What I'm working on this week

1) Continue to workout: 2-3 body pumps/week; 2-3 spin sessions/week; 1 yoga class; yoga at home a few times/week; lots of walking-- goal is 10,000 steps a day + long long walks on weekends. So: probably getting about 60 activity points. 75 are planned here and I bet I won't do them all.

     M: walking (5), spin (8), bodypump (4)

     T: walking + yoga (7)

     W: spin (8)

     T: bodypump (4), walking (5)

     F: yoga (4) walking (4)

     S: bodypump (4), walking (12)

     S: spin (8)

2) Work on eating 5 veggies/day+ and 2-5 fruits. yes
3) Hydrate-- work toward 100 oz
4) Work on not dipping in to 49 extra points. 

5) Write a lot- this really helps me
6) Attend weekly ww meetings; weigh in every week at lunch-- realize it's all cumulative!
   a) Plan to not drink water or eat anything after 10:15 am for the meeting
   b) Plan to eat the same breakfast I normally do before the meeting and drink a bunch of coffee etc

7) I am eating out 4 times in the next four days. Work on a 15 point or fewer meal.

Rewards if these things happen:

* go to ww meeting and weigh in, know it will show a gain and that's ok b/c it's a later meeting; 

* spin 2x, bodypump 2x, yoga 1x, walking

* stay off of 49 pts

--> $ to clothing fund.

Had a high point day-- lessons learned

Today was much higher than I would have liked. What happened? The last two days have been great!

1) Breakfast was different. I eat oatmeal + 1 egg every day and I love it. I instead had some beans + oatmeal without the egg and that set me up in a bad way

2) The bf and I were together and he was starving by 1 but I wasn't hungry. I got him food then wanted some (might as well) but this put me around 17 pts by 1 without having felt like I'd had lunch. And I wanted more. I was off. I hadn't written recently and felt off

3) So I had some dried pineapple + bread--> I was at 25 pts. This really threw me

4) Naptime-- this often leads to binges. Remember this. I need 8.5 hours/sleep a night first. Second, try to avoid naps like this, esp. wearing all my clothes and contacts. I wake up feeling worse. worse!

5) Ate a bunch to wake up

6) Then I didn't honor self. I wanted to do yoga. I instead ate without tasting it. Yuck

Overall: I like eating 8-10 pts in the morning (usually 1-3 pieces of fruit too); 8-10 in middle of the day and 10 for dinner. Psychologically this works well for me. I tend to freak out if I feel like I'm doing too much in the morning. As a result, brunch is a challenge for me, if people are positioning it as a time to eat a bunch. It just usually makes me feel bad. And to be clear, I usually feel crappy on days when I eat a lot. Much worse than when I feel vibrant. I felt crappy today.

Lessons learned:

1) Do what I can to eat oatmeal + egg and then brush teeth. Know this should keep me for 3-4 hours. Don't eat bread in an hour

2) Aim for that breakdown daily. know I will have higher meals (some are even planned) and assume every meal out is about 15 pts, and that's cool. think of it as 10 pts + 5 APs.

3) No need to eat b/c bf is hungry

149.6 weigh in: Let's take a moment to reflect on this!

This is the lowest I've been in my adult life. The only time I was this close was around 14 when I had just come back from a cruise and barely eaten. And people thought I looked good. So rock on!

Here's an updated goal sheet. This is important. This will take us all being aligned here because I really really really want to hit this goal by mid April. So I have 10 weeks and I need to be really focused. My body and I need to be focused-- this is us working together instead of me trying to beat her into submission (which I've tried in the past and I'm not going to do now).

