Progress?

This morning I decided to be brave and step on the scale, just for kicks, and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had lost 2.5 lbs. in the 3 days so far since going off a food plan I had been on and going back to my own plan (tracking calories, even if only estimating in my head, and replacing some of my carbs with protein). I know that the number on the scale isn't the only factor to consider, though, so I also have this: looser clothing, practically ZERO bloat, and more energy!

My hope is that they are all good signs that I'm on the right track. I've been consistent with my plan to keep things fun and interesting with my exercise, too. Today we went for a family bike ride. Seems I do remember how to ride a bicycle.

That is all for now, just a quick Blog entry today. I leave you with some inspiring pictures and quotes to "chew" on.

 

  

 

Tool Number Two ~ Find YOUR Best Fit

There is no one food plan out there for losing weight that will work best for everyone. Two people can weigh exactly the same and even measure the same in, say... the waist, yet a pair of jeans will fit one perfectly and be too tight in the hips on the other. In the same way, one food plan can fit one person perfectly, yet be a disaster for someone else.

If what you're doing now isn't working for you (after giving it at least a few days), don't give up hope. Just keep searching until you find what will work. Even if you've already tried several different food plans, there is always one more little thing you can change that might make a huge difference. Changing bad eating habits into good ones isn't easy, but it doesn't have to be so hard that we're miserable all the time. In fact, eating healthier should start to feel very good after a few days.

The key is to make it fun and interesting. Treat it like a game, a game in which you win once you find the right answer. Roll the dice, so to speak. Did it land on, "More protein, less carbs from grains like bread and pasta"? Try that this week. Did it land on, "Eat less protein/add more healthy carbs?" Then try that. Whatever you haven't tried yet, pick something and try it. Or... if something was working for you, but you slacked off on it, then go back to that. Just keep "trying on" different plans until you find what fits you the best. It can be frustrating "trying on so many different outfits," but that perfect "outfit" (i.e., food plan) might be on the very next "rack" over. Keep trying.

For me personally, I am finding that the new food plan I've been on isn't working so great for me after all. I am sure it is working great and will work great for a lot of people, but my body doesn't seem to like it too much. It has left me quite bloated much of the time, which at first I thought might simply be the increase in vegetables and fruits, but it has been long enough now for my body to have adjusted. And my appetite has been slowly increasing over time. My guess is that it's too carb-rich for me, and doesn't have enough protein for my particular body type and the hard core workouts I've started doing again.

It's disappointing, especially after spending money on the book, but I wouldn't have known if I hadn't tried. My original plan was to stick it out for the duration of the plan no matter what, but my body is clearly revolting and it is making me miserable, and getting healthy isn't supposed to be miserable.

So for today, I am back to calorie counting and adding a little more protein and just doing the best I can until my trip to the grocery store tomorrow. Speaking of which, this week I will be challenging myself to stick to a food budget of only $70 for the three of us, so that I can start putting more money in savings as well as have more money for other things. Wish me luck. It will definitely be a challenge.

Tool Number One in the Weight Loss Arsenal ~ Plan Ahead.

Yesterday was Day 5 of the Shred Diet for me, and because of a simple lack of planning, I veered off the plan at lunch, and again at dinner.

And gained a pound overnight.

And only two days away from my official weigh-in day, no less!

But it's okay. Lesson learned. Today, I planned ahead.

Not planning ahead can cause all kinds of diet-wrecking havoc. It's a necessary tool, just like a screwdriver is necessary to screw on a door plate. Because I failed to have snacks stashed in my purse yesterday when I left the house, the unexpected too-long doctor appointment for my daughter led to thoughts of gnawing someone's arm off, which then led to stopping at a favorite restaurant for an early dinner. That then somehow spiraled into craving ice cream while at the grocery store afterward, so I bought some--much to my daughter's delight--with plans to dive into it when I got home (at least I had planned something).

Funny thing is, I didn't even really enjoy the ice cream. It tasted too sweet to me and.... well... weird. Not sure how else to describe it. It had a funny taste. This ice cream addict thought ice cream tasted weird! And it was the same brand I've been buying for years. I couldn't even finish the last part of it. I'm convinced it's because after 5 days of eating 90% healthy food, my taste buds were reminded of how much better "real" food tastes.

Sherbert actually tastes better to me now. Prior to the Shred Diet (Sherbert is listed as a snack option on the plan), I only ate Sherbert on very rare occasions.

As for my thoughts on the Shred Diet, so far I give it a thumbs up. Yesterday I felt myself rebelling against the plan, not because of hunger, but because I'm not used to eating so healthy, and I wanted to slip back into my old habits. I anticipate there will be a bit of a battle ensuing from time to time. But I am committed to sticking it out for the long haul, even if I have to have a Cheat Day (or Cheat Meal) from time to time.

In other news, it feels so good to be back to regular exercise. The 20 minute HIIT Turbo Fire workout I did today was very intense. Talk about moving fast! Back when the Turbo Fire workouts were brand new to me, I would laugh so hard at my hilarious attempts to keep up. Now I'm doing it with no problem! Well, almost no problem. :-)

I look forward to getting back to running soon, too, and running in some 5K races in the near future, even if I have to walk for most of them at first.

That is all for now. Signing off with one last thought: Be prepared. Know where your screwdriver is.

Skinny Beauty

"To be beautiful is to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself."
~Thich Nhat Hanh

Came across this quote today and love it. Powerful.

