So in case you were unaware I am a young single girl (know any hot, professional, nice, younger guys send them my way please ;) ) anyway that being said I do go out occasionally for dinner and drinks sometimes a movie and I've had to learn how to go out and not feel guilty the next day about the calories I ingest.
First I'm gonna tackle the movies, I don't snack at movies at all. No popcorn, No candy and I buy an overpriced bottle of water to drink. I know it sounds impossible, but honestly you are going to ingest 500 plus calories mindlessly during the movie and you just don't need it. First rule of thumb don't go to the movies hungry. Eat dinner first whether at home or a restaurant those calories are going to be better for you calories (nutrient rich) than a bucket of popcorn and a pound of red hots and if you're full then the smells won't make you as hungry and it will be easier to say no. If you absolutely NEED popcorn get a small one, no extra butter, no extra salt, it's plenty buttery and plenty salty all on it's own.
Next drinks, drinking probably won't make you put on weight but it does inhibit weight loss. So here are few tips to drink caloricly responsibly (because we all know not to drink and drive right? I hope so!) Don't drink a whole lot, we don't need to plastered to have a good time, I have three drink maximum on a night out that's enough now I'm not able to drive, but I'm not falling down drunk and its probably about 400 calories I ingested here, that's my snack maximum for the day. Also if you get plastered and you feel like crud the next day you aren't gonna want to work out, so not only did you you drink lots and lots and lots of calories, you don't burn them off the next day, that is bad, bad , bad. So three drinks, no hang over and work out the next day! Now what should you drink? No beer, not even light beer, honestly beer is liquid bread, are you going to eat a whole loaf of bread while on a diet? NO, so don't drink it either. If you loooove beer, have one, only one and make it a light one. Clear alcohols are the best, light rums, vodka, gin these have the least amount of calories and are always good mixed with a diet drink. Margaritas, i love me a margarita, most restaurants have a skinny version, this is great! TGIFridays has two skinny margaritas both only 130 calories. This is how you don't blow your work out at the bar :)
Dining out. When you go to a restaurant be smart okay? First ask yourself how much do I eat out, if your answer is once or twice a month go for it, treat yourself don't worry about it, that Alfredo pasta is not gonna kill you, you are good the other 28-29 days out of the month. If your answer is more like mine and you go out to eat 3 to 4 times a week (dinners and lunches, I told you I had an active social calender) you need to be more aware of what you eat. Stay away from cream sauces and fried foods. Eat lots of salads (not salads with fried chicken on top) and soups. Soups are a good way to one fill you up because it has lots of water and not get a lot of calories. The soups need to broth based not cream based, so get the minestrone over the cream of potato soup. Sandwiches are good, anything covered in gravy is bad (I'm from the south). Baked potatoes are good, make sure it's small about 5 ounces if you get cheese no sour cream, if you get sour cream not cheese. Veggie plates are great, at Chilli's i get the veggie tacos, super good very filling and I don't eat all the tortillas. Skip the desert, get some coffee instead. :)
Can you go out and have fun? YES and you should. If all you do is work, gym, home you aren't living and the whole purpose of being healthy is to live a better life. I believe in living in the moment, so if I REALLY want some pasta and white sauce I'll get it, but i am also aware I will have to put an extra hour on the treadmill the next day to work it off. So go out, have fun, but have fun responsibly and you won't have to stress about the extra calories. Always go strong no matter what!! :)
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Progress Report Time (and other nifty stuff)
Hey guys so a friend of mine told me it was time to put a new picture, the one I have up is from August and I'm down about 30 pounds since then. The pic I'm gonna attach to this blog was actually about a month ago and I'm down another 13lbs since then. So it's me at 260 and I am actually down to 247! YAY I thought this was gonna be a bad week but I weighed myself Thursday and had lost three pounds. I try not to focus on pounds as much, because it fluctuates sooo much and I focus on inches and pant sizes and how I feel and how I look.
I think the most important thing when you're trying to lose weight the right way and change your lifestyle is focusing on the small goals and keeping your eye on the big picture. I found this great little book at Target for 20 bucks called a Fit Book. It's a book that is a three month plan and you break your work outs (and food) down by weeks then by days. You put your 3 months weight loss goal and your weekly weight loss goal and your rewards for reaching your goals. It also allows you to write down and plan your workouts. I love it. Last week I didn't reach my weight loss goal, so no reward right? Well not exactly, I did do all my workouts and I tried my best so I still gave myself a small treat. If I hadn't tried my best and done all my workouts I wouldn't have treated myself at all.
So see it can't all be about the weight loss. I'm slowly learning that (VERY SLOWLY) and I'm learning to appreciate my pants getting to big and buying size 14 and size 16 jeans, a size 14 pair of shorts from Kohl's last night (shorts in December?!?! Hey I live in South Texas it could totally be 90 degress on Christmas day!) and size large dresses from stores I've never been able to buy clothes in before.
There are a lot of things in life that are out of our control, mine in particular and I'm a control freak that really likes to have everything in a nifty(total word of the day!) little box but I can't put everything in a box like I would want. One thing I can control is my workouts and how well I do there. I run till my thighs and calves kill me, I lift till everything hurts and I do so much abs it hurts to even touch my stomach. I let my body get out of control when I let myself get so big, and I will never do that again.
So having trouble keeping yourself honest with your workouts or tracking how much you really do? Go get this fit book. It is great tool to keep you honest and in control and on top of everything. Always go strong no matter what, even when you don't feel all that strong in the end it's so all worth it.
*Fitbook on Amazon.com : http://www.amazon.com/fitbook-by-fitlosophy-fitbook001-nutrition/dp/B002LU3DFG
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Shopping Thinner!!!
So if you know me personally you know I love to shop. I am a girl, I love fashion, I like looking good and i LOVE finding bargains. At my biggest finding bargains was super hard to do, plus-size clothing just costs more and there is less of a selection, it is just a sad fact. Even though the woman in the United States (and western Europe and Australia) are getting bigger there is still not much of a selection out there for us curvy, bigger ladies and it sucks.
Shopping at 430lbs was a challenge, but I still loved it. I never got weepy or sad when I went shopping, there was just less of a selection. Don't get me wrong it sucked that the ONLY place I could buy jeans was Lane Bryant and only one style of those jeans AND they were getting tight. I always thought I looked good, and I liked to dress well. Dressing well when you are big is very expensive, I would do it but it made things difficult.
Now I'm no longer a size 30 jean (yes I said size 30, not the inches size, in inches i had a waist of of about 50 inches and hips of about 63 inches.) I'm a size 14 - a size 18 jean depending on where I buy them and I haven't been inside Lane Bryant in at least two months.
So like everything else in my life I'm having to learn how to shop thinner. Before if I tried on something cool and fashion forward if it fit i was ecstatic and I bought it. Nothing probably looked good on me per say, but if it didn't look horrible I got it. Now that I have a better selection I am more choosy in what I buy. Most shirts fit me now, I'm a size Large to Medium and I can pretty much walk into ANY store and find something that will fit, that I like, that I can buy and it is the most liberating feeling in the world.
Being thinner is also saving me money, the cheapest jeans at Lane Bryant are 50 bucks, now I can get a pair at most stores and I don't spend over 30 bucks now. I go shopping a lot with a friend of mine who is a size 4 and I am still amazed that we can both go into Macy's and find the same dress for both of us her in an XS and me in a Large. I had never been able to do that before. I love it! I am a fashionista at heart and it is nice to become more normal sized and being able to find clothes easier.
For me being able to buy smaller clothing is a huge motivator. No doubt in my mind at the end of this journey I am going to be a curvy girl, my boobs are still big (36 DD) and I have a big butt, the more I climb the StairMaster the rounder and higher and bigger it seems to get. I now have a 37 inch waist and 47 inch hips, which is a lot of inches down. I can't wait till my jeans aren't plus size at all ( I want to be a general size 8 pant) and I can buy EVERYTHING on sale.
Shopping is one of the things I take great pleasure in being smaller, it may not bring you the same kind of pleasure, the trick is to find what makes you happy and what you like to do smaller that you couldn't do heavier, maybe it's running or playing with your kids, or maybe it's bedroom time with you spouse. Whatever it is find it, embrace it, and don't let it go because it will help you maintain your healthier lifestyle and it will help keep you going strong no matter what!!!
Shopping at 430lbs was a challenge, but I still loved it. I never got weepy or sad when I went shopping, there was just less of a selection. Don't get me wrong it sucked that the ONLY place I could buy jeans was Lane Bryant and only one style of those jeans AND they were getting tight. I always thought I looked good, and I liked to dress well. Dressing well when you are big is very expensive, I would do it but it made things difficult.
Now I'm no longer a size 30 jean (yes I said size 30, not the inches size, in inches i had a waist of of about 50 inches and hips of about 63 inches.) I'm a size 14 - a size 18 jean depending on where I buy them and I haven't been inside Lane Bryant in at least two months.
So like everything else in my life I'm having to learn how to shop thinner. Before if I tried on something cool and fashion forward if it fit i was ecstatic and I bought it. Nothing probably looked good on me per say, but if it didn't look horrible I got it. Now that I have a better selection I am more choosy in what I buy. Most shirts fit me now, I'm a size Large to Medium and I can pretty much walk into ANY store and find something that will fit, that I like, that I can buy and it is the most liberating feeling in the world.
Being thinner is also saving me money, the cheapest jeans at Lane Bryant are 50 bucks, now I can get a pair at most stores and I don't spend over 30 bucks now. I go shopping a lot with a friend of mine who is a size 4 and I am still amazed that we can both go into Macy's and find the same dress for both of us her in an XS and me in a Large. I had never been able to do that before. I love it! I am a fashionista at heart and it is nice to become more normal sized and being able to find clothes easier.
For me being able to buy smaller clothing is a huge motivator. No doubt in my mind at the end of this journey I am going to be a curvy girl, my boobs are still big (36 DD) and I have a big butt, the more I climb the StairMaster the rounder and higher and bigger it seems to get. I now have a 37 inch waist and 47 inch hips, which is a lot of inches down. I can't wait till my jeans aren't plus size at all ( I want to be a general size 8 pant) and I can buy EVERYTHING on sale.
