Vegan on a Mission

It don't take MEAT to look SWEEEEET!!!

My Profile

  • Name: FatRat
  • City: Washington
  • Region: Arkansas
  • Country: United States

My Weight Loss

Height: 160.0cm
Start weight: 165.00lb
Current weight: 143.00lb
Goal weight: 124.00lb
Lost to date: 22.00lb
Remaining: 19.00lb

My Calendar

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February '12
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Really Simple Syndication
10/15/2009 15:06

143!

Ok...this is gettin' good. 143lbs this morning. I was thinking I'd be at around 145lbs if I worked my program diligently, but ....143? awesome!
I think I am overestimating my food calorie intake. My daily intake for the past month, according to my Bodybugg info, is right at 1180 a day - though some days I eat 400 calories and some days I eat 2300. It balances out over time to 1180 per day which is what all the boring old diet books say is the lowest amount to eat and still be somewhat safe. My daily calorie burn averages out to about 2000 a day. I think, according to my food log and calorie burn, I should be around 148lbs instead of 143, so that's why I think I'm overestimating the calories I get. Most of the food  I eat is listed in the Bodybugg system, but I think I make mistakes when it comes to estimating the caloric values of the STRANGE food I make for myself, like seitan or Kale/tofu stirfry. I try to be accurate, but I am VERY afraid of underestimating the calories and thus, sabotaging my weight loss efforts, so I OVERestimate calories. It's all good. I feel great. My stomach is much flatter (though it's not FLAT by any means yet!). I woke up this morning, put my hands on my almost-normal-feeling stomach and smiled. I was hungry, but I felt SKINNY. I thought, "huh, I feel really small today - I wonder if I have lost some more weight!"
sho nuff!
I exercise everyday, but some days it's only a 20 minute walk. Like my caloric intake, my caloric expenditure varies wildly from day to day. Some days I burn 1700 calories and others, I burn 2500 calories. Zumba is a FABulous calorie burner, as is aerobic kick-boxing. I burn 370 calories for 45 minutes of zumba, and 570 for an hour of aerobic kickboxing. Yoga, alas, only burned 170 calories in an hour. One instructor said that yoga could burn 500 calories in an hour. Well, maybe certain styles or types of yoga, but not MY class.
I jog a mile and a half and that burns only 75 calories. Still, it ALL counts, and that's one of the best things I have learned from this Bodybugg thing on my arm...it ALL counts. even the exercise that isn't hard, like walking. Thus, I'm inclined to walk more, dance more, play with the dogs more, and it all adds up to weight loss -Just like I've been reading in books and magazines for 30 years.
 
 

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10/02/2009 13:28

147?

Not sure why I lost another 2 lbs so quickly....Maybe it's because the food I ate for the last few days had very little salt content. I tend to add a TON of salt on my food, but these last few days I haven't. It might just be a "fluke" weigh-in. Those happen sometimes, right? You know, whenever water retention rises or falls dramatically for all those zillions of reasons.  Anyway, I've only been weighing myself once a week, but this morning, i just had this feeling,.."you are skinnier, you feel skinny, you're on the right track, just check it out on the scale and see, you won't be dissapointed".
So, I stepped on the scale. 2 lbs down.

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09/29/2009 15:07

149!

Yeah, it's been almost a year. Apparently, I am not honest or brave enough to keep blogging my diet failures, and I've had plenty this year. However, I've been doing "Zumba" a lot, and I won a "Bodybugg" from my gym (which is good because they cost $250 and I could never justify spending that money!)
and this "Bodybugg" has enabled me to lose 11 lbs in the last 3 weeks.
I swear by it and I know I wouldn't have been able to break that 151lb barrier without it.
Believe me...I'm as surprised as anyone that it works, but it DOES!
I am on the perfect downward weightloss spiral - slow, but not SO slow that I give up. And when I binge, as I still do, I know that all is not lost and I don't get that feeling of "well NOW I've done it...I'll NEVER lose this fat".
This Bodybugg thing just reminds me that it's overall calorie cutback, not just day to day, or week to week.  This gives me the freedom to let loose a little on weekends and at parties, and reinforces my willpower to reign in my consumption and increase my activities on those days that are easiest for me to do so...Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
 
I've been maintaining a calorie deficit of different degrees everyday, and I am, really, losing 1lb for every 3500 calories I have in deficit.  So if I have a bad week, and my calorie deficit for the week is 7000, I can see on the scale that I have lost 2 lbs, just like the doctors say. It's working! It's Working! and I'm so damn excited! I thought my metabolism was slow from too much dieting. I thought it was slow from being "older". I thought it was slow from not having much muscle mass.
Nope.
I think that's what we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better for failing.
My metabolism, apparently, is just fine. It was me, lying to myself about how much I was REALLY eating, that made me fat!

