A Fresh Start

A blog of my diet and weight loss.

My Profile

  • Name: newleaf
  • City: jacksonville
  • State: FL
  • Country: US

My Weight Loss

Height:
Start weight: 162.00lb
Current weight: 157.00lb
Goal weight: 135.00lb
Lost to date: 5.00lb
Remaining: 22.00lb

My Calendar

9
January '09
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S M T W T F S
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Day 12

I have been really off about the posting because I have been sick with the stomach flu for a while.  My eating and dieting has been off, as well.   I have hardly had any appetite and when I do, it is for something completey unhealthy.  Luckily, throughout these few days, I have yet to gain anymore weight and I actually lost a pound.  Today, I am almost completely recovered and feeling back on track.  Now, I am down to 157.  Also, my boyfriend and I discussed having a contest to see who can lose 15 pounds first.  He is about 5 9 and weights 186.   The winner gets some cold, hard cash.  I know it will also be a motivator having my boyfriend see what I weigh everyday! I didnt let him see my first weigh in, but I told him I would let him know when I dropped a few more pounds :) Luckily, he trusts me.  This morning for breakfast, I had an energy bar and a bottle of water for about 250 calories.

I already packed my lunch, so I know I will be having a big bowl of homemade vegetable soup for about 200 calories and a turkey wrap for about 300 calories.  That will put me at 750 total for the day.  My boyfriend and I are going out to dinner, so that will leave me with a pretty big calorie allowance for dinner.  I'll probably do some seafood or a salad.  I'll keep you posted :)

Day 5

I woke up this morning and weighed 158, just like I was expecting.  I went shopping last night and bought a really cute dress from TJ Maxx in a size small :)  That is always exciting!  I swear, if I owned a clothing store, I would label all of the clothes as 2 sizes smaller than they actually are- then everyone would buy them!  I have definitely had that thought in my mind before, "I am going to buy this skirt, not because I love it, but because it is a size 6 and looks great on me!"  I guess the clothing designers haven't caught on yet :)

So far today, I've eaten pretty well.  I had a Slimfast Shake for breakfast (180 calories for the vanilla), and a piece of spinach pie and a side salad for lunch.  The spinach pie probably had around 400 calories and the side salad probably had about 200 (I had ranch dressing to dip on the side).  So, that puts me at about 800 so far today.  Not bad! I'm planning on eating a fairly light dinner, because I always eat more than usual on the weekends. 

Tomorrow night, a bunch of girl's and I are going to dinner at a French restaurant, so that just sounds like a lot of calories.  I probably won't post really during the weekend (or maybe just once), but I'll try to write everything I eat down.  I'm crossing my fingers to be 157 by Sunday! I know I can do it :)  Best wishes to everyone else.

Food Log so far today

I've been doing pretty well today.  For lunch, I had a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with lettuce, tomato, lite mayo, apples, and cheese along with a bag of baked Lays.  That should be around 700 (max) for both.  For breakfast, I had that half of a bagel, so that should be about 300 calories (max).  That puts me at about 1000 calories so far today, which is great!

I like to eat a larger lunch with a small dinner, so I hope to eat a salad for dinner today.  Has anyone had the southwest chicken salad from chick fil a?  It is awesome!  Spicy, flavorful, and very filling.  It only has 240 calories for the whole thing, and that includes the cheese and everything.  It is only 70 extra for the tortilla strips.  Another trick I do is to keep the dressing on the side and dip the salad in it rather than pour it all over.  You use only about 1/2 the dressing and you get more flavor in every bite.  Anyway, that's what I was thinking about for dinner tonight.  Hopefully, I will be able to squeeze some exercise in!

I'm thinking I won't lose another pound tomorrow, so I will be happy to maintain at 158.  I was shooting for 157 by Sunday, and I think that is a good goal!  I can't wait to be in the 140's again.   That's what I'm going to think about when I am selecting my dinner for tonight :)  Good luck!

Day 4 and going strong!

Thanks to anyone who posted.  It's really nice to know that other people are out there and supportive! I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone besides me was reading this :)

I'm down another pound today to 158.   So far, 4 pounds left!  I am excited, but it's also a bit discouraging to see how far I have left to go.   I know I can do it!

Last night, I ate pretty healthily for dinner.  My boyfriend and I (well really just me) made shrimp, hummus, and tomatoes and mozzerella.  I had mostly shrimp, a little hummus and 2 tomatoes w/ mozzerella.  It was a great meal.  Publix has great shrimp and they will steam and season them for you! We got the cajun kind and it was delicious, and very healthy :)  I would definitely recommend it.

So far today, I've been doing well.  I've had 2 bottles of water.  I wanted to switch it up from the SlimFast for the day, so I had half a bagel with cream cheese instead.   I almost had the whole bagel, but I actually thought to myself, "Well, I'll have to post in on the blog," and that could be kind of embarassing :) So, I stuck to the half and am planning on a very healthy lunch.