Shopping is one of the things I take great pleasure in being smaller, it may not bring you the same kind of pleasure, the trick is to find what makes you happy and what you like to do smaller that you couldn't do heavier, maybe it's running or playing with your kids, or maybe it's bedroom time with you spouse. Whatever it is find it, embrace it, and don't let it go because it will help you maintain your healthier lifestyle and it will help keep you going strong no matter what!!!
Benchmarking Our Lives
So in case you didn't know I am six months away from turning 30, wow it's very crazy if you think about it. I'm not at a place in my life where i thought I would be when I was like 20. If you asked me at 20 where i would be at 30 I would've said I'd be, successful, employed, fabulous, living in a big city anywhere but in Texas, married, probably a couple of kids and a house. All of this is not where I am, I'm still in school, I'm single with no long-term relationship on the horizon, no children (besides my doggy children), still living in small town Texas, I do have jobs but not career type jobs and I'm still living with my parents. We tend to gauge our lives by where we are "supposed" to be and by where our friends are. I am at the age where my friends are getting married and having kids and at times I feel kinda left behind.
I don't want this to sound all woe is me, because that's not me. I love my life, I love who I am, I love what I've accomplished but I can't help but feel left out at times. I've decided to put my school kind off again this semester (I'm only going to go part time) because I really need to finish getting my final 80 lbs off before my 30th birthday in six months. I kind of feel like I'm prolonging my real life by doing this, but I also know it would be a wasted semester anyway.
Being on this journey I have learned about so much more than just how to lose weight and keep it off. This journey has taught me so much about life, love, relationships, people and how I fit into this world. I've reached a point in my life where a LOT of my close friends are finding their soul mates and getting married and are having babies, and I am happy for them but a part of me is like hey what about me! We tend to benchmark our lives, a lot like I mark my weight loss, however life does not work on a schedule. Even if I had finished school at 21 or 22 I still wouldn't be were my friends are in their personal lives because how can you share your life with someone if you don't know who you are? That was me my entire 20's, living day to day slowly sabotaging myself because I didn't know who I was.
" Life doesn't deal the hand you want, it deals the hand you need. Whether you believe it, accept it, want it or not, it is what it is. Be content with your own hand. STOP trying to rush life, just let it happen. Learn to live out the life dealt. What will be, will be!"-Antonio Talbert
I don't want this to sound all woe is me, because that's not me. I love my life, I love who I am, I love what I've accomplished but I can't help but feel left out at times. I've decided to put my school kind off again this semester (I'm only going to go part time) because I really need to finish getting my final 80 lbs off before my 30th birthday in six months. I kind of feel like I'm prolonging my real life by doing this, but I also know it would be a wasted semester anyway.
Being on this journey I have learned about so much more than just how to lose weight and keep it off. This journey has taught me so much about life, love, relationships, people and how I fit into this world. I've reached a point in my life where a LOT of my close friends are finding their soul mates and getting married and are having babies, and I am happy for them but a part of me is like hey what about me! We tend to benchmark our lives, a lot like I mark my weight loss, however life does not work on a schedule. Even if I had finished school at 21 or 22 I still wouldn't be were my friends are in their personal lives because how can you share your life with someone if you don't know who you are? That was me my entire 20's, living day to day slowly sabotaging myself because I didn't know who I was.
" Life doesn't deal the hand you want, it deals the hand you need. Whether you believe it, accept it, want it or not, it is what it is. Be content with your own hand. STOP trying to rush life, just let it happen. Learn to live out the life dealt. What will be, will be!"-Antonio Talbert
I think that quote is perfect, one of my best friend's in the world who is marrying her Prince Charming in May constantly talks about wanting to send a thank you card to all her Ex-Boyfriends thanking them for not wasting her time and teaching her what not to look for. I think this is kind of great. I don't regret anything in my life, because I learned from it. I learned I was really unhappy at 430 pounds and that i wasn't living I was existing. No more existing for me, I'm going to live. I'm going to have that amazing full filling career, plan and had have that ridiculously expensive wedding to my Prince Charming when he does decide to appear and sweep me off my feet and I will have a couple of great kids. I just probably won't have them by 30 and that's okay. It's my life and I make the rules.
Life is hard, no one promises you happiness you have to find it. Do I know exactly what I want? Not completely, but I know I know myself a little bit better now at 245lbs than I did at 430lbs, so things change and I'm single at 29 years old and that's okay. I'm almost done with school, am I gonna go to medical school like was my mom's dream? Nope and I'm totally okay with that I'm gonna work on making me happy and when I am happy that's when I know this journey will be over. So here is to the next six months, because by July 12th, the day I turn 30 I will be 180 pounds (or darn close to it) and I will know more about me and I will be one day closer to the rest of my life. So here's to never settling, never giving up (or figuring out) our dreams and going strong no matter what.
Surviving the Holidays!
Oh my goodness I haven't blogged in a very long time! I have missed y'all and this page. Life has been super hectic but in a good way. The holidays have kinda taken over my life since before Thanksgiving, but I have been really good at keeping up with my exercise and diet routine. I actually lost weight during Thanksgiving week which was a really great thing I was kinda proud of myself. According to the National Institute of Health the average American gains about one pound over the holiday season. This is WAY less than than the 7-10 pounds we all think we might gain. So I don't think eating those extra cookies at the office Christmas party are what is dangerous for those of us trying to maintain a healthy weight or trying to get some weight off, but what is dangerous is falling out of our exercise routine.
Every one's New Year's resolution is to lose weight, be healthy, and I think for some of us it's because we have fallen off the work out wagon so to speak. So how about this, how about we enjoy the holiday cookies, not stress about our food input this Christmas and focus solely on our exercise output. Don't not go to the gym just because you are busy, can't do a complete workout because you have to go Christmas shopping no worries as long as you still do something just don't get out of your routine. If you keep your exercise routine it won't be a big deal to go back to things after the holiday season has settled down. I think this will also include eating better after the cookie temptations have gone away. If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, the exercise portion of your diet and exercise plan is more important than your diet. So if you're going out of town for Christmas do some research, figure out how to do some exercise in your hotel, or maybe your gym also has a gym in the city you are visiting or just go for a walk or a run, it doesn't really matter what you do as long as you keep your body in the mood for exercise.
Do not stress about your weight during the holidays, have fun, enjoy the season with people that love you, eat some fudge but remember stay active and go strong no matter what!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Getting Through the Hard Times
Hey guys this has been a very rough week for me. Typically I try and make my blog witty and informative, but I think today it's just gonna be me doing a bit of soul barring to you guys. I think sometimes I am almost two people, because save for one or two people I bet if you asked most of the people in my life if I was having a bad week they would say "nah not Laura I saw her Friday night and she looked really happy." Well that's just not the case, and as a matter of fact I was so low this week I didn't feel like going to the gym two days, shocking I know but it's true I took Thursday and Friday off from the gym for a little personal healing time. Did it work? I'm not sure, but I went back to the gym on Saturday so I didn't let my blues completely ruin my routine, but I just needed some time.
I don't think I'm the only person in the world who gets low this time of the year, I think a lot of us do and learning how to cope with it is a struggle. I'm not a holidays type person, they don't make me happy, I hate the pressure and I loath the music. This year I think is worse because I am so food and health conscious. Last year I pigged out and this year I refuse, so we are scaling back Thanksgiving. I don't come from a big family and honestly my father will probably work through the day so no huge feasts for us, some turkey breast, some dressing and lots of veggies. Honestly I'm looking forward to the dressing it's something I avoid most of the time but it is a holiday so I am gonna treat myself a bit.
This stress I've been putting on myself this week also hasn't been good for my weight-loss (stress is a sure way for me not to lose weight) and this week I only lost a pound. I need to figure out a way out of this funk I'm in, I'm tired and sad and a bunch of other non-fun, stress inducing adjectives. I know I'll get through and hell it's probably just hormones, but this has been a really crappy couple of days. So I'm just gonna go back to the routine of things, gym, friends, family. Get through the holidays with no weight gain (my goal), survive shopping on black Friday (never gone before but I kinda need a new laptop), and try and remember my own motto, go strong no matter what.
I don't think I'm the only person in the world who gets low this time of the year, I think a lot of us do and learning how to cope with it is a struggle. I'm not a holidays type person, they don't make me happy, I hate the pressure and I loath the music. This year I think is worse because I am so food and health conscious. Last year I pigged out and this year I refuse, so we are scaling back Thanksgiving. I don't come from a big family and honestly my father will probably work through the day so no huge feasts for us, some turkey breast, some dressing and lots of veggies. Honestly I'm looking forward to the dressing it's something I avoid most of the time but it is a holiday so I am gonna treat myself a bit.
This stress I've been putting on myself this week also hasn't been good for my weight-loss (stress is a sure way for me not to lose weight) and this week I only lost a pound. I need to figure out a way out of this funk I'm in, I'm tired and sad and a bunch of other non-fun, stress inducing adjectives. I know I'll get through and hell it's probably just hormones, but this has been a really crappy couple of days. So I'm just gonna go back to the routine of things, gym, friends, family. Get through the holidays with no weight gain (my goal), survive shopping on black Friday (never gone before but I kinda need a new laptop), and try and remember my own motto, go strong no matter what.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Life's Little Pleasures.
Hola my friends! How are you doing today? I've had a not so hot week, including getting the flu and a sick car... So gym time was abbreviated this week, one thing I am grateful for is my car being in the shop the same days I felt like a corpse and needed to sleep 18 hours a day. Today I am feeling mucho better, my car is well again and well back to the gym I go after work. This week while i was laying in bed with a box of tissues and snuggling some NyQuil I was thinking about all the things that are easier now that I don't have an extra person worth of fat attached to my body. I think it's the little things that really make this process worth while.