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04/24/2009 15:15

OH MY GOD!!!

I was just sitting here thinking that I wasn't making much progress. So, I log on to blog my latest 2 lb loss (yay...but big deal, right?) and I see that, from my weight chart, I have lost 14 lbs since January!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I guess it's a good idea to step back and see where we have come from.
I feel REALLY GOOD now.
 
And, of course, I KNOW that losing 2 lbs IS a big deal, but I guess it seems so minute for the work and diligence I'm putting into it. Looking back at 165 lbs? I can see how awesome these 2 lbs, and every single lb, no matter HOW long they take to leave me, are!

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04/20/2009 13:14

Down 1!

Ok, one pound ain't much, but I'm claimin' it!  My weight has been back up to 160 several times since january, and I keep rebounding with a 1 or 2 lb extra loss. Not great, but THIS time I think it's gonna stick. I've been messing with EFT tapping, and I'm pretty sure it's "taking". I have also been doing the Tony Robbins Personal Power cd's and program, and that's helping too. I guess I'm finally listening to all those people who say that weight loss is a mental/emotional issue, not just strictly a matter of calories in/calories out.
 
I realize that for me, my body needs very few calories to survive,  Yeah, I know, 1200 calorie minimum, starvation mode, bla blah blah.
YOU guys have fun with that. We are NOT all the same, and that rule does NOT apply to everyone - no neat little dieting cubby-hole for us all.
 
So, I am eating VERY little, and,,,thanks to EFT and some mind/body thoughtfullness, I am LOVING it! I feel like I can really embrace the feeling of an empty-er stomach, I have lots of energy, and, though I haven't weighed myself  in a long time before today, I am gonna start doing it regularly because I feel optimistic and ready to see real results. Nothing to hide from anymore.
 
And I am not always trying to stuff my stomach with as much low calorie food as will fit in my "caloric allowance" (I'm not counting calories, though I am aware of keeping my meals small), and when I need comfort, I take a bath or watch a movie or, mostly, do my EFT tapping. Then, I feel GREAT and lightweight - like a hummingbird.

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04/02/2009 13:01

154

Cool! down a pound. Hey..I just read on some Turbo Jam related site that sometimes the reason that people can gain a lb or two at the beginning of an exercise program is because the strain on our muscles and joints can cause our bodies to retain fluid as a defense mechanism to prevent further injury. THAT makes much more sense to me than "well, you're building MUSCLE and it WEIGHS MORE!" which I always thought was bullshit. Yeah I know. Muscle DOES weigh more. But please! Just because we feel sore after a workout, and the workout seems "hard", doesn't mean we're working out hard enough to put on 2 lbs of muscle. Even Bodybuilders have a hard time putting on muscle, and thats "what they do".
 
Anyway, I've been reading some about retaining water as a defense mechanism to certain chemicals we put in our bodies, like caffeine and nitrates and stuff.
The idea first presented itself to me in a book called "Skinny Bitch" and later, I've been hearing it paired up with theories on trying to maintain an Alkaline balance.
interesting, at least.

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03/30/2009 22:38

Still 155

Ok, I'm still at 155, but I've had some emotional highs and lows and some weird experimenting going on, and it's  been awesome. I feel good and I'm eating REALLY healthy. I've just started sucking down green smoothies because I've been researching raw vegan foods...partly regarding weight loss (I consume WAY less fat on raw food than when I sautee everything in olive oil - which is what I do without fail!) partly, just trying to get as much nutrition as I can from the food I eat, partly to get my mind out of the "food to smother emotions" track.
These smoothies are made with TONS of raw greens like Kale, Mustard greens, Collard greens, beet greens, spinach etc and Various veggies like beets, carrots and cucumbers etc and LOADS of fruit - whatever I can get my hands on. and a few nuts, and some flax seed for omega 3's. It's not so much a calorie saver as I probably add as much calories through fruit sugar as I did when I was guzzling olive oil via my cooked food, but I am eating a much more HUGE variety of foods each day than I ever did before, and none of it is processed. No tofu, no bread or pasta, no pre-packaged nothing. At least, not with my smooties. Sometimes I go out to eat and I order cooked food, or I eat a piece of chocolat or something. I'm not 100% raw, and don't know if I want or should be. 
 