One of the biggest parts of losing weight, in my opinion, is to start from a place of accepting ourselves where we are right now. Not as an excuse to stay overweight and unhealthy, but as a way to stop being so hard on ourselves and judging ourselves so harshly.

No matter how many times we might have failed at losing weight (or at keeping it off), it doesn't mean we are a failure. You can be a failure at something, but that doesn't make you, as a person, a failure. It just means you had obstacles, whether self-imposed or not. Maybe you didn't have the right tools or the right plan of action. Maybe you simply weren't committed enough, and that's okay. There is always another chance to commit. Or maybe there were circumstances beyond your control that prevented you from reaching your goal.

Whatever the case, it doesn't mean we can't try again, and be successful. We must believe in ourselves, that with the right tools and circumstances, we can do it.

Having the right motivation is important, too. We have to want it for the right reasons. If we are doing it to feel accepted, loved, or approved by others, or for someone else in any way, we are much more likely to fail. We have to do it because we want to... to feel better in our own skin, have more energy and vitality, to fit into those favorite pair of jeans again, be able to do more, accomplish more, be more mentally alert, less moody. Yes, we may want to look better for our spouse (or potential spouse) or be healthier for our children, any number of other things for someone else, but first, we must want that for ourselves, and then we can be that for others.The natural side effect of being good to ourselves will be that we are good for others.

Be good to yourself today. Be beautiful.

In my next post, I'll share my thoughts on the new diet I'm trying and how it's going so far.

The Quest

I wonder what it's like to live life in the Skinny Lane?

My quest is to find out. And that's what this Blog will be all about.

Thing is, I kind of like the fat lane, in a way. I can eat more ice cream and drink more Pepsi, and not exercise as much. But, I only like those things so much because it's what I'm used to. It's just habit, plain and simple. Most habits can be changed, it's the getting there part that's the hardest. Old habits die hard.

It has been an interesting journey so far. I even joined Overeaters Anonymous at one point years ago thinking, "Yah, that's it! I'm addicted to food! This will be my ticket to Skinny City." At the first meeting when they said the first step was to "abstain" and everyone nodded slowly and sullenly in agreement, as if they knew some big secret I wasn't privy to, my mouth hung half open and I thought, "What? Abstain from all food? As in... fast?" Then the meeting was over I asked my sponsor what, exactly, "abstaining" meant and she explained that it meant to abstain from all sweets, and certain other foods. For the rest of my life. As in, never again was I to put a piece of chocolate or spoonful of ice cream to my lips. Ever.

I was both relieved and going into "no chocolate or ice cream ever again" shock at the same time. Yet, I was so desperate to lose weight that I simply said, "Moo." Then I promptly followed the "herd" out the door and to my car.

I did lose about 40 lbs., but only because I followed the strict food plan that my sponsor put me on. To the tee. I was not allowed to have any in-between meal snacks. But once, I cheated. I was so hungry between lunch and dinner one day (stomach was rumbling and everything) that I called my sponsor to see if I could have an apple. Just an apple. She said, No. No in-between snacks. Ever. It was against the "law." After hanging up, I picked up the apple, washed it, and ate it. The final straw was when I got very sick with the flu and called my sponsor to ask if it was okay to go off the food plan and eat some chicken noodle soup. I fully expected her to give the green light. Instead, she told me that not only could I not have soup, but that I should eat scrambled eggs instead. I almost barfed into the phone.

The fear was that eating soup would cause me to want to overeat. Hmmm. Sick as a dog + eating soup = wanting to overeat? I politely ended the conversation, hung up the phone, and went to heat up some soup. Not long after, I quit the group and went back to feeling human again.

I gained the 40 lbs. back and then some, but I was okay with that. I knew that eventually, I would figure something out.

Since that time, I've lost some, gained some, and now I'm somewhere in the middle. Currently I'm about 26ish pounds away from my goal weight. Up to this point in my journey I have had the tendency to expect too much, too soon out of myself. I like seeing results. I don't care much for the in-between stuff, I want to see the end result NOW. Yesterday, in fact. Wanting results can be a good thing, but being in too much of a hurry can be detrimental to getting there.

So. New strategy this time.
1) Expect that this is not going to be easy. It will in fact be very hard at times.
2) Be more realistic about how long it will take.
3) Expect obstacles, and that I won't necessarily know how to overcome them right away.
4) Love myself where I'm at right now, and enjoy the journey.

I'll be easing my way back into exercise again this time, instead of burning myself out. Instead of doing the workout I was doing before 5-6 days per week, I'm cutting it back to 3 days per week, with just walking in-between, and eventually, running again.

As for diet, I discovered a food plan that I suspect might work really well for me. I'm on Day 3 and it has gone great so far. It's from a book, called, "The Shred Revolutionary Diet," by Ian K. Smith, M.D. The first week it gets your feet wet, so to speak, and progresses from there. It has a lot of flexibility and the foods are affordable and simple. No fancy schmancy stuff that only the rich and famous can afford, LOL. It tells me what to eat each day, so no calorie-counting required. Yet I still get some choices of my own, but not so many that I feel lost. Completely doable for me. And, it's designed to get my metabolism going again. Teenager-metabolism, here I come! *Clears throat* Ahem. Okay. Reality.

I welcome your feedback on this Blog (positive only, please), anytime you feel the urge. I'll be journaling how I'm doing on the new food plan, sharing yummy recipes, my progress as I train to run a 5K again, how I'm doing with the TurboFire workouts, and lots of inspiring quotes and great tips along the way (we could all use those for sure). I would love to hear about your journey, too, so feel free to share if you want.