At my biggest I drove a tiny little truck (a Nissan frontier king cab) not a lot of room right, and even with the seat all the way back the steering wheel would still rub the bottom of my stomach, so much so that I would get thin spots in my jeans from where the steering wheel rubbed. I don't know how I ever was okay with this, how I ever thought oh I'm not that big. This week i had to get in said truck ( i now drive a Ford Fusion, but I kept the truck cause it's always good to have a truck ya know) to jump off my car and talk about room to spare! It was insane, driving is so much easier now, and turning around to yell at my dogs in the back seat when we are on a trip is no problem. Even after I got my much more roomier car, I still couldn't like bend over if my cell phone fell on the floor board at my feet. Now I can no problem. I don't have to pull over anymore to retrieve it (even if I should). Adjusting my seat? At 430 pounds? There was no wedging my fat arm in between the seat and the door I would have to open the door to adjust my seat, now since my arm isn't the size of gigantic sausage i can move my seat back and forth with the door closed. When I first made this realization I called my mom in tears I was so happy, because I had never been able to do that all before. When I realized I could do that I felt like I had truly accomplished something in my life.
Movie theatre seats, I hated going to the movies at 430 pounds. I would go, and wedge myself in the seats and have bruises, huge ugly bruises on my hips and the sides of my stomach. Of course I never told anyone this, it was just a sad fact at my size. Booths in restaurants, I would fit in them (or most) but my boobs would cover my plate making it hard to eat. Now i have a lot less stomach and sadly a lot less boobs (the one part of my body that I am actually remorseful to see shrinking). I think the most embarrassing seating issue i had at 430 pounds was at my university. There were usually two types of desk-chairs, the regular sized one that I did not fit in at all (again more bruising on my stomach when I had to wedge myself in one) and the bigger ones that I did fit in. Sadly there was usually only two or three bigger ones per class and were always in high demand. So I would have to get to class early to get a seat I fit in. Now i don't have to worry about any of these problems. Movie seats I fit in comfortably, booths, typically if I'm out with a friend or a loved one who knew me big I'm usually like "oohhh look at all this room i have between the the table and my belly, my belly is getting smaller" and they laugh, but it's a major accomplishment for me. As for the bruises I am happy to say I haven't had any of those in awhile and I'm loving it.
Sex, 'lets talk about sex baby', sex is much much easier 150 pounds lighter. I am the kind of girl that really enjoys sex, and I had boyfriends at 430 pounds, and trust me I never let my weight bother me in the bedroom. I totally lived under the philosophy of well if he wants to have sex with me he must want to see me naked, so I was never shy once he got me in the bedroom, but logistically there were somethings I could not do, or were uncomfortable. For example, sex standing up, even braced up against something at my biggest was not possible. A few months back, like August, I had sex standing up. I was in the middle of having my heart broken, but utterly ecstatic that I had sex standing up! I remember I was shopping at Dillard's and my friend called to ask how I was doing with said imposing break up and I told her "well I'm devastated that he's gonna break my heart, but upside when I saw him last night we totally did it standing up, I was always to fat for that!" So even through a really sad time, I could take joy in the fact that all my hard work at the gym was paying off!
Whether your 200 pounds over weight or 50 pounds, there is stuff that that extra weight holds us back from doing, whether it's playing with our kids for extended periods of time, feeling more comfortable out in public at the movies or at school or being able to fit on roller coasters (again something I couldn't do at 430 pounds) or being super sexy in the bedroom. We shouldn't let a little (or a lot) of weight hold us back from living our lives. I know I am more alive now, because I am more fit and I can do more and really enjoy my life and I can't wait to see what life has in store for me at 180 pounds compared to 260 pounds. So just remember that it's your life and you're the one responsible for it and always go strong no matter what!
At my biggest I drove a tiny little truck (a Nissan frontier king cab) not a lot of room right, and even with the seat all the way back the steering wheel would still rub the bottom of my stomach, so much so that I would get thin spots in my jeans from where the steering wheel rubbed. I don't know how I ever was okay with this, how I ever thought oh I'm not that big. This week i had to get in said truck ( i now drive a Ford Fusion, but I kept the truck cause it's always good to have a truck ya know) to jump off my car and talk about room to spare! It was insane, driving is so much easier now, and turning around to yell at my dogs in the back seat when we are on a trip is no problem. Even after I got my much more roomier car, I still couldn't like bend over if my cell phone fell on the floor board at my feet. Now I can no problem. I don't have to pull over anymore to retrieve it (even if I should). Adjusting my seat? At 430 pounds? There was no wedging my fat arm in between the seat and the door I would have to open the door to adjust my seat, now since my arm isn't the size of gigantic sausage i can move my seat back and forth with the door closed. When I first made this realization I called my mom in tears I was so happy, because I had never been able to do that all before. When I realized I could do that I felt like I had truly accomplished something in my life.
Movie theatre seats, I hated going to the movies at 430 pounds. I would go, and wedge myself in the seats and have bruises, huge ugly bruises on my hips and the sides of my stomach. Of course I never told anyone this, it was just a sad fact at my size. Booths in restaurants, I would fit in them (or most) but my boobs would cover my plate making it hard to eat. Now i have a lot less stomach and sadly a lot less boobs (the one part of my body that I am actually remorseful to see shrinking). I think the most embarrassing seating issue i had at 430 pounds was at my university. There were usually two types of desk-chairs, the regular sized one that I did not fit in at all (again more bruising on my stomach when I had to wedge myself in one) and the bigger ones that I did fit in. Sadly there was usually only two or three bigger ones per class and were always in high demand. So I would have to get to class early to get a seat I fit in. Now i don't have to worry about any of these problems. Movie seats I fit in comfortably, booths, typically if I'm out with a friend or a loved one who knew me big I'm usually like "oohhh look at all this room i have between the the table and my belly, my belly is getting smaller" and they laugh, but it's a major accomplishment for me. As for the bruises I am happy to say I haven't had any of those in awhile and I'm loving it.
Sex, 'lets talk about sex baby', sex is much much easier 150 pounds lighter. I am the kind of girl that really enjoys sex, and I had boyfriends at 430 pounds, and trust me I never let my weight bother me in the bedroom. I totally lived under the philosophy of well if he wants to have sex with me he must want to see me naked, so I was never shy once he got me in the bedroom, but logistically there were somethings I could not do, or were uncomfortable. For example, sex standing up, even braced up against something at my biggest was not possible. A few months back, like August, I had sex standing up. I was in the middle of having my heart broken, but utterly ecstatic that I had sex standing up! I remember I was shopping at Dillard's and my friend called to ask how I was doing with said imposing break up and I told her "well I'm devastated that he's gonna break my heart, but upside when I saw him last night we totally did it standing up, I was always to fat for that!" So even through a really sad time, I could take joy in the fact that all my hard work at the gym was paying off!
Whether your 200 pounds over weight or 50 pounds, there is stuff that that extra weight holds us back from doing, whether it's playing with our kids for extended periods of time, feeling more comfortable out in public at the movies or at school or being able to fit on roller coasters (again something I couldn't do at 430 pounds) or being super sexy in the bedroom. We shouldn't let a little (or a lot) of weight hold us back from living our lives. I know I am more alive now, because I am more fit and I can do more and really enjoy my life and I can't wait to see what life has in store for me at 180 pounds compared to 260 pounds. So just remember that it's your life and you're the one responsible for it and always go strong no matter what!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Turning I can't into I CAN
So a few weeks back a friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I instantly stole it, printed it, and put it up on my bedroom wall. I think we all have people in our lives that tell us we can't, and we tell ourselves so often we can't, when actually we can. There really is nothing your body can't do it is our minds that get in the way.
When you say to yourself "I can't work out today" turn around and then ask your self "okay why can't I?". Are you in pain? Is your pain just regular soreness or what I call super soreness, a kind of soreness that can lead to injury. Regular sore? Go to the gym, do what you did yesterday but don't push for more. Super sore, i think you can still go to the gym (I do) and just do less. On my super sore days, I've been known to only do 30 min of cardio and go home. Did i burn a pound of fat that day? Nope, but i still fed my routine and keeping that routine in the long run is more important than pushing for burning that pound of fat.
Let's back up and say your "I can't" is I can't work out period, I don't have time. I call bull on this. Everyone has time, you just might have to give something up. Unless you work 16 hours a day, you have time to exercise. I've said it once and I will say it over and over again. YOU CAN FIND 30 MINUETS A DAY, FIVE DAYS A WEEK to do some cardio. Cut out one show a night, there is your 30 minutes. Get up 30 minutes before your kids do. I have a friend who gets up a full hour before her baby does to use her treadmill, I would get up at 5am to have breakfast to be at the gym at 6am before my 9am classes. Does it suck? Sometimes yes, do you have to go to bed earlier? Yes. But it is worth it. This is me taking away your excuses, your I can'ts.
Is your I can't a health problem? Completely possible. I was lucky even at 430 pounds I didn't have any health issues, you might. But staying inactive on the couch is only gonna make these health issues worse. Most communities have a public pool. Swimming is a very low impact, great cardio exercise. If you are very morbidly obese it is so good to work out in a pool because it does not hurt your joints. Can't swim? That's okay stay in the shallow end and hold on to the wall and kick your feet. You won't go anywhere, you wont drown and you will burn a lot of calories. Have trouble getting into and out of the pool? Most pools have the handicapped stairs now, if your public pool doesn't go to the one at your local college I bet it does. Not a student there? Get some courage go to the people who maintain the pool and ask if you can still use it. It is great community outreach for the university to let community members use their stuff, exemptions can be made. It is not expensive to go to these pools, 2 -5 bucks each time and you may be able to buy a cheaper pass. You don't have the extra 15 bucks a week, I bet you do. Don't buy some junk food. Give up Internet for awhile, give up the smart phone and the smart phone plan. Your health is way more important than checking your Facebook at will.