How to achieve this:
1) Continue to workout: 2-3 body pumps/week; 2-3 spin sessions/week; 1 yoga class; yoga at home a few times/week; lots of walking-- goal is 10,000 steps a day + long long walks on weekends. So: probably getting about 60 activity points
2) Work on eating 5 veggies/day+ and 2-5 fruits
3) Hydrate-- work toward 100 oz
4) Work on not dipping in to 49 extra points
5) Write a lot- this really helps me
6) Attend weekly ww meetings; weigh in every other week at lunch
   a) Plan to not drink water or eat anything after 10:15 am for the meeting
   b) Plan to eat the same breakfast I normally do before the meeting and drink a bunch of coffee etc

Updated sheet:

Weigh Ins

Starting weight: 167 on 9/11/10; highest weight 199 in 2000

Goal weight: 138

2011 Weigh Ins

1/15/11 Goal: 149 ACTUAL 152
1/29/11 Goal: 147 ACTUAL 149.6!
2/15/11 Goal: 149 @ A MEETING AT LUNCH (NEW TIME)
3/1/11 Goal: 147
3/15/11 Goal: 145
3/29/11 Goal 143
4/12/11 Goal 141
4/26/11 Goal 139
5/3/11 Goal 138
5/17/11 Goal 138
5/31/11 Goal 138
6/14/11 Goal Lifetime!

Weigh In Results

Weighed in today as promised at 152.0. The person at WW was a bit like "Does that # surprise you?" since it's 1.8 above a month ago when I was last there. No, I think it's awesome actually. My weigh in a month ago involved a 6 lb loss + me being sick, which probably influenced it. My new goal is to be under 150 by the end of January but the real goal is to stay OP.

My Accomplishments from Last Week

Hello, lovely blog readers!

I'm enjoying being on a friday-thursday schedule for eating since Friday + the weekend have traditionally been higher point days. I've pasted my goals below with my progress.

Workouts

• Working out 5 times/this week with a combination of cardio, strength and yoga
• YES! Friday was cardio, Sunday yoga, Monday weights + cardio, Weds weights+ cardio, Thursday cardio
• Working out first thing in the morning
• A mix. My goal is still to do it first thing at 6am. We're not there yet

Food

• Staying OP, eating my activity points but ideally not my 49 extra. Aim to use maximum 35 extra.
• I used all 49 points and was concerned I would go over that, which wouldn't make me happy. 
• I binged yesterday due to all the stress. I had about 60 pts. But I recovered today, which is good. I'm hoping to not do that again and am going to put things in place to help me. I'm wondering if the goal to not use my extra points is a good one.

Mind/Body

• Writing for 30 minutes daily
• No, sadly. I need to do more of this. It's hugely helpful for me
• 8 hours sleep/day
• Yes 
• Bed by 10:15 at latest
• NO! Not going this! Really need to start!!!

Blogging

• Planning my food daily 
• Mixed. I'd like to do this more
• Blogging 4 times/week about:
• feelings
• progress
• ww topics
• started this. will do more!
• Blog about my WW meeting (this will force me to also go!)
• Planning to go Sat. Didn't make it last Sat.

Eating this past week

Coping with Desire to Stress Eat

I have a two things going on right now.

1) I have a long report I'm writing and it's feeling really hard. I'm a good writer when I put in a lot of effort but putting in all that effort is really painful. I also have in my mind that I need some magic to really make it happen. My whole life I've disliked writing essays/papers/reports and I've often pulled all nighters and usually eaten poorly. I don't want to eat poorly this week. That is not in my best interest. Also, it's not going to make what needs to happen happen. And this report needs to happen.

2) I'm afraid to weigh in. I hate weighing in. A lot. Part of this is because in the past I've done a bunch of weight lifting and so my weight has remained the same despite my effort. Part of this is because my last weigh in was pre-holiday. And I was sick. So I'm afraid it was a bit of a fluke. And I so don't want to weigh in and see I'm up after working so hard-- well hardish-- after the holidays. I've been OP for 12 days after the holidays and I'd be bummed to have gained. And I hate hate hate that the scale has this kind of control.

So. I'm at 25 points for the day and I haven't eaten dinner. My plan needs to be the following.
1) Lots of water. Let's have this be the real measure. Let's see if I can drink 6 bottles before the end of the day.
2) Lots of tea.
3) Greek yogurt for dinner with fruit
4) Let go of perfection. It's most important now to get the thoughts down. The writing will follow.
5) Remember I have a week to do this
6) Work out tomorrow and go to bed at a good time tonight.
7) Let go of the scale as a measure. Weigh in on Sat.

