small stuff...

this is a miracle recipe.  you put some steel cut oats into a jar, add some vanilla soy milk, and then raisins, banana, whatever, and it's a NO cholesterol breakfast.   heat it up, add some nuts or granola.  oatmeal on a regular basis will lower your cholesterol.  

this is what my bathroom looks like on a regular basis.  swimsuits and sports bras, hand washed and hung up to dry.  not pretty, but this morning, i snapped a pic.  because i was struck by how drastically my life has changed since january!  i've never owned a sports bra.  now i own a few and they get used. going to the gym is like brushing my teeth, part of normal life.

small stuff, but big to me.  feeling good about it.

you all should be commended for what you've done.

some really good advice...

"I never put a deadline on my weight loss. My goal was to lose the weight no matter how long it takes and never gain it back.

If you're overweight and you get moving and eat right and eat moderate portions, weight will come off. Your actions will control the outcome. However, it is extremely difficult to predict WHEN the weight will come off.

So make your goal to take the actions that are needed rather than basing all your goals on the result you see on the scale. Some weeks, or maybe even months, you will lose nothing, even though you are taking the right actions. Does this mean you are a failure? Of course not.

Celebrate the actions you take and the results will come with consistency over time. If you base your whole sense of progress on the scale, you are in for a bumpy ride."



This is from the best healthy living blog: this is not a diet

phase 2 on hold- change of plans

so now is not the time to make drastic changes for me.  i'm a bit overwhelmed with upcoming surgery.  here's the new plan:

stick with eating healthy and working out.  keep it simple.  try to cut back on cheese.  eat more fruits & vegetables.  make lean meat a side dish.

get to the gym as often as possible.  if only to be in the best shape for surgery.

be patient with the slow weight loss.  focus on not gaining any weight back, maintaining.

once i'm through surgery and healing (6-8 weeks), i'll be ready to "kick it up a notch".  i'll kick it up a couple of notches!!!

for now i keep it simple, stay calm, and know that things are going to get better.

phase 2

well, i started my eating healthy & exercising in january.  i'm down 30 pounds.  i have 20 more pounds to lose by the end of the year to reach my goal.  i want to be under 200 pounds by january 1st, 2013.

i'm proud of the weight loss i've achieved so far, but i've hit a plateau.  so now it's time to kick it up a notch.

my plan of attack for phase 2, otherwise known as "fuck this shit, i'm gonna lose the weight because i can!!!":

1.  i can eat all the produce!  it's summer and there's great fruits and veggies available.  i'm going to try and base my diet on as much produce and as little animal products as possible.

2.  very little cheese.  less meat & dairy.  soy instead of creamer in my coffee.  i'll still eat egg beaters and chicken, turkey, and fish, but much less of it.

3.  stick with very few starchy carbs.  no bread, rice, pasta or potatoes.  or very little of it.  my carbs need to come from fruits & vegetables.

4.  start cutting back on coffee and wine.  this is going to be my toughest challenge.  but i know it needs to happen, especially the wine.

5.  experiment with juicing, more vegan based recipes, etc... (this is the "i want to be more like carol & also lower my husband's cholesterol" step.)

6.  get back to the gym!  i've been slacking a bit on exercise.  half-assing it.  i let my bad "time of the month" get me down & not exercising.  time to get back to swimming, and more spinning.  sunday i'm going to start a class with weights.  i need to build muscle.

ok, it's 5:40am, time to get to the pool!!!

Reminder to myself

I'm posting this here so I have a reminder, next time I feel like "being bad" and eating stuff that's not good for me.

Last night, through a series of fails, we ended up at Sullivans, an Irish restaurant in Lakewood. I honestly didn't try very hard at all to eat well. I had mussels in butter, fried shrimp, french fries, part of a soggy boxti with cream sauce, and some culcannon which I'm sure had milk and butter in it. I only had two beers, but this morning, I felt like TOTAL crap. I still do. My skin feels greasy, my eyes are blurry, I have ZERO patience, even my HAIR can't even work up energy to look decent!

