Tuesday, July 23, 2019
When the going gets tough
Mom had to put her dog Lulu down yesterday. It was hard. I've had a tough couple of days and I won't lie, I have done a bit of emotional eating. I also did a bit of beating myself up about it (like that ever helps!).
This morning I weighed myself (scale was up 2 pounds) and moved on. I fixed breakfast, packed lunch and snacks, put meat for dinner in the crock pot. I'm going to the gym at lunch (I did HIIT yesterday, I'll do 2.5 miles on the elliptical at lunch today), then I'll go to the kettlebell gym after work. Then I'll go home and have a yummy dinner (Korean beef bowl with plenty of veggies and a mix of rice & cauli rice), and chill on the couch with my husband for a bit.
I'm okay, this happens, it's what comes next that matters. And whether I'm this side of the 150 mark or the other when I get up Friday morning, no one but me is going to know, because no one else would notice 1-2 pounds.
Take care of yourself today.
Friday, July 19, 2019
Today was the day
TGIF and hurray for autopilot y'all. I lost 2 pounds this week, and I now weight 149.6 - my lowest weight since before I started tracking in October of 2001.
I'm getting close!
My initial goal is 140 - and I will go from there.
Have a great weekend!!!
I leave you with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2QiasaYdr0&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2rD8xC81_KaHJkOZpYnS4qBfUIWkmz4c66vHRIhu15waibsG8XYV3o30Q
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Still trucking along
Good morning!
Life and work have been bananas this week and I haven't had time to sit down and write. It's been nuts. Fine, just too much to do.
To answer a question in the comments: Sparkpeople has a weekly summary chart on the page:
You can tell I hadn't started yet. It fills in raw numbers, but it's pretty easy to back into the percentages with all the numbers neatly in one place.
Having explained all that, my plans to meticulously track this week have been completely derailed. Tuesday I had to work off a loaner laptop and ... blah blah excuse excuse. But since I had planned up front and had done some basic prep Sunday (including making a list of what needed to be prepped each evening), my food plan has been on auto pilot.
Also, I fly out a week from tomorrow for our annual medieval camping in Pennsylvania trip and I haven't even started to pack. Y'all, I need a break!!
Take care.
Friday, July 12, 2019
You do you
BTW, T made it home safely last night. I slept like I had been given a sleeping pill. It was great.
One of the cool side benefits of getting older is that you care less about what other people think. Last night I (for the second time in my life) rocked a sports bra style workout top at the gym. Sure my midsection still has fluff (no 6 pack here!) and my belly (which was mostly covered by shorts) has stretch marks from pregnancy, but my back is really starting to look good and wearing it made me feel strong. And a tad weird.
Doing things my own way has spilled over into other aspects of my life, including nutrition. This week I have meticulously weighed and measured so I could know what (and how much) food I was putting in my body, and how I felt as a result. This is an idea that had been rolling around in my head, but was reinforced by a podcast I listened to.
Are you a podcast person? I'm not but my husband is and Ben Greenfield is a long time favorite. An episode on optimal diet we listened to recently (okay, my husband made me listen to in his car! lol) really resonated with me. Ben's premise (backed by research) is that for all that we are alike, the spectrum of differences is greater than we think. Our ancestors adapted to different diets in different parts of the world, meaning that we are better adapted to eating a certain way. We're pretty amazing and can run on most anything for fuel, but we work better on some.
As I get closer to my goal, I am trying to hone in on what foods fuel performance and good health as well as help me lose the last of the weight. I picked a fairly standard starting point:
Macros Based on The Zone (1) | % Of Total |
30% Protein | 30% |
40% Carbohydrate | 40% |
30% Fat | 30% |
I pretty consistently went under on the carbs and over on the protein. I felt pretty good, but my overall calorie consumption was on the low side and I felt hungry some.
Yesterday:
I am going to change the targets for the upcoming week and see how that goes. I'll work on that this weekend and let you know what I come up with.
If you are curious, here's everything I ate yesterday (pretty typical):
The result: I'm at 151.6 pounds this morning - "only" down 0.9 pounds from last week, but a new low! So yay!
Have an awesome weekend!
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Interesting
So far this little experiment has been interesting. Yesterday I worked at home so I could be more flexible with my snacks. I had a cup of coffee with 2 prunes and peanut butter in the afternoon. Two prunes have 11 grams of carbs. So 2 little prunes make a difference in my bottom line carb consumption, but I don't feel like they are "bad."
I picked the ratios I did simply because they were a place to start. If I use my actual consumption, I think that carb number would be lower than the initial target, and I will adjust accordingly since so far I feel pretty good - not overly hungry and pretty steady energy levels. I may also up my lean protein portions at mealtimes - I started with 4 oz. but I'm having to use protein shakes to get that number higher.
Very little movement on the scale, but I feel good and I plan to keep going!
Have a good day.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Better
So here's yesterday:
Better across the board, still low on calories. I wasn't hungry though. That was the difference between 1) eating a more typical meal v. store bought veggie lasagna and 2) rye wasa & hummus for 2 snacks v. boiled egg.
While I say I wasn't hungry, I was also feeling a bit anxious. Could be some stress going on right now, could be T being out of town, could be tracking my food so closely. I keep reminding myself it's an experiment and I can change it up as needed.
Lots of stressful stuff right now - drama in my hobby (ugh!), mom's dog not doing well, ex MIL going in for a heart catheritization (I have no idea how to spell that word). Is it Friday yet? Oh, and totally not packed for vacation!