Ways to eat more fruits & veggies

This article from Cooking Light has a bunch of good tips on how to eat more fruits & veggies. My favorites are: 
•   Become a food processing pro – Use the shredding blade to grate squash, carrots, zucchini, turnips, onions, sweet potatoes, etc. Bag them up and keep them easily accessible in the refrigerator. Add them to sauces, soups, stir-fry, casseroles, pizzas.


•   Sauté or grill extra vegetables on your meatless Monday, and continue to use the leftovers later in the week in pasta dishes, soups, sandwiches, and salads.

•   Make a large batch of fruit salad to have on hand for meals and snacks.



Eating enough f&vs is essential to being healthy and staying OP. What are your favorite ways to increase your fruits & veggies?

Results of Today

A bit higher than I wanted so I wanted to post it here for accountability. Tomorrow is a new day and I'm going to rock it!

What I'm Working on This Week (Mid- Week Check In)

Hello, lovely blog readers!

I'm enjoying being on a friday-thursday schedule for eating since Friday + the weekend have traditionally been higher point days. I've pasted my goals below with my progress.

Workouts

• Working out 5 times/this week with a combination of cardio, strength and yoga
• Worked out today doing yoga and Friday doing cardio. Planning to workout Monday, Weds and Thursday
• Working out first thing in the morning
• yes! both times have been first thing. My goal now is to make "first thing" 6am, not 8 or 9am. Baby steps.

Food

• Staying OP, eating my activity points but ideally not my 49 extra. Aim to use maximum 35 extra.
• Doing OK with this. My progress up until today is shown below. I need to keep the workouts up and be on plan Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Weds will probably be a 40 point day.
• It's possible I won't use any of my 49 points
• I'm going to make a veggie soup tonight to help me through the week
• I also planned out the rest of the week, which is a huge accomplishment. I'm now going to go food shopping and then going to do some serious cooking.

Mind/Body

• Writing for 30 minutes daily
• Doing an average of 30 minutes now. I've had some great writing sessions recently and they are so helpful.
• 8 hours sleep/day
• Yes 
• Bed by 10:15 at latest
• NO! Not going this! Really need to start!!!

Blogging

• Planning my food daily 
• Did this on Thursday. Didn't do it yesterday online (just did it in my head) or today.
• Blogging 4 times/week about:
• feelings
• progress
• ww topics
• started this. will do more!
• Blog about my WW meeting (this will force me to also go!)
• Planning to go Friday!

Eating so far + my plan for the rest of the week + workouts!

Just realized I will never be skinny

I've been working toward a body image for most of my life. You know, the ones that are heavily photoshopped, barbie-esque, unrealistic-- those ones? If not, see Victoria Secret or most fashion catalogs. I have had those images in my mind for 15 years and I always thought that if I did weight watchers, worked out a lot that I could get near to that.

I just realized that no matter what I do short of surgery (which isn't an option) I'm always going to be a curvy lady. I will always have thighs for example. Even if they get muscles, they aren't ever going to be thin. I need to become ok with that-- happy, loving.

How do you deal with these unrealistic body ideas?

What I'd like to work on this week

Workouts

• Working out 5 times/this week with a combination of cardio, strength and yoga
• Working out first thing in the morning

Food

• Staying OP, eating my activity points but ideally not my 49 extra. Aim to use maximum 35 extra.

Mind/Body

• Writing for 30 minutes daily
• 8 hours sleep/day
• Bed by 10:15 at latest

Blogging

• Planning my food daily 
• Blogging 4 times/week about:
• feelings
• progress
• ww topics
• Blog about my WW meeting (this will force me to also go!)

