Changing to My Fitness Pal

I have lost interest in My Fat Secret. I don't feel a lot of accountability anymore using it. My dear sis-in-law is rocking her weight loss and using My Fitness Pal so I am going to jump along and use it with her! Together we can hold each other accountable. (Or so I hope!!) It has a lot of the same features that MFS has and it even has a better Android app for my phone. It has a blog feature and an easier food database. Woo hoo! Come along and join me there! The ONLY thing I am sad about is that my weight loss to date is not accurate. I may delve into the site and see if I can log a weight from August to make it more accurate. Let me know if you join so that we can be "friends."

MyFitnessPal - Free Weight Loss Tools

So very close!

I am almost there. I can see it! My 20lb mark is only 1.6lbs away! There were a few days this past week that I ate things I probably shouldn't have but I still managed to lose a pound. It is exciting that I didn't gain any! After work one day I came home and ate 3 Reece's cups, 3 small kit kats and who knows what else! That binge had me feeling so terrible. I was truly ashamed. But, I picked myself up that same day and didn't let it bring me down. Once you make a mistake you have to realize that it is OK. Don't let it get the best of you. Pick yourself up and move on. You can't change what has happened earlier in the day or last week. Tell yourself that it's OK, you recognize the mistake and move on. Vow to continue the day the way you should. Don't just assume that since you messed up you can now blow the entire day! Let's look at this:

Say for instance you had a healthy breakfast, good snacks and a healthy lunch. You have racked up 650 calories out of you day of 1300 allowance. You are now left with 650 for the rest of the day. you pig out on an ice cream cone that has 650 calories. Wowwee! All your calories are gone. There are 2 ways you can finish the day out.

Option 1: Sulk about and feel terrible that you have just blown away your entire day. Decide, to heck with it and eat 2 slices of pizza for dinner (700 calories). Now you feel awful for REALLY over doing it. So, you eat 2 brownies for dessert (300 calories). When you sit down to watch TV you grab a bag of popcorn (200 calories) and a soda (225 calories). Now, not only have you used up all of your daily calories, you have exceeded it by 1,425 calories! 

Option 2: You realize that the ice cream cone was a bad choice. You really could have and should have opted for a kid size frozen yogurt or skipped it all together. But, what is done is done. When you get home you fix a healthy dinner for your family of whole wheat pasta, spaghetti sauce (no meat) and some frozen green beans. You prepare yourself a salad with no cheese and low fat dressing (100 calories) and eat some green beans with the family (35 calories). For dessert you have some sugar free jello (10 calories) and whipped topping (50 calories). You know you are still going over your calories but you have probably only done so by about 195 calories! That is a difference of 1,230 calories! That is nearly an entire day's worth of food!! And guess what? You wake up ready to tackle another day. You feel positive and refreshed knowing that you came from behind your decision and you still won!

I can't always say that I choose option 2. We are all human and there is only 1 perfect person (and that ain't me!).

So for my weekly weigh in I was down to 238.6 (1.6 lbs to hit that 20 mark!!!) That will be gone this week!! I haven't spoken to the nutritionist in 2 weeks now due to our conflicting schedules, but I have a list of things I am ready to ask her. The readouts are a little confusing to me still and I would like to know how to determine my muscle mass versus water/fat mass so that I can tell if I am gaining muscle and losing fat. This is a tricky part of weight loss. It is discouraging to only lose 1 lb BUT if I am actually losing 3lbs of fat and gaining 2 lbs of lean mass then that is awesome! I keep telling myself that's what it is. : D I am ready to post some measurements. Here goes!

These are from 8/13 shortly after I started and yesterday 10/11
             Start       Now      Difference
Waist:   46.5        44.5       2 inches
Hips:     54.5        52          2.5 inches
Thighs:   25.5       24.75     0.75 inches
Arms:    15           14          1 inch
Chest:    50.5       47.5       2.5 inches

That makes a total of.....drum roll.....8.75 inches!!!

I have lost my readout for this week but I know that my BMI has gone from 40.4 to 38.6!! Woo hoo!!

My mom treated me with a new market tote for my 20 lb goal so I am really excited to get that (yea, I know, I hadn't QUITE made it but I am sooo close!) I treated myself to a new hair style today!

As far as exercise goes, I have been doing a 3.5 mile walk at least twice a week. Today I had my first Zumba experience. That was a LOT of fun! I love to dance (not that I am any good) but it is fun to listen to music, move and have a good time! I can't wait to go back on Friday!!

Thanks for keeping up with me and following me thus far!! Have a great week everyone!! God is GREAT!

Counting Calories

Good morning! Off to a later start today. My sleeping schedule is such a mess. Surely if I could sleep normaly I would have a much better day.

How does everyone else count their calories?