You can't eat better? Your husband won't like the food? I get so TIRED of this excuse. My dad threw a temper tantrum one night when I fed him tofu stir fry but only after he ate it. In all honesty your husband will not leave you for changing his diet along with yours. He may grumble, throw a fit but he wont leave, and girl if he does, seriously you are better off and you need to sell that story to lifetime, because that would make a crazy lifetime movie just sayin. Your children wont eat it? This makes me angry, as a parent it is your job to teach them good eating habits, and saying oh my child will only eat MacDonald's chicken nuggets is your fault not the child's. You need to work harder on feeding them good food. Saying a child will only eat junk is YOUR excuse to eat junk. Again they may not like it at first but they will eventually begin to like it and you are doing them a favor teaching them to eat good young, this is a skill they will take into adulthood. This is not to say I am advocating never giving your child a Happy Meal. No, Happy Meals are fun treats, but should be treated as such, a treat, not a daily source of nutrients.
Now some of you may chew me out on the kid stuff by saying "Laura you don't have kids, you don't understand." This is true I don't have children, however I was one, and my mom tried (somewhat in vain) to teach me to eat right and I learned a lot from that nutritional foundation. I am scared to think what I would have been like if I hadn't known how bad particular foods were for me and how good others are. When I was a child I would demand the bad foods also, they taste so good, but my mom just got pretty good at figuring out how to make bad foods a little healthier, and you can too. Your kids will eat the good stuff, when they get hungry enough. ;)
I think these are some of the major I cant's we go through in our lets get healthier lives. It's said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well how about the road to a really big butt is paved with good work out intentions. The next time you say oh i just can't today, you need to turn to yourself and say watch me, and show your I cant's that you're gonna go strong no matter what.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Embracing who we are!
Heeeey strangers, long time no talk. I have had a crazy busy couple of weeks. Some stuff has been really cool and a week ago I decided to organize a charity 5k for March and I've spent the last week trying to get that all in order (not having much luck, the week flew by!) but I've missed blogging! I've had numerous ideas that I should blog about, but didn't have the time to blog about :(. But I'm back, and I kinda want to talk about embracing who we are.
I have a lot of friends that have lost weight, one that's lost a whole person and then some like me and several who've lost you know 50 or 60 lbs. Significant amounts of weight and I've noticed I'm the only one that embraces my fat photos. I don't understand it, I am so proud of the weight I've lost, it's like graduating from college proud or having a baby proud. This journey is so hard, it is hard to lose any kind of weight and keep it off. I don't understand why my friends are so ashamed of their fat photos. It's like a hidden secret that they never want to admit that it happened. That to me is kind of scary, in that if we don't learn from our past we are destined to repeat it kind of way. Maybe that's why I keep my fat photos on Facebook, they are a reminder of what I never want to be again. I never want to be that girl hiding behind the extra cushion and not living her life to the fullest, at 430 pounds there was so much in my life I could not do.
I actually think the problem is two fold, one is shame and the other is we focus way to much on how we look as a society. The shame is silly. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you're over weight, especially if you were overweight and are smaller now or are actively working to change your lifestyle. The only thing that is bad about being bigger is the detriment it has on your health, we should all want to lead healthy life styles because it allows us to lead fuller, longer lives.
Beauty is relative, and true beauty comes from within. I was talking with a friend of mine whose lost and kept off about fifty pounds for the last three years or so. Generally when we hang out we talk about men, fitness and shopping and for some reason these topics never get old. We started looking at old pictures of each other and her response to a picture of me at 430 pounds, was I never realized you were that big. Then I looked at an old picture of her and said the same basic thing, something along the lines of I always thought she was beautiful and she replied "I guess love is really blind." I don't think it is that love is blind, but instead we don't love the outer parts of people. Yes there is such a thing as attraction (especially in romantic love) but you don't LOVE attraction. A really beautiful person become super ugly super fast based on their personality and an average looking person will become more beautiful if they have an awesome spirit.
I think we forget this and are way to hard on ourselves. Like if we go out with our friends and have an awesome time, but feel like the pictures taken that night are blah it shouldn't matter, our friends, family all the people who love us love us FOR us. Life is about memories, not about how we look, when we are 80 looking at the photos from our 25th birthday party it won't be "look at hot fat i was" or "that dress was horrible" it will be "look at how young we were and how happy we were". I am constantly stressing about imaginary back fat ( I always ask does my back look fat in this, and it never does) but it doesn't matter. To the people who love me I am beautiful, my friends and loved ones are just as beautiful to me. Perfection is boring and overrated, true beauty lies in our flaws. So lets embrace our past, be proud of our accomplishments, know that our true beauty comes from the inside not the outside, be healthy and always go strong not matter what!
I have a lot of friends that have lost weight, one that's lost a whole person and then some like me and several who've lost you know 50 or 60 lbs. Significant amounts of weight and I've noticed I'm the only one that embraces my fat photos. I don't understand it, I am so proud of the weight I've lost, it's like graduating from college proud or having a baby proud. This journey is so hard, it is hard to lose any kind of weight and keep it off. I don't understand why my friends are so ashamed of their fat photos. It's like a hidden secret that they never want to admit that it happened. That to me is kind of scary, in that if we don't learn from our past we are destined to repeat it kind of way. Maybe that's why I keep my fat photos on Facebook, they are a reminder of what I never want to be again. I never want to be that girl hiding behind the extra cushion and not living her life to the fullest, at 430 pounds there was so much in my life I could not do.
I actually think the problem is two fold, one is shame and the other is we focus way to much on how we look as a society. The shame is silly. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you're over weight, especially if you were overweight and are smaller now or are actively working to change your lifestyle. The only thing that is bad about being bigger is the detriment it has on your health, we should all want to lead healthy life styles because it allows us to lead fuller, longer lives.
Beauty is relative, and true beauty comes from within. I was talking with a friend of mine whose lost and kept off about fifty pounds for the last three years or so. Generally when we hang out we talk about men, fitness and shopping and for some reason these topics never get old. We started looking at old pictures of each other and her response to a picture of me at 430 pounds, was I never realized you were that big. Then I looked at an old picture of her and said the same basic thing, something along the lines of I always thought she was beautiful and she replied "I guess love is really blind." I don't think it is that love is blind, but instead we don't love the outer parts of people. Yes there is such a thing as attraction (especially in romantic love) but you don't LOVE attraction. A really beautiful person become super ugly super fast based on their personality and an average looking person will become more beautiful if they have an awesome spirit.
I think we forget this and are way to hard on ourselves. Like if we go out with our friends and have an awesome time, but feel like the pictures taken that night are blah it shouldn't matter, our friends, family all the people who love us love us FOR us. Life is about memories, not about how we look, when we are 80 looking at the photos from our 25th birthday party it won't be "look at hot fat i was" or "that dress was horrible" it will be "look at how young we were and how happy we were". I am constantly stressing about imaginary back fat ( I always ask does my back look fat in this, and it never does) but it doesn't matter. To the people who love me I am beautiful, my friends and loved ones are just as beautiful to me. Perfection is boring and overrated, true beauty lies in our flaws. So lets embrace our past, be proud of our accomplishments, know that our true beauty comes from the inside not the outside, be healthy and always go strong not matter what!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Having a bad week..
Hey y'all,
So if you ask anyone I am an upbeat, bubbly full of life kind of girl. Always have a smile on my face but this week has been kind of hard on me. Without boring you with details there's been some family issues and some romance issues and this week was just hard. I think a lot of people would use this time to not go to the gym and I didn't, i don't think you should either.
You know they say when life gives you lemons make lemonade. Well I'm not always up for the lemonade, and sometimes the bitterness of the lemon teaches us not to forget important lessons in life. I guess this week me and my lemons went to the gym! When your feeling down working out is good, it raises endorphins and I don't know about anyone else but I always feel accomplished after a good hard work out, way more accomplished than I would feel bumming on the couch eating bon bons.
So when you hit rough patches in life (and we all do) don't let the rough patches take you away from your goals. Don't stop being active, having a fight with your husband go for a walk, clear your mind a bit and maybe you will see things better. I just know that in the past a week like this would have just brought me really low and I wouldn't have wanted to do anything, but I knew for my body that just wasn't the right thing. So i went to the gym and tried my hardest to literally exercise some of my inner demons out. It didn't work, but I lost two pounds this week so i did some good.
Next week at the gym I'm really gonna amp up my workout. Here lately I've been doing only about 1.5 hours of cardio and about 45 min of resistance. I'm gonna try my hardest to do 2 hours of cardio (stair master for an hour and run for an hour) and then an hour of resistance, plus my swimming 3 days a week. I need to shift my minds focus off of things I can't change and on to things I can which is my workouts. So this week is gonna be an experiment (hey I'm not a scientist for nothing). Let's see how my calves love me come next Friday, hopefully they are still speaking to me!
So lets just all try and remember to not let things bring us so far down that we stop pursing our goals. I'm not just talking work outs here, if your having a bad week don't skip class, or work, go on like nothing is wrong because in the end if you skip out on your life the only person you are hurting is yourself. So like my mom always said fake it till you make it and always go strong no matter what! Love you guys!
So if you ask anyone I am an upbeat, bubbly full of life kind of girl. Always have a smile on my face but this week has been kind of hard on me. Without boring you with details there's been some family issues and some romance issues and this week was just hard. I think a lot of people would use this time to not go to the gym and I didn't, i don't think you should either.
You know they say when life gives you lemons make lemonade. Well I'm not always up for the lemonade, and sometimes the bitterness of the lemon teaches us not to forget important lessons in life. I guess this week me and my lemons went to the gym! When your feeling down working out is good, it raises endorphins and I don't know about anyone else but I always feel accomplished after a good hard work out, way more accomplished than I would feel bumming on the couch eating bon bons.
So when you hit rough patches in life (and we all do) don't let the rough patches take you away from your goals. Don't stop being active, having a fight with your husband go for a walk, clear your mind a bit and maybe you will see things better. I just know that in the past a week like this would have just brought me really low and I wouldn't have wanted to do anything, but I knew for my body that just wasn't the right thing. So i went to the gym and tried my hardest to literally exercise some of my inner demons out. It didn't work, but I lost two pounds this week so i did some good.
Next week at the gym I'm really gonna amp up my workout. Here lately I've been doing only about 1.5 hours of cardio and about 45 min of resistance. I'm gonna try my hardest to do 2 hours of cardio (stair master for an hour and run for an hour) and then an hour of resistance, plus my swimming 3 days a week. I need to shift my minds focus off of things I can't change and on to things I can which is my workouts. So this week is gonna be an experiment (hey I'm not a scientist for nothing). Let's see how my calves love me come next Friday, hopefully they are still speaking to me!