My Week Round up

My plan is to start just points my week's points. I was OP this week, which is really good since the ten days prior were a real disaster and an average of 55 pts/day. So that's good. My points week starts tomorrow so I'm going to do  mid-normal week check in and end of ww week check in:

Workouts

• Working out 5 hours/this week with a combination of cardio, strength and yoga NOT DONE. I DID ABOUT 2.5 HOURS TOTAL
• Working out first thing in the morning, YES BUT NOT GETTING UP AS EARLY AS I'D LIKE

Food

• Staying OP, eating my activity points but ideally not my 49 extra. YES! BUT DID USE ALL OF 49 EXTRA

Mind/Body

• Writing for 30 minutes daily NOT DONE, DID DO WRITING 5-7 DAYS THOUGH...
• Meditation 1 hour total this week NOT DONE YET
• 8 hours sleep/day NOT DONE-- 6.5-7.5 HOURS/ NIGHT

Blogging

• Planning my food daily and posting it here. Showing the evidence here at the end of the day. DONE!
• Blogging here daily DONE!
• Blog about my WW meeting (this will force me to also go!) GOING TOMORROW, SO TECHNICALLY NOT DONE

Personal Finance

• Setting up a personal budget and working to stick to it NOT DONE

And here's the week in points. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to shed weight like this but here's hoping:

January 6th: Plan & Results

Plan:

Actual

January 5th: Plan & Actual

Plan:

Actual :-(

Plan for January 4th

Plan for the Day:

Actual Results:

Thoughts:

1) No gym today, sadly. I have a lot planned exercise over the next few days though, and my goal is to spend only activity points and not spend any of my 49 points.

2) I'm wearing some pants that it about 2 weeks ago and they seem like they fit now again, which is nice. They're a bit tight. 

3) I am planning on weighing in in 11 days. To be honest, I'm afraid to weigh in earlier than that-- I'm afraid I've gained weight back. I would love to weigh in again closer to 150 than 155. But even if it's higher, it's ok-- this is about getting to maintenance and lifetime before my birthday in the summer-- not what the number reads in January.

4) We need to start eating earlier and going to bed earlier. We're eating at 9 and trying to sleep at 10 but really sleeping later. We need to get on a schedule to go to bed around 9:30, up at 5:30 and eat around 6:30, which is going to minimize cooking a bit but we'll get around it.

Plan (and results) for January 3rd, 2010

Food Plan
Today (still January 2nd) knowing I had to blog about this provided good accountability for me.

My plan for January 3rd is to do some spinning, which will be challenging but will get me back on the road to being in great shape. I plan to do some writing and stay in the present moment. I plan to go to bed by 9 or 10pm. I plan to do some meditation. I plan to write if I feel a snack attack coming on.

Actual

Overall a good day!

Food Plan (and Results) for Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

Today was not great, eating wise. I didn't even realize how bad it was until really calculating it on WW.

I ate about 52 points when my intention was 25 for the day. As you can see most of the points are snacking in the middle of the day on salty fatty things.

How this happened:

I had a nice morning of forcing self to the gym, which was a challenge but I did it. Then we had a filling breakfast. We went out and did errands, which were not much fun. I was also really cold, which I think is a trigger. My boyfriend started to get cranky and hungry and I was too. He said he was hungry and I decided I was hungry too but really, coming home and bundling up and drink tea and warming up my hands could have staved it off with lots of tea + hot soup but at the store I got these snappea tempura things since I wanted something salty. I didn't calculate points ahead of time, which was another mistake. I had the snappeas in the car and then came home, accidentally eating 2 servings (7 points, not worth it at all) and felt mad at self but deprived. So then I ate 3 servings of rice crackers + cheese, took a bath, slept, got up and ate as I was hungry.

 A few takeaways:

1) Snack foods like rice cakes, crackers, tempura snap peas take up a lot of points but they really don't fill me up. This means that I will need to get real food at some point later. I can't have those instead of real food since I will get hungry later. This is something to remember. I'll forget it again but it's really important.

2) I should only plan out 20 points/day since I always go off plan a little. I was actually worried I wouldn't eat enough today. Ha! Instead I used 46 points (what's shown below is a bit out of date since I forgot to count an egg etc)

3) It's good to write about why I want to snack. I thought about it and decided I wanted to snack and it was going to happen. Instead I should have written about it and allowed self one snack but not 3 servings!