My next new experiment has been to exercise every week day for 30 minutes before work. No excuses, no backing out or sleeping in. My rule is that I can do whatever I want to work out. Jog, lift weights, row, hula hoop, walk with weights, aerobics, dance, yoga, whatever. So I switch it up every morning, and I am now addicted. I even work out on weekends - just not as early, and just for fun. No pressure if I don't want to, but so far for the last month, I've wanted to.
 
Also, I have been working on some motivational tapes and some "power of intention" work. Stuff like Tony Robbins "personal power II", some NLP and EFT stuff. It's pretty new for me, but I like it and it feels good.
 
Oh yeah...I have discovered that I DO like yoga (I thought I HATED it but I took a class at my gym and it was FABulous) and I just worked out, for the first time, to Yoga Booty Ballet and it was way more fun than I thought it would be. It was the Caberet/Burlesque version. I am eager to try the other stuff,and I also have a Strippercise video and a Core Rhythms video I'll be playing with soon. I think these green smoothies are really reving me up.
 
My next step is to actually controll my calorie intake. In spite of my working out a half hour to an hour a day, and eating healthy, I am still maintaining. I figure that my average calorie count is around 1200 calories, and while statistics and norms and all that crap say that less than 1200 is starvation, I don't think they had me in mind. So, I'll cut to 1000 calories (that's a TON of veggies and fruit) and see where I get! I think it'll be pretty easy. I'll let ya'll know.

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02/26/2009 13:57

155 and counting

Well, I had hoped to be down more, but what the hell - I'm at 155lbs and I am happy for it! Gee - only 30 or so lbs to go! Ha!
I've been eating one meal a day, but snacking on raw veggies throughout the first part of the day. I am particularly into sprouts! I LOVE those things! I gave a vegan talk at a college last week, and I was really wishing that I were skinnier. I am the only fat vegan I've ever met. Let's face it, nothing gets people to stop torturing animals for their bacon and eggs like the lure of being skinny.  It's vanity that get's people to act ethical sometimes...sad as it is. That was the case for me. I picked up a diet book called Skinny Bitch, and I've been pescetarian and then Vegan ever since. Vanity. ah well, it was useful in my situation. It helped make a moral and caring person out of me. HOWEVER, it sure as hell didn't make me SKINNY!

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02/05/2009 15:47

Down a few!

So, I am 159lbs today. I have been VERY strict about not going for seconds, about ONLY eating what can fit on a smaller plate, and about having no booze during the week. I am at work right now, and fear being discovered blogging by my boss... GOTTA GO!

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01/19/2009 13:40

NUTS!

So, my drinking is under control. I drink on weekends, and even then, only ONE of those nights is actually a "party" night. The other night (usually Friday) it's just a glass of wine or two with my boyfriend. OK - that's cut out about 1500 calories from my week in booze alone, not counting the foods I sometimes binge on when I'm drinking.

But lately, I've found that I am still bingeing at nights - on NUTS. those little fuckers have about 150 calories a handful, and well, considering most nights are like last night, I probably pull in an extra 900 calories (!) by my "snacking". Granted, I don't eat as much as when I have booze in hand, but still...

What the...?!?!

No WONDER I'm not loosing weight. I really DON'T want to snack on "low calorie alternatives, like pretzels or rice cakes". Kill me first. And snacking on fruits and veggies? Hell - that's my food all day, along with nuts, beans and tofu.

Huh. I don't think my body is telling me it "needs protein" (ugh - our obsession with our SUPPOSED need for metric butt-loads of protein makes me laugh)

I think it's my brain telling me that I need to pamper myself with oil and salt. What the hell do I need pampering for?  It's not like my life is all that stressful. It's a bad habit that I am gonna change today. Maybe I should go "nut-free" this week, just as extra incentive to not eat them at nights. No more of that "I'll just eat a HANDFULL" crap, which always turns into a BOWLFULL.

So while my whole purpose on this site is to loose weight, Im not doing it. I AM, however, working out more and eating WAY healthier. Lots more raw veggies and lots less processed foods. Cool. Baby steps. Baby steps. Two steps forward, one step back. I am down with that.

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