Reporting in for this weekend

Saturday: I ended up going out with a bang.
Dh called and wanted to pick up dinner and bring it to work, so we could have dinner together. And after work he wanted to go out for a drink.
We had Chinese (lousy food) and I had 3 small glasses of red wine at the bar.
My total for that day came to 1977 calories; still in my range, but not necessarily ending the day on the healthiest note.
I think I got only 5000+ steps in that day. I did a lot of work on the computer.


Sunday: What a day! I screwed up in many ways. Not by having too much, but having too little.
I was on my feet re-organizing the place from 9am to 9pm. I did not sit down once, did not take a break, and did not eat. Had some water and one small bag of almonds at 7pm or so, only because it ripped open by accident. That was 240 calories; oh, I forgot the nonfat latte, which accounts for a cup of milk (90cal).
By the time I got home, I was not hungry, but I ate the salad I had made and the whole-wheat tortilla. In addition, had two trail mix bars for dessert/sack while hanging out on the couch catching up on some shows I tevod. Sunday’s Total: 889 calories.

As nice as it would be having days like that, when you just don’t get around eating, it’s just not a good thing.
Fortunately, those days are very rare, about as rare as the days that I blow my calories through the roof. So in the end, when I look at it over a whole week it balances itself out again.

I have not weight myself yet, got up late, having my second cup of coffee and am still waiting to go to the bathroom. I refuse to weigh myself before thatJ.

Cannot wait to see what the results will be from this whacked out weekJJ

End of the Day ....

and I am home alone in a freezing house. Didn't build a fire before I left, now it will take a while before it gets comfy. It's too darn cold in the bathroom, otherwise I'd sayIi take a hot shower, especially since I am all cooled down from the little jog I did. NowI have cold semi wet clothes on my back. Maybe I should just slip into something dry at least. Can always take a shower later. I know the dogs won't care either way. They love me just the way I am:).
Bought a new pair of Nike running shoes today. They weren't really in our budget, but I can't jog in my old ones anymore. My knees and back have been killing me, walking is fine, but running, I just couldn't do that anymore. They were on sale, but still came to $ 105. Ouchy! It's usually not out of the ordinary for us to buy the best fitting (having my feet equals the most expensive) shoes, but $$ is a bit tighter since we started the whole addition/remodel process.
I decided that since I am trying to get back in shape I can't skimp on things like that. Walking/jogging is what I do, it's my exercise of choice. What's the point in being all skinny but not being able to walk or stand up straight because I messed up my back and knees.
I am not really used to having to watch every penny, at least not this way. It's not that we are broke, but DH gets very uncomfy when the checking account gets below 2K. I am mean he can't sleep at night. I guess it's ok, it's always better to have a cushion, right?
And it's really not like that he tells me what I can or can not buy, never has, just with him being the main bread winner he woories.
Well, I did pay 1/2 with what I made this weekend (I mostly use that $ for what we need on a daily basis), the other 1/2 I used my bank card. This way he won't be choking, probably not even wondering too much. And since I don't really have any other things to buy this week, maybe some milk or so, I should not need any extra form the bank.
Just got off the phone with DH. Told him that I got new shoes and all he said: "ok, good, you needed some". Why am I always worried about nothing? Well, I guess both of us worry, just in different way.

I am tired. I'll get myself another load of wood upstairs and then it's laying around on the couch. Maybe watching "Idol" or catching up on some shows I tevod.

Sunday/Monday (copy)

February 18, 2007-->
Sunday Night
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I am still at work; it is quiet here, I have a minute to make an entry into the journal.
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I did well yesterday (Saturday), until I got home, I had THREE donuts! They weren’t that good, day old, but I needed to sink my teeth into some bad carbs.
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As for today (Sunday), I am only at 557 cal for the entire day. I can’t believe it, but I double checked and sure it’s true. I was snacking all day long on cauliflower and broccoli; I guess the constant moving of my mouth made me think I had more than I actually did.
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Later: had some chicken and a whole wheat tortilla, boy was I starving!!
Then I laid on the couch and had an entire bag of rice cakes, oye!
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Wonder how much my weight will be affected by eating this way. I mean two nights in a row some bad goodies, this can't be good!!!
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-->I am just tagging this entry onto the one I started last night.-->
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-->February 19, 2007-->
-->Monday-->
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Weigh in this morning, down another 2.5 lbs, yippie! I am really looking forward to getting the first 20 lbs off me. My clothes are starting, finally, to feel roomier. Now I am almost where I was 2 years ago when I only had 25 pounds to lose. I still can’t believe I gave up after reaching 170 lbs and gained it all back, plus some.
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Overall I feel good about how things are going. I think that if I would have to follow all those rules and end upnot following them to the "T"I don’t get anywhere.
My approach seems to be working for me. I know there is room for improvement, we’ll see, maybe one day I'll get it just “perfect”JJ.
I am trying to keep track of all the nutrients, some days I am right on target, on others I miss some. I think just being aware of what I do and what goes into my body will get me eventually to the point where I can say, I am doing it right.

