My weight is going up and down and I don't really know what I am doing differently. In the month that passed since my last post, I gained six pounds. It has been almost two weeks since that weigh-in, and I discovered today that I've lost four pounds during that time.
I haven't been dieting and I haven't been doing much exercise. Water consumption hasn't been a big part of my days, either. The only thing I can think of that might be helping is that I am trying not to use the kids to fetch things for me. Perhaps that is making a difference.
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In other news, I signed on for the third round of Runagogo. I didn't meet the 100-mile goal for the first two rounds, but I thought I'd try again. If I keep finishing each round with more miles than the round before it, I will slowly but surely get better. In the first round I only managed 5 miles, and in the second round I racked up 18. This time I am aiming for at least 20 miles.
OK, after my last post I proceeded to update my EP logs with my info from 25 Apr to today. The food log has been updated since the last time I was here but it is still clunky. It isn't very easy to add the food that I eat. Do a search for "sugar" and it brings up sugared cereals and donuts, but no plain sugar. The food tracker was one of the big reasons that I left EP last time. I don't want to use two different sites to track my fitness journey, but the journaling has become a big part of it for me. I guess I won't be quitting Sparkpeople just yet.
Here I am again I know, I said I wouldn't update this blog anymore. A girl can have a change of heart, can't she? As part of my plan to better coordinate my online presence, I have signed up for Jaiku. This means I can give one URL to someone like my sister and she can follow all the different blogs that I update. Anyway, Sparkpeople (the weight loss site I have been using) has a clunky blogging function with no RSS feed. So here I am, blogging on Extra Pounds again. In the end, I was going my own way instead of following Sparkpeople's plan so it's all good.
I am resetting my start weight on my tracker because I renewed my efforts recently. My tracker should reflect my new goals and what I've been doing over the past month. Although I have over 100 pounds to lose, I am setting my goals 20 pounds at a time. My first short-term goal is to reach 263 lbs. by 04 Jul. This coincides with my Runagogo goal of walking 100 miles by 04 Jul. At the point, the 100 miles is a long shot but I am only 15 pounds away from the weight goal. Wish me luck!
This is probably the last time that I will update this blog. I've discovered that writing so much about my weight makes me focus on it too much and then I eat even more. It is the contrarian in me.
That doesn't mean that I have given up on caring about my health. I'm trying out the plan at SparkPeople; it is similar to eDiets but it is free. Extrapounds is nice but it doesn't give me the fitness and menu planning addvice that I want.
Thanks to the few people who read this blog while I maintained it. I hope that all of you meet your goals!
First off, ignore my post titles. This site won't let me do a post withouth a title and I am running out of snappy phrases.
I don't have anything fascinating to report. It is getting easier to skip the fries at lunchtime, but my diet hasn't improved much overall. I'm trying to get back into exercising this week. I did a few pushups and crunches yesterday, and I walked slowly for 30 minutes on the treadmill today.
"The Fat Girl's Guide to Living" has changed my attitude towards dieting and I hope it is something I can stick with. I need to focus on health and exercise instead of obsessing over every pound. There are great changes going on in my body that I wasn't noticing because I kept fretting over whether I lost a pound. For instance, I am getting closer to touching my toes when I bend over. I can also feel my ab muscles getting stronger, even though they are covered by a layer of flab. Becoming stronger and more flexible will bring me closer to my goal of still having a good sex life when I am retirement age :-).
My weight remained steady this week. I continued to follow the principles of the Cruise Down Plate and I think I will stick with that for a while. It is easy and if I focus on portion size instead of calories/carbs/fat grams, I feel less obsessed about eating.
ABM has been a big help by trying to bring more fresh fruit and veg into the house. School is out and he is off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It has been a while since he has been home alone with the kids on a weekday, so he is finally seeing that our kids aren't the picky little eaters they were a year ago. They all have big appetites now, and at least two of them are taking after us. They gravitate toward the useless carbs and processed foods and have the extra pounds to show for it. M, my oldest, is almost a lost cause; she stopped eating all fruits and vegetables when she was two. I have watched her go hungry rather than eat a vegetable. C2, however, will eat fruit and veg if the less-healthy options are eliminated. She also likes to exercise so there is hope for her yet.
I would have done better if I had exercised. I got on the treadmill for a total of 15 minutes this week. My legs are screaming to start walking again, so I should do better this week.
I lost two pounds last week, but I don't think it had much to do with "8 Minutes in the Morning". Those isometric exercises didn't feel like they were doing much for me. The sweat I broke on the treadmill was more of a contributing factor. I think I would rather go back to my Ballet Sweat routine. I like the feeling of a good stretch.