I'm excited about the additional loss and feeling optimistic, but I know I can't lose a pound every single day.  You always lose a lot for the first week or so, and then it gets more difficult.   I think if I can lose 2-3 pounds a week, I'll stay happy.

Hope everyone is having a happy and healthy day! I'll post after lunch :)

Day 3- Food Log

I don't really like the way they post the Food Logs on here, so I'm going to use a separate post to log my food.  Here is my intake so far today:

Breakfast- Chocolate Slim Fast Shake                        190 cals

Lunch- Ham and Turkey Sub on wheat                        550 cals

Bag of Baked Lays                                                            140 cals

Dinner-  My boyfriend and I are planning on boiling shrimp with a tomato and mozzerella salad.  If I keep it light on the cheese, it should be a perfect, healthy addition to my day.  I should end up around 1500 calories for the day.  I doubt I'll have time to work out today, but maybe I can squeeze in some pilates :)  I'll post my final food tally and my weigh in numbers tomorrow.

 

 

 

Day 3

I started dieting last week, although my very first post is today.  I came across some other weight loss blogs while surfing the internet, and I think this could be a very helpful and useful tool in keeping myself accountable and responsible for my diet. 

I want to give a brief history of my struggles with weight and dieting.  I grew up in a very very "food friendly" household.  My Mom always kept dessert on the table and almost always had unhealthy snacks and cookies around.  My friends jokingly referred to my house as "the buffet."  Everything was served at my house loaded with bread, cheese, mayo, you name it.

I had always been a very small girl and only weighed about 115 when I was 5' 6".  When I hit puberty, that all changed.  About the time I was 14 years old, my weight climbed a great deal in a year.  I was wearing a size 2 or 4, and then saw myself buying size 6, 8, and even 10.  My eating habits had not changed, and I didn't understand it.  However, I still didn't really mind.  I was about average among my friends.

Right after I graduated from high school, I caught a cold for a few weeks.  I probably lost between 5-10 pounds, and LOVED the feeling of being skinny.   People commented on my weight loss and how great I looked, and I loved the feeling and the attention.   I wanted more.  I started taking diet pills and spiraled into what I call a mild form of anorexia.  If my behavior had continued, I would probably now be a full blown anorexic.   All I ate each day for 3 months was a salad with low calorie dressing and a piece of pita bread.  I dropped about 40 pounds in those 3 months.  Everyone was worried about me, and my mini eating disorder was out of control.

I can't describe what really maked me stop, but I just snapped.  One day I found myself eating everything in sight.  I gained some weight back, and flip flopped between eating nothing and eating everything.  Binge, restrict, binge, restrict, repeat.  Looking back, I'm sure this behavior destroyed my metabolism.   This continued for about 2 years, until the restricting stopped.  Then, it was just binging.

My senior year of college, I ate and drank all of the time.  2 trips to McDonalds a day, pizza, 12 beers a night.  Pizza was an everyday staple for me.  I continued this self destructive behavior and eventually got up to 170 pounds.  That was my highest.  I swore this would stop as soon as I graduated from college, but I thought the weight would melt away if I just cut out fast food and alcohol.  I've lost about 8 pounds since then, but have had a difficult time losing the other weight I took with me from college.

Now, I'm really ready and I think this website is an excellent way to hold myself accountable.  I think if I am writing down every bit of food I eat, and my weight each day, it will help me stay on track.   I've never tried the Atkins diet (I love carbs too much) or Weight Watchers, and my plan is just to really cut calories and exercise.    Weight Watchers is something I would consider, but I became an expert at the calorie content of almost ALL food items during my "mini anorexia" phase.  For now, I'm shooting for between 1300-1600 calories per day, plus a small amount of exercise.   I try to walk for half of my lunch break during work (30 minutes) and I also enjoy pilates and bike riding (SO easy, yet less work than running!)  Once I get more into it, I will try to get back to running and possibly weight training.  However, when I run a lot, I usually maintain weight, but probably gain muscle.  I'm still in the beginning stages of my diet, so I NEED to see that number on the scale go down. 

I weigh myself everyday, and I think that helps me stay on track.

Now that I've given my lengthy history, I'll talk about the present.   I started dieting on Sunday.  At that point, I weighed 162 pounds.  I've been trying to eat more healthily and less and exercise a bit, so today I find myself down to 159.   I ate a pretty big lunch, so I'm hoping for a smaller, healthy dinner to compensate.  I've been drinking Slim Fast shakes, and I swear that they work wonders for my metabolism.  I used to not eat breakfast, so this is my compromise.   I'm still figuring this thing out, so I'm going to try to use the Food Tracker, and also change my weight.  Good luck to all :)

Tracker