So lets just all try and remember to not let things bring us so far down that we stop pursing our goals. I'm not just talking work outs here, if your having a bad week don't skip class, or work, go on like nothing is wrong because in the end if you skip out on your life the only person you are hurting is yourself. So like my mom always said fake it till you make it and always go strong no matter what! Love you guys!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Fitness!!!!!
Hey guys! How was every one's week? I'm still having Internet issues so the only computer access I have is at work right now bummer, but I'm hoping that changes this week (hoping!). Anyway I hope everyone had as good a week as I had, I lost five pounds! Woo hoo time to celebrate. Now i know my body and any week I have a big loss is going to be followed by a week of little to no weight loss. Its totally okay, the numbers on the scale while important are not near as important as being fit.
So Wednesday my grandmother calls me to ask me what I want for Christmas, my reply, kettlebells. To which my grandmother responds kettle-what? What are you cooking (I come from a group of very domesticated kitchen-orientated women) and why would a kettle be shaped like a bell? I told her noooo nana a kettlebell is this exercise tool I use it is basically a canon ball with a handle. The Russians developed it to train their army and man is it a good training tool. Unlike dumbbells the kettlebell's center of mass is extended beyond the hand, allowing for swinging movements. What is so amazing about a kettlebell workout is it engages your core, strengthens your back, legs, shoulders and arms and is a resistance and cardio workout in one. For an hour's work you do what should have probably taken two hours.
I recommend the kettlebells to anyone a man or a woman. They vary in weight from 3lb all the way to 35lbs so as you get stronger all you have to do is move up in weight (i'm actually going to buy a 15lb kettlebell this week, I'm currently using a 10lbs one). You don't have to spend any money on videos to teach yourself how to use a kettlebell, I learned how to use it via Youtube! The best informative videos are by a girl named Marianne, her channel is all about kettlebells from beginner to advanced. Her channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/Kitty8Tim and she also has a more informative website: http://www.myomytv.com . Check it out. You can get really cheap kettlebells at Wal - Mart (even cheaper at walmart.com) and you don't have to go to a gym to use them. Do it home all you need is some space and about an hour and you will have an awesome full body exercise! Try it and remember while your swinging your kettlebell to go strong no matter what!!! Bye guys!
So Wednesday my grandmother calls me to ask me what I want for Christmas, my reply, kettlebells. To which my grandmother responds kettle-what? What are you cooking (I come from a group of very domesticated kitchen-orientated women) and why would a kettle be shaped like a bell? I told her noooo nana a kettlebell is this exercise tool I use it is basically a canon ball with a handle. The Russians developed it to train their army and man is it a good training tool. Unlike dumbbells the kettlebell's center of mass is extended beyond the hand, allowing for swinging movements. What is so amazing about a kettlebell workout is it engages your core, strengthens your back, legs, shoulders and arms and is a resistance and cardio workout in one. For an hour's work you do what should have probably taken two hours.
I recommend the kettlebells to anyone a man or a woman. They vary in weight from 3lb all the way to 35lbs so as you get stronger all you have to do is move up in weight (i'm actually going to buy a 15lb kettlebell this week, I'm currently using a 10lbs one). You don't have to spend any money on videos to teach yourself how to use a kettlebell, I learned how to use it via Youtube! The best informative videos are by a girl named Marianne, her channel is all about kettlebells from beginner to advanced. Her channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/Kitty8Tim and she also has a more informative website: http://www.myomytv.com . Check it out. You can get really cheap kettlebells at Wal - Mart (even cheaper at walmart.com) and you don't have to go to a gym to use them. Do it home all you need is some space and about an hour and you will have an awesome full body exercise! Try it and remember while your swinging your kettlebell to go strong no matter what!!! Bye guys!
Having Support and Showing Support
I think I made a post once already about supporters and haters, but this is something that is going to come up over and over again and something happened this week in my life to make me reevaluate somethings.
First I wanna talk about my dad. I love the guy and he loves me and wants whats best for me, however i did not get his genes for being thin. The man is 59 years old, lives (i mean LIVES) off chocolate and has a waist size of 32. He has never been and probably will never be over weight. Which is amazing for him he doesn't have to worry about being fat (however that does not mean his eating habits are healthy, just because you are thin does not mean you can eat junk without it coming back to bite you.) So that being said, my daddy loved me at 430 pounds and thought I was his beautiful little girl and will love me at 200 pounds and still think I'm his beautiful little girl. He supports my weight loss, is proud of my motivation and accomplishment, but sometimes doesn't fully understand how hard it is. This week me and my parents went to Wal-Mart together, this is a rare occurrence, my dad is a truck driver and is usually away from home and I do the grocery shopping now that we are living healthier lives, but we are doing home renovations and we all needed to go to decide on paint colors and buy some stuff like that. Well as we were checking out my dad sees the movie theatre size boxes of candy on sale and decides to get three. He gets Whoppers (his favorite), Junior Mints (my moms favorite) and Milk Duds (my favorite), sweet right? He deserves a hug for thinking of us, right? Well yes and no. It is sweet, but it's also not very supportive. One box of Milk Duds like that has about 3 servings (17 candy pieces) for 170 calories per serving (not even gonna go into the fat) and it's full of preservatives (I no longer eat processed food if I can help it). All of which makes this a very bad treat for me, and I can say no to buying it no problem but once it's in my house I have trouble saying no. I was good, i had about 10 pieces and stopped, gave him back the box and said I didn't want to see it. I know it sounds mean, but it's one of my trigger foods and I absolutely HAVE to stay away from them. And when he didn't eat the box and put it in the freezer and left to go out of town for work I threw the box away.
So here is a man, that loves me, would die for me and says he is supportive but his actions prove otherwise. He wants me thin, fit and healthy, but like most of us shows his love through food. So if you're the person in any kind of relationship with someone trying to lose any amount of weight it is your responsibility to show your love by NOT tempting them. I would have much preferred a hug from my dad than the Milk Duds.
I have a really great support system I am so lucky in that because some people don't. This is very hard to do without a support system. If people in your life aren't receptive to you losing weight tell them to stop. I told my dad no more Milk Duds! If your husband still brings home bags and bags of chips and wont stop tell him to keep them in his car. He can eat them, but you can't be around them. Eventually they will learn to not bring trigger foods to you. I don't think it doesn't mean they don't love us, I just don't think they understand how hard it really is. If the people in your life are mean to you about your weight loss journey, use it to prove them wrong. I'm saying YOU CAN DO IT! If I've said it once I've said it a million times, I am not special, if I can lose weight so can you. Support is nice, but it is not necessary at the end of the day you're the one in the gym, in the kitchen and in your life making better choices. Live it to the fullest, get to out there and prove you're stronger than Milk Duds and the bags of chips in the world and always go strong no matter what!
First I wanna talk about my dad. I love the guy and he loves me and wants whats best for me, however i did not get his genes for being thin. The man is 59 years old, lives (i mean LIVES) off chocolate and has a waist size of 32. He has never been and probably will never be over weight. Which is amazing for him he doesn't have to worry about being fat (however that does not mean his eating habits are healthy, just because you are thin does not mean you can eat junk without it coming back to bite you.) So that being said, my daddy loved me at 430 pounds and thought I was his beautiful little girl and will love me at 200 pounds and still think I'm his beautiful little girl. He supports my weight loss, is proud of my motivation and accomplishment, but sometimes doesn't fully understand how hard it is. This week me and my parents went to Wal-Mart together, this is a rare occurrence, my dad is a truck driver and is usually away from home and I do the grocery shopping now that we are living healthier lives, but we are doing home renovations and we all needed to go to decide on paint colors and buy some stuff like that. Well as we were checking out my dad sees the movie theatre size boxes of candy on sale and decides to get three. He gets Whoppers (his favorite), Junior Mints (my moms favorite) and Milk Duds (my favorite), sweet right? He deserves a hug for thinking of us, right? Well yes and no. It is sweet, but it's also not very supportive. One box of Milk Duds like that has about 3 servings (17 candy pieces) for 170 calories per serving (not even gonna go into the fat) and it's full of preservatives (I no longer eat processed food if I can help it). All of which makes this a very bad treat for me, and I can say no to buying it no problem but once it's in my house I have trouble saying no. I was good, i had about 10 pieces and stopped, gave him back the box and said I didn't want to see it. I know it sounds mean, but it's one of my trigger foods and I absolutely HAVE to stay away from them. And when he didn't eat the box and put it in the freezer and left to go out of town for work I threw the box away.
So here is a man, that loves me, would die for me and says he is supportive but his actions prove otherwise. He wants me thin, fit and healthy, but like most of us shows his love through food. So if you're the person in any kind of relationship with someone trying to lose any amount of weight it is your responsibility to show your love by NOT tempting them. I would have much preferred a hug from my dad than the Milk Duds.
I have a really great support system I am so lucky in that because some people don't. This is very hard to do without a support system. If people in your life aren't receptive to you losing weight tell them to stop. I told my dad no more Milk Duds! If your husband still brings home bags and bags of chips and wont stop tell him to keep them in his car. He can eat them, but you can't be around them. Eventually they will learn to not bring trigger foods to you. I don't think it doesn't mean they don't love us, I just don't think they understand how hard it really is. If the people in your life are mean to you about your weight loss journey, use it to prove them wrong. I'm saying YOU CAN DO IT! If I've said it once I've said it a million times, I am not special, if I can lose weight so can you. Support is nice, but it is not necessary at the end of the day you're the one in the gym, in the kitchen and in your life making better choices. Live it to the fullest, get to out there and prove you're stronger than Milk Duds and the bags of chips in the world and always go strong no matter what!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
FOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!