No Title

February 13th, 2007

It’s Tuesday late, and all have been doing is lay on the couch for the past two days. Granted I am not feeling too well, still have not gotten my voice back, as well as having a cough.
Now one would think on such low active day you should eat less. Well, not me, lying on the couch equals snacking on everything I can get my hands on.
YES, this also means I ate the entire box of “Merci” chocolates I found Sunday evening when I came home from work on the kitchen counter. DH left them for me with a Valentine’s card. Oh, so sweet, but darn, I knew they were not going to last very long.

When he called this evening, he apologized for not making a better choice. I agreed with him, but I am not mad. Now that they are all gone, I will move on. So, I had two days of kicking back and sleeping off the cold and eating everything but well. Ok, breakfast was ok (weetabix and banana), but that was it.

I noticed the busier I am the better I do (as long as I have good food available and prepared if necessary).

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I talked to my neighbor last time we walked about going out for lunch. I thought I would plan it into my week, but now that I have slacked off two day with eating and exercise, I am not so sure about how to tackle this one.

If we are going and I get up and out early enough I could go for a walk/jog in the am and than maybe for another in the afternoon. This sure sounds like a lot right now, especially since I am not 100% yet again.

However, I do not want to slip back past the 200 mark again. I really do not want to.
The tricky part is that I always seem to eat less when I exercise and eat more when I do not. I know it should be the other way around.
I have only three days left this week to exercise, that’s it. Saturday and Sunday is impossible.

I guess there is not much sense in agonizing over it right now. I need to see how I feel tomorrow and go from there.

Sigggghhhhhhh!!!! Life would be so much easier if one wouldn’t have to worry about ones body so much. Why aren’t we all born equally and why don’t we do instinctively what’s right for us???

Actually, we do when we are infants; we eat when we are hungry and refuse to eat when we are not. Unfortunately, this does not last very long. Soon after we start eating solid foods we are also been trained to not listen to those instincts anymore.

Oh, I could go on and on about how much we screw ourselves over, just because we have certain believes on how things are supposed to be. But I am getting of my soap box, because I am too tired.

Well, not too tired to watch tonight's episode of "Strong Medicine" on Lifetime.

Icky and Happy

This weekend was a little rough on me. Not about the food, but I got sick. Came down with a bad cold/sore throat/no voice, you name it I have it. And of course I had to get it when I had to work. I work Saturday/Sunday 12 hours shifts and there was no way I was going to call in sick, I just started this job. Thank goodness for NyQuil! I do not know what I would have done without it.
Anyways, I did well with the food. I had all my meals prepared. I think that’s the only way to stick with it. Plus, I don’t really have any other options to get myself something somewhere else.
I did not get to exercise, of course. However, being on my feet all day long counts for something, plus I did all my workouts for the week already.
I may not skip a workout today; I am still feeling icky. The only thing is I do not like being behind with it, rather get it out of the way for the week and not have to worry about it anymore.

I will have to see how I am feeling later on. If my neighbor calls, I will probably go, since it is not as strenuous.

I also got my blood test results back and they are all fine.
Lipid panels (Cholesterol): 136 need to be under 200 YEAH!!
Triglycerides (sp?) (Fat): 42 need to be under 150 YEAH!!
Hemoglobin (sp?): 5.4 need to be under 6 YEAH!!

Now I have all my levels/panels checked and have a baseline to go by now. I will get those tests redone in 6 months from now.
Which in itself will keep me on my toes; do not want these #’s move in the wrong direction.

Hubby told me the other night that he is very happy about me switching things around a bit, as in serving more salads and such. We used to eat veggies with our meals every day, but somehow we slipped into having less “green food” and eating more starches (bread with dinner etc.). Also, every meal had to be followed by some kind of a dessert.

He is thankful that we are back to getting into healthier habits.


Well, I weighed in with 198 lbs this morning. I lost 3 pounds this week and I am very happy about it. This means I have lost 15 pounds since the beginning of this year.
I have become more confident about this process and I believe that I can continue with it and eventually lose the rest of the weight.

I was worried about my new job "taking away" from my focus on losing weight and that I would slip back into using it as an excuse. But I am not worried anymore, I just told myself, other people manage so can I! Most people have a full time job, family kids and a household to take care of and are trying to lose weight. Now if they can manage to do all of this I certainly can.

