING YARD EQUIPMENT BEFORE 8am? I really need to get that airhorn --

Ahem. Sorry. So my exercise has been good, and I'm going to keep going to Crossfit to build strength. (And Zumba...need to go at least 5 times this month to make my monthly pass worth it)

Only three more days until the next cheat day, which I'm splitting in half because of Yom Kippur. I'll eat normal Slow Carb for breakfast and lunch on Friday, then "cheat" a little from 1-6:30pm. I'll fast until 6:30pm Saturday night, and then attend a break the fast potluck with some friends.

Monday Weigh In: Week Four

Lost another two pounds this week. I was hoping for more, but I know two pounds is a good rate. 23 more to go!

I'm just waiting for my clothes to start fitting better. My large shorts are getting a little loose, but that's really the only difference I've noticed. I still won't be able into most of the clothes I own until I lose another seven pounds.

Did I mention I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding in five weeks? FIVE WEEKS. I am buckling down and working hard. My goal this week is to burn 20 Activity Points (4-5 days of workouts).

Speaking of workouts, Zumba today. There was a new girl that I felt really sorry for. Zumba is hard when you first start out, trying to catch up with the choreography and figure out the moves, plus keeping abs and glutes tight the whole time. This poor girl had absolutely zero rhythm. Even with a simple step-touch, she was all out of synch.

Then another woman came in, dressed in a cutesy little workout outfit and a full face of makeup. EXCUSE ME? I'm sorry, did you just show up to Zumba in FULL MAKEUP? What the fuck, lady. You are not impressing anyone. You're just going to look like a clown when you sweat all that off, and you will sweat. Even if you do the routines at low-impact, it's still a workout. I barely brush my hair to workout. Put on a bandana, and I'm ready to move.

It's tough to keep up the motivation to keep exercising, and I'm always surprised at how good I feel at the end of a workout. Today it's already 11:15am, and I've burned 1500 calories. What have YOU done today to move towards a healthier lifestyle?

Monday Weigh In: Week Three

I weighed in this morning and discovered I lost four pounds! Four down, 24 to go. I noticed yesterday that my "fat" shorts were feeling loose as I was jumping around on the Dance Dance Revolution pad. I was even able to eat almost "normally" over the weekend thanks to my Weekly Points, going to get frozen yogurt, spaghetti and meat sauce, and pizza.

I worked out five days last week, and I feel like that's a good number. The body really does need a day or two of rest, although I might add some strength training on those days. Shooting for five days of workouts this week, if my body will let me...

I dutifully got up at 7:30am to go to Zumba class this morning. Fine, no problems. As soon as I get there, I realize my right knee is hurting. I did the whole class, but at low intensity. When I got home my knee was swollen, so now I'm elevating it and alternating between ice and hot packs. Boyfriend has been very helpful getting me food and packs and drinks. I'm going to have to eat the broccoli and cheese pack that's been melting on my knee for the last hour.

Speaking of drinks, I haven't had any alcohol in a week. I'm as shocked as you are. Especially since I have Caramel Bailey's in my fridge. So much wine, left undrunk! It's a crying shame. But until I get into the next level of 10s, I'm not going to drink my calories. Sorry, Caramel Bailey's. You're just going to have to sit in the fridge and be delicious by yourself.

Monday Weigh In: Week Two

So I weighed in this morning!

It was....not good. I was perfect on Monday and Tuesday, but then when I got sick, I got lazy. I wanted comfort foods, and it hurt too much to exercise. This weekend I was feeling better but still didn't get right back on plan, and now I'm paying for it.

Mostly I'm just mad at myself because I'm freaking paying for WW Online, and I basically just wasted a week's worth of money.  Looking at it that way suddenly made it a lot easier for me to get serious.

I start a new job today, which will also help. Getting out of the house and not sitting on my ass with the kitchen calling "Penny....come eat me..." will be a tremendous benefit. I've started running/walking in the morning (I've been perpetually stuck on the Couch to 5k week one plan -- I can't run longer than 30 seconds right now), and during my break this morning I went back to Zumba class! Hey, I've earned six activity points! Awesome.

Check back tomorrow for an AMAZING food review. Crave chocolate? You're gonna want to find these!