Okay so yesterday was a rough emotional day, I cried a lot, stayed in on a Saturday night watched some tivo'd shows I'd been meaning to catch up on and totally ate bad food. Right? NOPE. Even though yesterday was a rough day for me (it is always rough when I'm having issues with my family) and I vegged out in front of the TV, the vegging did not include massive amounts of junk food. For this I think i deserve an award. In the past a day like yesterday I would have baked cookies, eaten ice cream, made home made high sugar lattes, probably even baked some cupcakes,because not only am I stress eater I am also a stress cooker. And I'm a good cook at that, so you want a fancy 1,000 calorie dessert I am your girl, of course that lead to waaaaay more girl than was really needed. So today lets talk about food, the good about it, the bad about it, the necessary about it, and the lies about food.
Alright who here reading this blog has dieted, is on a diet, thinks they need to lose weight, or is thinking about starting a diet? I'm gonna guess just about everyone, because just about everyone whose dominate language is English is probably unhappy with their weight. Why is that? Simply, we have lots of access to food and we eat a lot, thus making us fat. Pretty simple. Without getting into the genetics of everything (because as a scientist I fully believe some people are more prone to be heavier than others regardless of diet) I am going to talk about our relationships with food and how we can have a healthier one.
Did you know that prior to the the 1500's in Europe a peasant (which most people were peasants) ate meat maybe once or twice a year? It's true, now tell me how often have you had a piece of meat just today. In this time period fairy tales weren't about money, they were about food. One of the most popular German fairy tales of 1515 was about a girl who discovers a magic blanket in the forest and every time she opened it a feast was laid before her. Why is this? Food was a luxury item (like BMW's are for us today). Imagine this same girl walking into a super market that we shop in every day, with this abundance of food? Can you imagine her reaction? Is it any wonder most Americans are over weight? Our entire lives revolve around food. In the past I've talked about eating healthy and eating often, but do we really understand what eating healthy is? Most of us probably do not.
I've talked a lot about the learning curve in my weight loss, I learned efficient work outs and I've slowly but surely learned to eat. Below is pretty much how I relearned how to eat.
First easy step, start with portion control, anytime you watch a chef on TV they tell you to make the food pretty because we eat with our eyes first right? Well this is true with portions. I eat off smaller paper plates (about 12 inches in circumference). My plate looks fuller with less food, this is an easy way to trick my brain into thinking we are eating more than we actually are, it works trust me. Also do not fill your plate, mentally break your plate into quarters and fill each quarter about half way. Eat what's on your plate. Still hungry when your plate is empty wait 8-10 minuets before going back for seconds. This gives your stomach enough time to tell your brain whether you are actually full, if you still want more after that 8-10 minutes go get about a quarter as much as you got the first round and then i bet you will be really full with out being stuffed.
Second, keep a food journal. Don't tell me you can't, because you can, it is not hard especially if you have a smart phone. There is an app for that. I use a free one, that only counts my food. Then I use one online that counts my food and my exercise, so i know exactly how many calories I am burning. If it is in black and white you are less likely to over indulge or forget how many calories are in something. At first it is a little tedious, but like anything it becomes habit and it is a good habit to have while you re-learn how to eat. Remember there are 3,500 calories in one pound of body fat so in order to lose one pound a week you must have a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day (7x500=3500 calories = 1 pound) if your goal is two pounds you must burn a 1,000 calories a day (this is typically my goal.) You need to know your Basal Metabolic Rate* (the amount of calories you would burn if you laid in bed all day and did not move) to know how many calories to burn to lose weight. My BMR right now is 1,921 calories, this is what my body burns on it's own running my organs. So I round down to 1,900 (easier math), say i eat 2,200 calories a day that buts me at +300 calories that means in order to lose two pounds for the week i need to burn 1,300 calories for me this is about an hour and half work out. GREAT gotta do this seven days a week, boo, which is why logically we work harder some days and burn more calories than others. Hence the food journal, helps you keep track of it all.
Third, avoid food label buzz words. If you are just starting out, focus on calories. Organic is NOT lower in calories than non-organic. So an organic egg is going to have 90 calories, a non-organic, hormone loaded egg is also going to have 90 calories. Remember in an earlier post I talked about baby steps, well focusing on calories is a baby step in your diet. Organic, is great, multi-grain is great, but ONLY if they actually have less calories than their counter parts. Learn to read your labels, our tax dollars go to enforcing those labels for a reason. In a post in the future I will talk about getting the most nutrient filled calories you can get, but for today lets just focus on counting okay :).
Fourth, lets learn to cook. Learn to make your own meals. Firstly you will save money, think about how much money you spend buying lunch at work weekly, lets say you're cheap and only spend seven bucks a day 7X5=35 dollars a week. Take your lunch, i bet you can take a sandwich and soup for around 3 bucks a day (or salad, or hey make dinner and take left over dinner and then it's free because you cook dinner anyway) 3X5=15 that is a savings of 20 bucks a week 20X52 (52 weeks in a year)= 1,040 dollars saved a year! So you're slimming your waistline and saving money to replace your fat jeans! I think the best cooking show on Food Network for those of us trying to get thin or maintain being thin is called Hungry Girl. She has so many tricks and swaps and I have learned so much from her. Google her! She is awesome and has awesome easy recipes. Don't be afraid to experiment! Try some tofu in your enchiladas instead of beef (I like it!) if you don't like it okay, but who knows maybe you will!
Fifth, it is okay to indulge. Do you want a cookie? Eat a cookie, just don't eat the whole dozen. Want some ice cream go to an ice cream shop and buy some. I do recommend baking your own treats, it makes it easier to control what is in them and preservatives are not our friends okay?
Sixth, if it is made in a refinery it belongs in our car not our bodies. Splenda and other artificial sweeteners doctors are learning are particularly bad for diabetics (it makes it hard for them to maintain static glucose levels). So if you are diabetic, the sweetener you should get is Truvia (made from the stevia plant, don't worry they have off brands also). This is much easier on a diabetics body, than the artificial stuff. If you aren't diabetic you can have real sugar, just not a lot of it, keep it between 4-6grams okay? (Again read your labels).
So what are we gonna do? Keep our portions small! Don't over eat, I used to eat so much and I am now amazed at how small my portions are becoming , last night dinner consisted of half a ham and chicken sandwich and 30 sweet potato fries, which was a serving size and I was full. My dog got the benefit of my other half of a sandwich. We were both very happy with this outcome. Second count your calories, learn how much your putting in and how much you are working off. Third don't believe everything you read, just because the labeling looks healthy does not mean it is. Fourth, cooking is fun! Learn to take control of the food in your life and make you some healthy options. Fifth, don't deny yourself everything, if you don't treat your self sometimes you will be very grumpy and no one likes to be grumpy. Fifth eat what nature makes, not a chemist (this is true for the trans fats also), if its natural our bodies know how to deal with it and it makes easier to burn off. Remember food is not the enemy, it is okay to love food, we just have to learn how to love it in a healthy way. So remember to always go strong no matter what in finding your healthy balance in your food relationships!
* Great calculator for BMR - http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Alright who here reading this blog has dieted, is on a diet, thinks they need to lose weight, or is thinking about starting a diet? I'm gonna guess just about everyone, because just about everyone whose dominate language is English is probably unhappy with their weight. Why is that? Simply, we have lots of access to food and we eat a lot, thus making us fat. Pretty simple. Without getting into the genetics of everything (because as a scientist I fully believe some people are more prone to be heavier than others regardless of diet) I am going to talk about our relationships with food and how we can have a healthier one.
Did you know that prior to the the 1500's in Europe a peasant (which most people were peasants) ate meat maybe once or twice a year? It's true, now tell me how often have you had a piece of meat just today. In this time period fairy tales weren't about money, they were about food. One of the most popular German fairy tales of 1515 was about a girl who discovers a magic blanket in the forest and every time she opened it a feast was laid before her. Why is this? Food was a luxury item (like BMW's are for us today). Imagine this same girl walking into a super market that we shop in every day, with this abundance of food? Can you imagine her reaction? Is it any wonder most Americans are over weight? Our entire lives revolve around food. In the past I've talked about eating healthy and eating often, but do we really understand what eating healthy is? Most of us probably do not.
I've talked a lot about the learning curve in my weight loss, I learned efficient work outs and I've slowly but surely learned to eat. Below is pretty much how I relearned how to eat.
First easy step, start with portion control, anytime you watch a chef on TV they tell you to make the food pretty because we eat with our eyes first right? Well this is true with portions. I eat off smaller paper plates (about 12 inches in circumference). My plate looks fuller with less food, this is an easy way to trick my brain into thinking we are eating more than we actually are, it works trust me. Also do not fill your plate, mentally break your plate into quarters and fill each quarter about half way. Eat what's on your plate. Still hungry when your plate is empty wait 8-10 minuets before going back for seconds. This gives your stomach enough time to tell your brain whether you are actually full, if you still want more after that 8-10 minutes go get about a quarter as much as you got the first round and then i bet you will be really full with out being stuffed.
Second, keep a food journal. Don't tell me you can't, because you can, it is not hard especially if you have a smart phone. There is an app for that. I use a free one, that only counts my food. Then I use one online that counts my food and my exercise, so i know exactly how many calories I am burning. If it is in black and white you are less likely to over indulge or forget how many calories are in something. At first it is a little tedious, but like anything it becomes habit and it is a good habit to have while you re-learn how to eat. Remember there are 3,500 calories in one pound of body fat so in order to lose one pound a week you must have a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day (7x500=3500 calories = 1 pound) if your goal is two pounds you must burn a 1,000 calories a day (this is typically my goal.) You need to know your Basal Metabolic Rate* (the amount of calories you would burn if you laid in bed all day and did not move) to know how many calories to burn to lose weight. My BMR right now is 1,921 calories, this is what my body burns on it's own running my organs. So I round down to 1,900 (easier math), say i eat 2,200 calories a day that buts me at +300 calories that means in order to lose two pounds for the week i need to burn 1,300 calories for me this is about an hour and half work out. GREAT gotta do this seven days a week, boo, which is why logically we work harder some days and burn more calories than others. Hence the food journal, helps you keep track of it all.