Having to work is not an excuse to not lose the weight. I just have to make sure that I prepared my meals ahead of time and take everything I need with me. Sure it's a PITA (pain in the a$$), but it's worth it. I should care enough about myself to take the time and do what's nessecary to reach my goal. No more excuses! It's all about getting my priorities lined up in the right order.

February 8 & 9, 2007

Entry for:
February 8th, 2007

I am not sure how to sum up the day. The rain surely did not help with motivation part. I ended up walking with my neighbor. We put on our rain jackets and off we went. I am glad she went with me, not much fun doing it by myself, especially in the rain. It was actually nice to slow down a bit, I am so used to walking this stretch in about an hour, with her it took us almost 20 minutes more. But I don’t mind, it gave my knees a break from the previous day’s jog.

February 9, 2007
Rain, rain, rain and more rain. I got lucky, it stopped for about an hour or so in the morning, so I took the chance and went out there. Jogged for about 2 miles and walked 2 miles back in an hour. I am happy about that. I really need to get myself new running shoes. Mine have seen much better days. They are fine for walking, but not for jogging. My knees are bugging me, not to mention my lower back. And I’ll be standing for most of the day tomorrow. Where is the Aleve??? I am pulling a 12-hour shift and depending on how busy it gets I could be on my feet all day long.
I prepared all of tomorrows food: big salad with chicken and a whole-wheat tortilla, fruits (apple banana, pear), veggies (raw cauliflower and asparagus) 2 Tbs Ranch (real stuff, don’t like fat free and it’s worth it for me to spend the calories on) and a yoghurt. Plus, of course enough water. That’s a total of 995 calories. I have some room for a little something in between and/or when I get home by 9:30pm.

What a bummer though, DH will get off an 48 hour shift, but I will be gone before he gets home. So, I might get an hour with him in the eveningLL. He will be leaving Sunday morning right after I leave for work and will not be back until Thursday nightLL. Getting a little bummed out about it now. That’s 8 days for us not being able to be togetherLL
Can you say “THIS BITES!!”

Changes

I was about to hang this blogsite up on the hook. I felt I was forced to change to the "google" set up. Didn't let me log in as usual. This really pisses me off. I change when I am good and ready for it.

Especially since I don't understand the need for this switch. Anyone care to explain this to me? This is a whole bunch of BS, if you ask me. But then I know I am NOT being asked!

February 7th, 2007

I just finished totaling up yesterday's calories. OYE!! I went way overboard. Where did those darn chocolates come from???????????????????????????????????????????-->-->-->
I blew 800 calories just on those. Can you say ridiculous!!-->-->
I need to get my bootie out there today and make up for it somehow. Maybe I will go twice, once after I finished writing this and again later today. I am so bugged with myself, this was not necessary at all. What in the heck was I thinking? Stupid me!!!
To top it off, those darn things were not even that good.
I know I said I will go easy on myself during this whole weight loss journey, but this is inexcusable. This is not getting me anywhere! Oh wait, sure it will, RIGHT BACK TO HAVING A BIG FAT ASS. I am so POd!!!
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Well, I am going to keep this brief.
Looks like it will be raining soon, I need to get out there and teach myself a lesson.
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If you don’t see me around for a while, something terrible might have happened to me (I might still be running, trying to get away from the very upset MEJJ)
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Later!!

am back!!! (she didn't get me LOL)
I ended up jogging for 33 minutes and walking for 26 minutes. That was about 4 miles. DH and I walked 4 miles yesterday in the other direction and it took us about 70 minutes.
Ok, I am feeling a little better now. Working up a sweat just does something to you, endorphines or something like that.
Well, I am also feeling a little relief now because of something else I did. After I signed off from the board, I went to change into my walking clothes, but I thought I'll give myself a wake up call first and see how much I have gained since Monday.
I didn't, I am down to 198 lbs, I lost 3 lbs since Monday. Don't ask me how I did this, I have no idea, I certainly haven't starved myself (look at my food journal if you don't believe me http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=pixelgraphs) This is also the second week in a row that I dropped weight after weigh-in day.
BUT, big but, I will not praise the week until it's over, who knows what will happen. So, the weight ticker will stay at 201 lbs, my goal will be 200 for next week (trying to remember to take it one pound at a time).
I have got to admit though, it's great to see numbers below the 200 mark again.