4) Calculate/track during the day on ww.com, not just in my head. I was surprised by how high my day was.

5) Related to #4: Calculate/track BEFORE eating something

6) Eating is essential but it's not a hobby. I spent way too much time eating this afternoon, with snacking become my hobby

7) Continue to fight the urge to eat in the kitchen standing up. It's OK to try food I'm making standing up. That's the only OK. Treat self better by sitting down. The food counts either way, so make it a better experience. That's loving

8) I need to take a break from ww recipes. I've had a bunch of flukes recently. Instead focus on recipes by authors that take health into account as well as taste. Like Mark Bittman.

Total is 52 pts for the day. Goal was 25, my point total per day is 29

Original Plan

Saturday, January 1st Food

I had a good day. The point value is really low because I woke up at 12:30 and am going to bed soon. A short day means lower points.

Accomplishments Today
1) Made a butternut squash-- first time ever
2) Made a new lentil soup recipe, which I hope is good. It's only 4 PP
3) Marked a few new recipes I want to try on greenlitebites.com
4) Worked out for the first time in a week
5) Created this blog



Update: Add + 3 points of chickpeas I just had and a few pieces of pineapple

What I'm Working on This Coming Week (1/1/11- 1/7/11)

Workouts

• Working out 5 hours/this week with a combination of cardio, strength and yoga
• Working out first thing in the morning

Food

• Staying OP, eating my activity points but ideally not my 49 extra

Mind/Body

• Writing for 30 minutes daily
• Meditation 1 hour total this week
• 8 hours sleep/day

Blogging

• Planning my food daily and posting it here. Showing the evidence here at the end of the day.
• Blogging here daily
• Blog about my WW meeting (this will force me to also go!)

Personal Finance

• Setting up a personal budget and working to stick to it

What I’m Going to Blog About

I read a lot of great food/body/weight blogs. Here's what I plan to write about:

• Weekly meeting topic at Weight Watchers meetings, my thoughts, how I’m going to make it apply
• Daily plan of what I'm going to eat and a screenshot of what I actually ate 
• My accomplishments and what I’m working on this week
• Recipes I’m trying and like
• Regular weigh ins (probably every other week-- every week doesn’t work well for me), and how I feel about them
• Next Weigh Ins are 1/15, 1/29
• Emotions
• Things I agree with/disagree with in the weight loss, healthy eating world

Hello + What Success Looks Like For Me

Hi! Happy New Year!

I'm a Miami-dwelling, 29 year old lady who has struggled with weight and body issues my whole life. I'd like to use this year to get to my goal weight, maintain it, meet some great people, support them, and generally find out what makes me happy beyond food.

My goal is to hit my WW maintenance weight of 138 pounds by April 2011 and then hit maintenance by my birthday. I turn 30 this summer. Here are my goals for where I’d like my weight to go.

It’s important to me to both get to my goal and then to maintain. I know that they are both important and different things. I get it.

Goals


Weight/Shape

• Weight around 138 pounds. For a long time 141 was my magical weight but I think it’s been the number in my mind for so long I can’t reach it. I think 138 might be easier. Note that this might be lower than my final weight since I do plan to be muscly. I'm not very tall so this is a realistic weight for me.
• Shopping is fun again
• Feel like I look good in photos and no longer be afraid of the camera

Strength & Endurance

• Able to do a pull up on my own
• Run 1/2 marathon in 2011

Behaviors I’d like to create for myself

Exercise Behaviors

• Working out 5-6 times/week
• Getting up with ease to workout
• Not feeling stressed about getting up or worried about upcoming workouts

Eating Behavior

• Able to go out and eat and feel good about it
• Eating around 9 fruits & veggies a day
• Not eating sugar, eating minimal nut butters and wheat products (I think this works best for me)

Mind/Body/Writing/Blogging Behavior

• Blogging 5-7 times a week as I’m getting to goal; blogging at least 3 times a week after
• Doing daily morning behaviors
• Going to Weight Watchers weekly as a lifetime member
• Sleeping 8 hours/night
• Daily meditation