Third, avoid food label buzz words. If you are just starting out, focus on calories. Organic is NOT lower in calories than non-organic. So an organic egg is going to have 90 calories, a non-organic, hormone loaded egg is also going to have 90 calories. Remember in an earlier post I talked about baby steps, well focusing on calories is a baby step in your diet. Organic, is great, multi-grain is great, but ONLY if they actually have less calories than their counter parts. Learn to read your labels, our tax dollars go to enforcing those labels for a reason. In a post in the future I will talk about getting the most nutrient filled calories you can get, but for today lets just focus on counting okay :).
Fourth, lets learn to cook. Learn to make your own meals. Firstly you will save money, think about how much money you spend buying lunch at work weekly, lets say you're cheap and only spend seven bucks a day 7X5=35 dollars a week. Take your lunch, i bet you can take a sandwich and soup for around 3 bucks a day (or salad, or hey make dinner and take left over dinner and then it's free because you cook dinner anyway) 3X5=15 that is a savings of 20 bucks a week 20X52 (52 weeks in a year)= 1,040 dollars saved a year! So you're slimming your waistline and saving money to replace your fat jeans! I think the best cooking show on Food Network for those of us trying to get thin or maintain being thin is called Hungry Girl. She has so many tricks and swaps and I have learned so much from her. Google her! She is awesome and has awesome easy recipes. Don't be afraid to experiment! Try some tofu in your enchiladas instead of beef (I like it!) if you don't like it okay, but who knows maybe you will!
Fifth, it is okay to indulge. Do you want a cookie? Eat a cookie, just don't eat the whole dozen. Want some ice cream go to an ice cream shop and buy some. I do recommend baking your own treats, it makes it easier to control what is in them and preservatives are not our friends okay?
Sixth, if it is made in a refinery it belongs in our car not our bodies. Splenda and other artificial sweeteners doctors are learning are particularly bad for diabetics (it makes it hard for them to maintain static glucose levels). So if you are diabetic, the sweetener you should get is Truvia (made from the stevia plant, don't worry they have off brands also). This is much easier on a diabetics body, than the artificial stuff. If you aren't diabetic you can have real sugar, just not a lot of it, keep it between 4-6grams okay? (Again read your labels).
So what are we gonna do? Keep our portions small! Don't over eat, I used to eat so much and I am now amazed at how small my portions are becoming , last night dinner consisted of half a ham and chicken sandwich and 30 sweet potato fries, which was a serving size and I was full. My dog got the benefit of my other half of a sandwich. We were both very happy with this outcome. Second count your calories, learn how much your putting in and how much you are working off. Third don't believe everything you read, just because the labeling looks healthy does not mean it is. Fourth, cooking is fun! Learn to take control of the food in your life and make you some healthy options. Fifth, don't deny yourself everything, if you don't treat your self sometimes you will be very grumpy and no one likes to be grumpy. Fifth eat what nature makes, not a chemist (this is true for the trans fats also), if its natural our bodies know how to deal with it and it makes easier to burn off. Remember food is not the enemy, it is okay to love food, we just have to learn how to love it in a healthy way. So remember to always go strong no matter what in finding your healthy balance in your food relationships!
* Great calculator for BMR - http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Being Selfish
Hey guys, soo it's been forever since I updated, I'm having Internet problems at home, but I'm hoping they will be fixed by Monday so I can update more often. So much has happened this week and I'm like " I wanna blog about this" and then can't get online so yeah, here is to fixed Internet!
So yesterday my mom and I are driving to the pool to swim laps for an hour and she made a comment that I was self-centered, talk about hurting my feelings! It's okay though she was a little bit right, because in order to make the changes I have made in my life I need to be a little bit self centered. No one else can go to the gym for me, do the work for me, deal with the pain of sore muscles and muscle pulls for me, nor can they truly benefit from the success for me. Beyond appreciating the aesthetic no one can feel my heart pumping better, or the pain free long walks but me.
Unfortunately I am the type of person that has a very hard time saying no, I also have a lot of responsibilities. Flat out I am never home and I love that, but of course this causes problems at home (don't worry i have no children I am neglecting, just parents who feel neglected at times). I love spending hours on end in the gym, I love helping my friends with their workout goals, pushing them and them pushing me. I love my jobs and I love to work hard and play hard. Just like my new body, my new attitude on life is going to have some growing pains.
The biggest difference I feel in my life is I feel like I am finally living my life for myself, and I don't think I have ever done that before. Of course we can't 100% be all about ourselves all the time we all have people in our lives we take care of, but we cannot allow that care taking to rule our lives. Maybe one of the reasons I got so big is because I did not care enough about me to change it.
This post maybe a little to harsh and brutal to put on the Internet, but I refuse to sugar coat this journey. Just like when I was big if you didn't like how i looked you are more than welcome to look in the other direction, now it's if you don't like my attitude you don't have to hang around me. I think the easiest part to losing weight is the actual losing of the weight, that's just a scientific calculation, it's all the emotional, social stuff that I am struggling with. Nothing in life that is worth doing is easy. My favorite quote is from Saint Catherine of Siena "Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring." This is so true, this journey wouldn't be worth it without all the pain, sweat and tears. So just remember to go strong no matter what, I know I am.
So yesterday my mom and I are driving to the pool to swim laps for an hour and she made a comment that I was self-centered, talk about hurting my feelings! It's okay though she was a little bit right, because in order to make the changes I have made in my life I need to be a little bit self centered. No one else can go to the gym for me, do the work for me, deal with the pain of sore muscles and muscle pulls for me, nor can they truly benefit from the success for me. Beyond appreciating the aesthetic no one can feel my heart pumping better, or the pain free long walks but me.
Unfortunately I am the type of person that has a very hard time saying no, I also have a lot of responsibilities. Flat out I am never home and I love that, but of course this causes problems at home (don't worry i have no children I am neglecting, just parents who feel neglected at times). I love spending hours on end in the gym, I love helping my friends with their workout goals, pushing them and them pushing me. I love my jobs and I love to work hard and play hard. Just like my new body, my new attitude on life is going to have some growing pains.
The biggest difference I feel in my life is I feel like I am finally living my life for myself, and I don't think I have ever done that before. Of course we can't 100% be all about ourselves all the time we all have people in our lives we take care of, but we cannot allow that care taking to rule our lives. Maybe one of the reasons I got so big is because I did not care enough about me to change it.
This post maybe a little to harsh and brutal to put on the Internet, but I refuse to sugar coat this journey. Just like when I was big if you didn't like how i looked you are more than welcome to look in the other direction, now it's if you don't like my attitude you don't have to hang around me. I think the easiest part to losing weight is the actual losing of the weight, that's just a scientific calculation, it's all the emotional, social stuff that I am struggling with. Nothing in life that is worth doing is easy. My favorite quote is from Saint Catherine of Siena "Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring." This is so true, this journey wouldn't be worth it without all the pain, sweat and tears. So just remember to go strong no matter what, I know I am.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Having Fun and Learning to No Longer be the Fat Girl
Oh my gosh, it has been five days since I posted something, I suck. In my defence I have added an hours worth of lap swimming to my workout routine and have been EXHAUSTED at the end of the day, but none the less I will do better I promise!
This is not what I want to talk about today, I want to talk about my night out last night. So me and to of my best girl friends (sorority sisters actually) went out of town for an evening to celebrate one of us moving to Japan. We went to the Riverwalk in San Antonio and had an amazing time at the end of the night we ended up at this amazing little bar. There were two really cute guys at the end of the bar and they bought me and one of my friends (the other is pregnant so no drinking for her) drinks. At one point me and my friend (who is a beautiful size 6) got up to dance (we were very tipsy and just having fun) well one of the guys comes over to us to dance and I automatically assume he wants to dance with her, because fat girl mentality, who would want to dance with me? Well he did want to dance with me. Of course he should, I am pretty, fun and who wouldn't want to spend time with me.
So I've gotten a lot of the weight off and now I need to work on my confidence. I need to believe that a guy might want to dance three songs with me and buy me drinks (even though i didn't give him my number, still to shy) and put myself out there a little bit more. Like the weight loss, the confidence will come in time! :) So I'm going to continue to go strong no matter what!
This is not what I want to talk about today, I want to talk about my night out last night. So me and to of my best girl friends (sorority sisters actually) went out of town for an evening to celebrate one of us moving to Japan. We went to the Riverwalk in San Antonio and had an amazing time at the end of the night we ended up at this amazing little bar. There were two really cute guys at the end of the bar and they bought me and one of my friends (the other is pregnant so no drinking for her) drinks. At one point me and my friend (who is a beautiful size 6) got up to dance (we were very tipsy and just having fun) well one of the guys comes over to us to dance and I automatically assume he wants to dance with her, because fat girl mentality, who would want to dance with me? Well he did want to dance with me. Of course he should, I am pretty, fun and who wouldn't want to spend time with me.
So I've gotten a lot of the weight off and now I need to work on my confidence. I need to believe that a guy might want to dance three songs with me and buy me drinks (even though i didn't give him my number, still to shy) and put myself out there a little bit more. Like the weight loss, the confidence will come in time! :) So I'm going to continue to go strong no matter what!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Starting a Work Out Plan
Hey y'all how's your Sunday treating you? Watching football??? Vegging on the couch while your team scores that amazing play (or gets the stuffing kicked out of them)? Either way I hope you are having a great day. So I was talking with a friend last night and she has decided she wants to get into shape, she's put on about 40 pounds since having her children and realizes it is only gonna get worse if she doesn't decide to do something about it now and she wanted some advice on starting. Should she get a trainer? What diet should she follow? How much should she work out? Stuff like that, stuff I wondered about before I started exercising.
Something I think I need to make very clear, is I am a broke college student. I work several jobs, pay for school and books and car payments and insurance all on my own, so I don't have funds available for bad ass trainers and expensive pre-planed meals and I for sure do not have tens of thousands of dollars for a radical weight loss surgery. So I taught myself all on my own.
Now before you start any weight loss program you should see your doctor, find out if you are healthy enough to actively loss weight, if you have any limitations the doctor will tell you and you can work around them.