The eating plan, called the Cruise Down Plate, was more helpful. However, that same information can be found in any number of diet books -- it isn't unique to this plan. I will continue to use it because it is easy for me to do without counting anything.
The kids are out of school for summer. That means I can work out in the morning without being asked to sign anything at the last minute or touch up someone's hair. Hopefully I can start getting my full 30 minutes done every day.
Yes, I am trying the 8 Minutes in the Morning plan I mentioned in my last post. I did the Cruise Moves this morning and I am not won over yet. Perhaps that is a good thing. Usually I get very excited about a program immediately, only to lose my enthusiasm a few days later.
The Cruise Moves are basically isometric exercises, and you do two different exercises every day. I felt my muscles shake from fatigue toward the end, but by lunchtime I didn't feel like had done anything at all. I guess I still have that old Jane Fonda workout mentality. If I'm not walking around sore all day, I don't feel like I worked hard enough. Still, it is only eight minutes a day so it won't kill me to stick with it a while.
The Cruise Down Plate isn't that difficult, either. Fill 1/2 your plate with veggies, 1/4 with lean meat, and 1/4 with carbs like rice or potatoes. There's no counting of carbs/calories/fat grams--just use your common sense and don't fill your veggies side with fried okra or broccoli swimming in cheese. This is just the kind of no-fuss eating plan I needed. Dividing the plate gives me a simple visual to keep myself on track.
I've done pretty well sticking to the plan today. I've committed myself to cooking more vegetables for dinner and breakfast has never been a problem. Lunch at the caf will be a challenge, though. When there is a healthy option, I choose it. There are some days, though, when there is not a green vegetable to be found. One day last week, we had fried fish with coleslaw, potato salad, and beans. The sandwich choices were a fried chicken patty or chicken salad croissant with french fries. What was I supposed to choose out of that? Even if Iiked salads, the salad bar is picked over by the time my lunch time comes around. I don't take my lunch because I like a hot lunch and there is always a line for the microwave. Grumble, grumble, whine, whine :-).
Anyway, I will try to stick with this for 28 days and see if it helps.
I checked out another fitness book from the library. This time it is 8 Minutes in the Morning for Real Shapes, Real Sizes by Jorge Cruise. Why can't I pick a program and stick to it? Every book I pick up is basically the same once I get past the inspirational mumbo-jumbo in the first few chapters. More veg, fewer carbs, move, move, MOVE! Still, I keep checking out one book after another. Do I think I'm going to find one that tells me something different? Maybe I'll find one that tells me to chant while stomping in a circle to scare all the fat away :-).
I was ready to get on the treadmill this evening. My legs had a strange ache to them like they wanted to walk. Then I got in the car to head home. Long car ride southern heat = me falling asleep in the car.
When I got home, I forced myself to wake up because I still wanted to get my workout done. I sat down to put my sneakers on and I stayed glued to that chair for an hour. I didn't want to get up! Changing out of my clothes and finding my one pair of shorts sounded like it would take more energy than I had. So what did I do?
I did 20 minutes on the treadmill in my work clothes. Luckily I was wearing a loose sundress with a short, lacy sweater on top. I ditched the sweater and started walking. You guys may think I'm crazy, but the dress already need to go in the washing machine and it was just as comfortable as my shorts would have been -- probably more, since my shorts did into my stomach a bit.
Since I don't want to spend two hours a day exercising, I am modifying a tip from the "Body for Life" book. I will continue to walk for 20-30 minutes each day, but increase my speed on the days when I want a harder workout. Today was not that day, though. I had to pull out all my tricks to stay on the treadmill for 20 minutes. I focused on my music for a few minutes, then I focused on how many steps I logged on the 10,000 steps counter built into the treadmill. Next I moved my attention to the pace counter, which shows how long it would take me to walk a mile if I did the whole walk at my current speed setting. I got a little interval training by changing my speed and watching how it affected the pace counter. When I was almost ready to give up, I told myself that I could get off when I reached 20 minutes or one mile -- whichever came first. The 20-minute mark came first, but I was so close to a mile that I walked at cool-down speed until I reached it.
Isn't it crazy the things we tell ourselves to keep going? The conventional stuff in the books (be good to yourself, do it for your children) doesn't work for me. Today it was my slightly OCD need to have things line up that got me to the finish line.
I know, I said I wouldn't update this blog anymore. A girl can have a change of heart, can't she? As part of my plan to better coordinate my online presence, I have signed up for