I slept badly, my stomach is sad, and I feel like shit.

Tom worked early this morning, and when he got home, he said, "MAN, I feel hungover and I only had two beers!" I'm sorry he feels gross, too, but I'm sort of glad. We will BOTH remember this next time.

I've been feeling frustrated and restless with all my stupid "rules" and feeling like I don't eat like a normal human being. I got a big FAT reminder that when I eat crap, I FEEL like crap. When I eat healthy, fresh, pure food, I feel good and strong.

Next time I start to get frustrated and want something "Bad", I'm coming back here to remember how I'll pay for it :)

Eating

Tom and I went out to eat yesterday, and while I was analyzing the menu and figuring out what "qualified", I thought, "Man, I really just want to eat like a normal person again." Then I thought about how when I did eat like what I was thinking about, I felt bad. No energy, had to nap (as opposed to napping because I like to!), bloated, yucky. So, ceviche and salad instead of fried chicken ramen it was :)

That is all... as you were!

the gym...

this is sort of my motto when it comes to the gym and working out.  someday i'm going to run a 5K.  hopefully by the end of the year.  i think if my dad could learn to run marathons, i can handle a 5K. 

found this magazine in the locker room, seems a little...creepy.  someone has issues!

this is the intersection i am at most mornings around 5:00am.

this website has some really great tips on diet and exercise.  i've never been a fan of girls who want to be "super skinny", but i think the dumb name of the website can be ignored.  because they really have good information on things like body type, zig zag calorie intake, and other tips that really make sense.

this is one of those amazing sunrises that greets me when i leave the gym.  it's like the sky is saying, "good job on exercising!"  he he he...

Holiday Weekend challenges

This is probably just me babbling, just happy to have a place to vent :)

It's the holiday weekend, and I'm bouncing back and forth between beating myself up and being happy about changes I've made that are sticking. Oh pendulum!

The good stuff:

• Saturday, took about an hour and a half walk along the beach at Edgewater. Super extra bonus was that we walked on giant rocks some of the time. I was petrified of falling, I'm not exactly as graceful as those goats that live on the sides of mountains, but I did it. It was super fun, I'm definitely going back.
• At a cookout yesterday, I participated in badminton. No, it's not strenuous exercise, and I was TERRIBLE, but at least I got up off my butt and moved. And laughed a LOT. Oh, and invented the Basketball Serve. Watch for it at the Olympics.
• Stayed pretty much offline from Friday afternoon to now. All the access to technology is damaging my ability to be where I am, mentally. Today, I'm going to do this, maybe update my other blog, then take another tech break. 
• With the teeny exception that will come next, I totally stuck to no meat, no dairy except quality fish.

The "Ok, not bad!" stuff:

• There were kebabs at the cookout yesterday with Haloumi cheese. I ate a piece. About the size of chick pea. It was LOVELY. And now, I have no desire to have more. So yay!

The bad stuff:

• I'm not paying attention to eating only when I'm hungry
• Booze. I drank way too much. Not as much as I would have when I was younger, but still. I'm not losing any weight, and I KNOW alcohol is a big part of the problem. So is the other point, not paying attention to if I'm hungry or not.

So, today is a new day. I'm not going to eat just to eat, I'm going to nap, and enjoy myself, and when I'm hungry, I'll eat. And maybe I'll even turn on the air conditioning :)

Thanks for the "ear"!

How I Got Fat: A Mystery

HA! Psyche. I got fat eating too many calories! Today was a great reminder to me that I can't eat everything I want, no matter how clean/green/pristine it is.

I've been on a plateau for weeks now, weight wise, and been super frustrated. Today, I figured I'd track my calories. Ta da, there it was. I ate way more than I thought for breakfast, and had to be pretty careful the rest of the day. It was easier when I first did Engine 2, because I was eating TONS of vegetables, and hadn't yet discovered vegan baking. And of course booze adds calories.

SO, back to journaling, for awhile anyway!