February 6th, 2007

According to the weatherman, it is going to rain here Wednesday and continue at least until next Wednesday. It’s time to come up with some alternative exercises. I will walk in the rain, if it’s not pouring down on me. Maybe I should dig up some of my old Tae Bo tapes?-->-->-->
Ok,…….-->-->
I am going to post soon. Started a new job this weekend, plus DH and I are trying to get the rest of the drywall up in the garage (more him then me:) so we can get our new garage door delivered and installed. Should have happened in December, but oh well, things are happening at a much slower pace up here.-->-->
I also am trying to get my house back into "visitor shape". -->-->
I am the kind of person who needs some degree of order around her to function properly. If it is messy around me it get's messy in my head. I always tell people look into my sock drawer and you can tell what's going on in my life right now. The more un-organized the more I have on my plate. Currently all of our socks make it only as far as being rolled up and into the laundry basket and upstairs into the closet, just not into the drawer. You would think this one last step is the easiest, ha, I wish. Having made it that far is an accomplishment. I usually get interrupted before anything goes upstairs (I still have a basket full of folded laundry on top of the dryer from almost 3 weeks ago.) Thank goodness it is just hubby and me, he is getting used to finding things either in one place or another.-->-->
So, it's time to get things back in order as much as possible. -->-->
I also started a new job last weekend, here goes another chunk of my time I could be spending here LOL. It's going to be Sat/Sun. 12 hours shifts, for now, but I have a feeling it will be more in the future. I also am starting a scrap booking class as well as looking into taking over the volunteer position for the event photographer at our Women's New Comers Club I joined this year. Therefore, my focus has shifted a bit.-->-->
I am a little worried I lose focus on my weight loss. It has happened before when I "shifted gears". I get so involved in one thing and let the other slide. However, this time around, I am also aware of it and I am hoping I will find the right balance to do it all.-->-->
I think with this past week being so "slow/sluggish", it has helped me to re-think a few things and how I need to manage the weight loss approach for the months ahead.-->-->
My initial approach needs to be put back into action. I realized that I have been going a bit too much “balls to the wall” and if I continue this way, I may just go ahead and quit now. -->-->
Sure, it is great to lose this much so fast, but it’s also not realistic. I need to get back and focus on doing it one pound at a time or even ½ pound. -->-->
My goal to start with was to lose 48 pounds by the end of this year. And I think I can do this without feeling pressured. I noticed I have been “pressuring” myself a little, the recovering perfectionist within me likes to mess with my head when given the chanceJJ-->-->
Now, this past week I worked out Mo/Wed/Fri/Sat, walking for about and hour+ each time.-->-->
As for calories, I had anywhere 1500-2000+ calories any given day. And this has still gotten me a ½ pound loss.-->-->
Therefore, I am thinking, if I keep track/journal of my food intake, exercise on a minimum as I have been during the “sluggish” week, I will still see results. Maybe not as fast, but I will still get there by the end of the year, without running the risk of burning myself out. -->-->
Making overall healthier choices and starting to move again has put me in the right track.-->-->
I should not care about how fast I can lose the extra weight all I should care about losing it permanently. -->-->
That’s my ultimate goal!!-->-->
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LOL, looks like I posted after all. LOL, once I get going I keep going and going and going LOL. This should be it for today. I have a long “to do list” to take care of.

February 2nd, 2007

I think I might just write this week off as being a “sluggish” one or maybe even consider it a week off.
I will still keep an eye on how many calories are going in and continue to exercise, but if for some reason, I do not see any results on Monday I will not be surprised, kwim? Rather soften the blow than be taken by surpriseJJ
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Was not able to work out today, but I am planning to do it again tomorrow. I am hoping for the sun to come out. It is always nicer walking on a sunny day.

January 31st, 2007

This week seems to be getting off on a very sluggish start. Why? Not sure myself. I walked with hubby Monday and today for about an hour each . Had to take yesterday off, I twisted my knee Monday night and getting up and down the stairs wasn’t easy and a bit painful. Figured I lay off the uphill walking for one day and give the knee a rest.
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Seemed better today, just a little twitch here and there, but nothing major.
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Not so happy with my eating, not sure why, maybe it’s the lack of veggies (can’t call it really a lack of, just not as much as I usually eat). I think maybe it’s the foods I have had, not so much the calories, but more that they are a bit out of the ordinary. I definitely had more processed foods and more milk, maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s just this darn period, yeah let’s blame it in the ol’ hag. She definitely is responsible for the bloating. Everything is so reversed this time, must be all those changes.
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Tomorrow is the monthly luncheon, which means I have to estimate the meal. I have no idea what they will be serving, but I am sure it will be good.
It seems I am ½ way through the week and have not done anything to lose more weight. It is annoying to feel so unsatisfied. Arrgghh, feeling this way is always a red flag signaling a possible food attack.