I use this program on my Android phone (love it!) that counts my calories for me. You can even scan an item and usually it finds it and puts it in the food list for the day. It tallies everything up so you know how much you have left to eat. I actually went to bed last night with a few calories to spare! According to this program for my height, weight and activity level (non existant!) I need to consume 2000 calories. Initially I thought this was a lot! But, now that I see that even eating 2000 calories I was STILL hungry and really wanted to make some bad food choices I can see where this is probably a large decrease in my daily intake :( and thus the reason for my obesity....I hate the sound of that.

My food choices for the day:

Breakfast:
1 Slice of french bread with cheese

Lunch:
Hotdog on a white/wheat bun
1 serving of baked french fries /w ketchup

Dinner:
Zaxby's house salad /w grilled chicken
1 packet of light ranch dressing

Snacks: (my downfall)
15 Wheat thins
1 serving of Laughing Cow cheese
1 cup of watermelon
1 Activia Strawberry Fiber yogurt
1 cup of cherries /w pits
1 spiced chai tea /c skim milk and splenda

I got up this morning and the scale said........254.8!!! I must of done something right!

Have a great day everyone!

Starting out

Ok, this is my first time doing this. I want to give a whirl. I have been reading a lot of blogs from others and it is inspiring. I have never been a great writer but there is a first time for everything!

I am tired. I'm tired of being tired. Tired of having no energy. Tired of feeling like I am missing out on my children's lives. Tired of fighting high blood pressure, anxiety and the fears that this extra weight is giving me. I'm just plain tired.

This is difficult but I am going to do it. Today I got on the scale and I weighed 256 pounds. I have weighed more. The highest was 276 this go round. In February my parents and I got onboard with the South Beach Diet since my father was fighting heart failure, 2 years since his massive heart attack that nearly killed him. We were all doing really well, him and my mom especially, when he died suddenly in his sleep. I had lost 20 pounds easily. You would think that this would be a major awakening for me. How can I live like this? Why do I do this to myself? Do I really want to live in fear of a heart attack or heart disease? Not any more!

I have fought my weight since kindergarten. As long as I can remember I have been overweight or battleing to stay thin. I remember kids in the 3rd grade teasing me because I had "boobs" already, but they were kind enough to let me know that they weren't REAL boobs...they were fat boobs! My mom decided when I was in Jr High to sign us both up for Jenny Craig. We did it and it worked! For the first time in a LONG time I was thin! 135 pounds!! Shopping for size 5 clothes was awesome! I finally fit in! Over the course of a year the weight piled back on. In highschool I got active, riding my bike everywhere and the weight fell off again but in my senior year I got pregnant.

I believe I weighed close to 276 right before I had my first son. I was young and had the mindset that "I'm going to get fat anyway!" This was great since I had always battled my weight and now I could eat anything I wanted! WRONG! I carried that weight for nearly 2 years when I started exercising a LOT, rollerblading, going to the gym. The weight fell off. But, weight yo-yo'd like my relationship with my now ex-husband. While I was pregnant with our 2nd son I did great, I didn't gain a lot of weight but I was still big. I divorced my ex-husband after the years of torment of an on-again off-again relationship. I started nursing school and was introduced to the Atkin's diet. It worked great! The weight dissapeared and I got down to a very comfortable 175, size 14 and kept it off for a few years.

When I met my current husband I was about 185 pounds and felt great. I had a great job and now an even more wonderful man in my life! Life couldn't get any better, or so we thought! After 6 months I got pregnant and vowed I would NOT gain all that weight back. The cravings were intense. I did really well only gaining 25lbs the first 33 weeks until my blood pressure went up and I had to stop working. That last 5 weeks I gained nearly 20 pounds! Diet pills and exercise dropped it back down to nearly 200. Just when everything seemed on track my dad had a heart attack. I felt led to take a full time job at a cardiologists office and loved it. I especially loved all the wonderfully delicious and very UNHEALTHY snacks the drug reps brought us. Breakfasts, snacks, candy, lunches, snacks and more snacks! Sometimes there would be double snacks! It was so hard to fight off the urge to eat and the food won, like it always did. By the time I left there I had gained nearly 50 pounds.

It is my hope that blogging about this will open my eyes and help me see how I got to where I am today. I need accountability. I am vowing today to start a food diary for the next week and doing some sort of physical activity every day. Next week I will reassess and see where to go. So many people have done this...shoot..I HAVE DONE THIS...I know I can do it again! I have to. I want my kids to enjoy their childhood with their mom by their side, even in the pictures. There are so many stories like mine. If you look through the photo albums mom is only there during the times she was thin. I want to be there all the time. Starting today.

Please, follow me on my journey and let's do this together. One baby step at a time.

Step 1: Food diary and MOVE every day, at least 20 minutes