Take care and I'll try to do the same, okay?
Tuesday, July 09, 2019
Day 1, and bra confession
When I was overweight, I wore cheap sports bras all the time. This kind:
I probably have a billion with the elastic worn out (and I've tossed a billion more!). I wore them ALL THE TIME. To "work out" (which wasn't very strenuous), to work, where ever I was going and whatever I was wearing. Yes, it totally gave me a uniboob and no it wasn't flattering. It was comfortable and I didn't care. And at roughly $3 a bra.... whatever, right?
Only sometime along the way I started to care. So I dug through my old clothes and found a couple of bras that worked until I lost more weight. The ones I have that are the correct size are either no longer comfortable or worn out.
The 2 I bought at Kohl's are Warner brand, underwire, with enough "padding" that nipples won't show through at work, but not overly padded or push up. (Why do you need that much padding in a C cup anyway?). For workouts I am using some of the same cheap sports bras, only racerback. I do have a couple of more heavy duty ones, but since I walk, use the elliptical, or lift weights as my primary forms of exercise, there isn't much in the way of high impact exercise going on so they work fine so far. But yeah, a good bra is so worth it.
Here is where I ended up at the end of the day yesterday:
I wasn't particularly hungry, but I left a lot (especially protein) on the table. Let's see how today goes!
Take care.
Monday, July 08, 2019
Good weekend
Good morning and happy Monday! LOL
I hope you had a nice weekend, whatever you did. We went to the beach and had an awesome time! I was down to one non sports bra that fit, so I ponied up and bought a couple of new ones at Kohl's. $60 for 2 bras - yikes! But they fit well and are a good brand and they should last, plus they should fit for the rest of my weight loss unless I lose a bunch (more) in the cup. And I picked up a couple of tops for work at the thrift shop that I didn't need but I like.
It was good to go, and it's good to be home. Did okay with food - scale was up 0.2 pounds this morning - so flat for the weekend. i did a bunch of food prep and so now the work begins.
T headed out for Atlanta this morning for his training class. It's going to be weird to be by myself all week!
For breakfast I made a (sort of) chicken and rice casserole - 4 oz. chicken, 1/2 c rice, 1/2 steamed broccoli, sauteed onion, bell pepper, and celery. It's tasty but a bit on the dry side. Lunch is a portion of Aldi vegetable lasagna and a salad (left over from last night). Dinner is from Food cart style chicken salad (so yummy!), and snacks are 2 T hummus with a wasa cracker (snack at 10 and then this afternoon). I added a boiled egg onto the afternoon snack to help balance macros.
I've entered what I know and I am low on protein for sure, I will need to make a protein shake for dessert this evening.
So we'll see how my little experiment goes. Here's what I set as an initial target:
Total Calories/Day | 1,500 | |
Macros Based on The Zone (1) | % Of Total | Grams/Day |
30% Protein | 30% | 113 |
40% Carbohydrate | 40% | 150 |
30% Fat | 30% | 50 |
Have a good day!
Friday, July 05, 2019
Time to walk the talk
Y'all, I am now stuck at 152-ish. I've been (slightly) up the past 2 weeks. It's not that my eating is bad or out of control, it's just enough that I'm not seeing results. The closer you get to goal, the harder it is to lose. Easy to write, but a tough reality to live! Lol
I really, really, really want to see 149.9 before I leave to vacation 3 weeks from today. Two weeks ago I was at 151.7 - this morning I was 152.5. UGH!!!!! I want it so bad I can taste it, but do I want it enough to do the work?
The test starts now.
Breakfast this morning: 1/3 c leftover hash browns, 1 egg, 2 oz mexican seasoned ground beef, 1/8 c shredded cheddar.
Wednesday, July 03, 2019
Outline
Okie dokie, so I put together a rough outline of meals for next week based around proteins, I've determined that my stores are open tomorrow (or I can go early Friday - maybe better), and outlined minimum food prep that needs to happen Sunday when I get home. I've been tracking my food this week (a little high in fats & low in protein) and my meal plans are plug-n-play (protein + carb + veggies + fats), so I can adjust ingredients as needed to hit goals.
I'm excited!
I hope you have an enjoyable holiday. Take care.
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
Planning around travel
One of the toughest parts for me isn't making good choices when I travel (not that I always do, but if I want I do know how!), it's having the energy after a long car ride to get my butt to the store, buy the food, and prep it.
Next week t is out of town all week and we aren't getting back until Sunday afternoon. I'll be getting home from work late and will be hungry. I need stuff prepped that I can heat & eat or throw together quickly.
My plan is to make a plan Thursday night, shop before work on Friday (if the store isn't open Thursday) and maybe even do some prep if possible. That way Sunday I can have 1-2 meals ready to go for the start of the week.
Stay flexible, my friends.
Monday, July 01, 2019
It's not linear
In life no path is ever a perfectly straight line (at least, not in my life). We had a great family vacation this weekend, but there were also some frustrations, including some very limited food choices with no really good options. The scale was up a couple of pounds this morning, but I just rolled my eyes, packed my lunchbox, and went with it.
I'm putting my food in Sparkpeople - not even trying to hit any macro targets, just tracking to see where things fall out. At the end of the week I will adjust as needed. Since I plan my food in advance, keying it in isn't really that big of a step - I just like to be a drama llama about it. :-)
The Georgia Aquarium is really awesome! We had a great time and everyone agreed that booking the "Behind the Scenes" tour was the best part - highly recommend!
Anyway, good weekend, now back to reality!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)