So you want to loss weight, you've decided enough is enough I am gonna get active and get healthy! Awesome! Where do you start? I started slowly, I was lucky I had access to a gym on campus and I started going three times a week for about 30 min to an hour each time. I would do 30 - 45 minuets of cardio and then do so resistance work to start conditioning my muscles. But lets say you do not have access to a gym and you can't afford one. Well here are some easy tips to get you moving toward you work out goal.
1. Do not start a diet yet! Now I know I will take a lot of flack for this, but I think it's true. I was exercising for about two months before I changed my diet. I believe in "a the little bit at a time" approach and I also believe that getting physically active is more important than a diet. So lets change one thing at a time, lets get you moving first.
2. Start small, do not start going for an all out run five days a week. Firstly you run the chance of hurting yourself if you go from bam non-active to trying to train like an Olympic runner and also you will frustrate yourself when you can't complete something. Try walking, go to the high school in your area and walk around the track for 30 minuets. I recommend exercising in the morning, now if this means getting up at 5am to go for a walk before your kids get up do it. Working out in the morning puts your body in a burning mode all day long. So REALLY try to exercise in the morning, eat some oatmeal and go for a walk. IF you absolutely can't then do it in the evening, just do it and stick with it.
3. Give your self mini-goals. So my overall goal is to lose 210 pounds by July 2012 (when I turn 30!) but through out my journey i have had lots of mini goals. For example in the beginning I could only run 3 miles in an hour on the elliptical, i would give my self two weeks and in two weeks i would push my self to run 3.15, then 3.3. Stuff like that, very realistic, obtainable goals. And then i would reward myself in some small way, my reward to myself when I reached 4 miles in an hour was new work out clothes. Yours could be going to see that silly movie you're dying to see, don't go see it UNTIL you reach your goal however.
4. Once you've been working out for awhile (one or two months) start to work on your diet. Again START SLOW, I started by eliminating fast food restaurants one by one. Then I started eliminating excess fat from my diet (switched to 2% milk and low fat cheese) then tackled kicking out high fat proteins from my diet and figuring out recipes that included vegetarian proteins.
5. Now you're set, you're motivated, you're eating right, weight is dropping off like bees on a hive? Right? Well maybe it was and now it's slowed down a little? Now you have to work on keeping your workouts fresh, play with muscle confusion. Working out is not a place where you can be a creature of habit. Don't just run, run and do push ups, go swimming, go walking one day instead of running, keep adding weight to your resistance work out, do some yoga (this is all examples of stuff I do by the way). You have to keep your body guessing and working in different ways to burn existing fat.
If you can do those five things (and you can, because I did and there is absolutely nothing special or different about me and you) then I promise you will be on your way to a healthy life style.
Do you need a trainer? Nope do some research, get started on your own, get motivated ON YOUR OWN, you can do it. Do you need a dietitian? Nope do some research, the Internet is a great place to learn and if you learn how to do it on your own then it is much easier to follow. Now I'm not saying that trainers and dietitians aren't great resources, they are, and if you can afford it DO IT! I would have loved to have someone there in the gym telling me exactly how to work out, I may have lost even more weight in the beginning, but I could not afford one. If you can't afford one don't think you can't do it on your own, YOU CAN, it may be a little harder and a little slower, but really losing weight and get healthy all starts and ends with you. So go strong no matter what!
Something I think I need to make very clear, is I am a broke college student. I work several jobs, pay for school and books and car payments and insurance all on my own, so I don't have funds available for bad ass trainers and expensive pre-planed meals and I for sure do not have tens of thousands of dollars for a radical weight loss surgery. So I taught myself all on my own.
Now before you start any weight loss program you should see your doctor, find out if you are healthy enough to actively loss weight, if you have any limitations the doctor will tell you and you can work around them.
So you want to loss weight, you've decided enough is enough I am gonna get active and get healthy! Awesome! Where do you start? I started slowly, I was lucky I had access to a gym on campus and I started going three times a week for about 30 min to an hour each time. I would do 30 - 45 minuets of cardio and then do so resistance work to start conditioning my muscles. But lets say you do not have access to a gym and you can't afford one. Well here are some easy tips to get you moving toward you work out goal.
1. Do not start a diet yet! Now I know I will take a lot of flack for this, but I think it's true. I was exercising for about two months before I changed my diet. I believe in "a the little bit at a time" approach and I also believe that getting physically active is more important than a diet. So lets change one thing at a time, lets get you moving first.
2. Start small, do not start going for an all out run five days a week. Firstly you run the chance of hurting yourself if you go from bam non-active to trying to train like an Olympic runner and also you will frustrate yourself when you can't complete something. Try walking, go to the high school in your area and walk around the track for 30 minuets. I recommend exercising in the morning, now if this means getting up at 5am to go for a walk before your kids get up do it. Working out in the morning puts your body in a burning mode all day long. So REALLY try to exercise in the morning, eat some oatmeal and go for a walk. IF you absolutely can't then do it in the evening, just do it and stick with it.
3. Give your self mini-goals. So my overall goal is to lose 210 pounds by July 2012 (when I turn 30!) but through out my journey i have had lots of mini goals. For example in the beginning I could only run 3 miles in an hour on the elliptical, i would give my self two weeks and in two weeks i would push my self to run 3.15, then 3.3. Stuff like that, very realistic, obtainable goals. And then i would reward myself in some small way, my reward to myself when I reached 4 miles in an hour was new work out clothes. Yours could be going to see that silly movie you're dying to see, don't go see it UNTIL you reach your goal however.
4. Once you've been working out for awhile (one or two months) start to work on your diet. Again START SLOW, I started by eliminating fast food restaurants one by one. Then I started eliminating excess fat from my diet (switched to 2% milk and low fat cheese) then tackled kicking out high fat proteins from my diet and figuring out recipes that included vegetarian proteins.
5. Now you're set, you're motivated, you're eating right, weight is dropping off like bees on a hive? Right? Well maybe it was and now it's slowed down a little? Now you have to work on keeping your workouts fresh, play with muscle confusion. Working out is not a place where you can be a creature of habit. Don't just run, run and do push ups, go swimming, go walking one day instead of running, keep adding weight to your resistance work out, do some yoga (this is all examples of stuff I do by the way). You have to keep your body guessing and working in different ways to burn existing fat.
If you can do those five things (and you can, because I did and there is absolutely nothing special or different about me and you) then I promise you will be on your way to a healthy life style.
Do you need a trainer? Nope do some research, get started on your own, get motivated ON YOUR OWN, you can do it. Do you need a dietitian? Nope do some research, the Internet is a great place to learn and if you learn how to do it on your own then it is much easier to follow. Now I'm not saying that trainers and dietitians aren't great resources, they are, and if you can afford it DO IT! I would have loved to have someone there in the gym telling me exactly how to work out, I may have lost even more weight in the beginning, but I could not afford one. If you can't afford one don't think you can't do it on your own, YOU CAN, it may be a little harder and a little slower, but really losing weight and get healthy all starts and ends with you. So go strong no matter what!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The Weekend Baby!!!!
Hey my friends!!! So how was every one's Friday night? I had an amusingly fun night that included dinner out with some really great friends and some adult (not good for me calorie wise) beverages. Oh who am I kidding the pasta I ate at the restaurant wasn't good for me either, but it's totally fine. I'm going to the gym today to run off those tasty adult beverages!
Last night i went out for some margaritas and dinner with my friends that because of our busy schedules we hadn't been able to see each other a lot lately. It's special nights like this that I love being in my new body. I have always been a confident, happy girl, but at over 400 pounds one is going to have some insecurities. One of those for me was eating in public. Now I didn't let my insecurity rule my life and no one should, I still went out to eat with my friends and enjoyed myself, but in the back of my head I always thought oh someone is watching me eating this and that didn't matter what it was and is saying mean things about me somewhere. "Oh look at that fat lazy girl stuffing her face at a reasturant". I don't think like this anymore, someone may still be talking about me for whatever reason ( because not everyone is going to like you and oh well their loss) at a table down the way from me, but I've done something amazing and no one can take that from me.
A lot of people tell me they don't want to use a gym because they are afraid people (the buff dudes or the tiny girls) are gonna stare at them or just be plain mean to them. I am here to tell you this will not happen. It never happened to me and if it for some reason it does happen to you tell the gym staff they will handle it. The people who work for and own gyms are not there because they want to look hot, I think that is a major misconception, they want to share their knowledge of health and fitness with others and they are there to help you more importantly they WANT to help you. That being said I think 90% of people who use the gym are there because they want to be healthy, not pick up people or make fun of people. I've noticed that gym people rarely talk to each other, we all just kind of do our own thing and focus on our workouts. So don't let what other people might say to you keep you from using a gym if you want to use a gym. Gyms are great ways to get motivated, if it hadn't have been for the gym on the campus of my school opening I may not have started this journey. In the beginning I was not a workout oust side type person. If you do pay for a gym or fitness classes DO NOT WASTE THEM, go use them, even if you don't feel like it, it's your money don't throw it away. Like I say all the time, if I can do it anyone can. So get over being worried about what other people think and make a healthy change for YOU! You are the only thing standing in your own way! Have a great Saturday guys!!! :)
Last night i went out for some margaritas and dinner with my friends that because of our busy schedules we hadn't been able to see each other a lot lately. It's special nights like this that I love being in my new body. I have always been a confident, happy girl, but at over 400 pounds one is going to have some insecurities. One of those for me was eating in public. Now I didn't let my insecurity rule my life and no one should, I still went out to eat with my friends and enjoyed myself, but in the back of my head I always thought oh someone is watching me eating this and that didn't matter what it was and is saying mean things about me somewhere. "Oh look at that fat lazy girl stuffing her face at a reasturant". I don't think like this anymore, someone may still be talking about me for whatever reason ( because not everyone is going to like you and oh well their loss) at a table down the way from me, but I've done something amazing and no one can take that from me.
A lot of people tell me they don't want to use a gym because they are afraid people (the buff dudes or the tiny girls) are gonna stare at them or just be plain mean to them. I am here to tell you this will not happen. It never happened to me and if it for some reason it does happen to you tell the gym staff they will handle it. The people who work for and own gyms are not there because they want to look hot, I think that is a major misconception, they want to share their knowledge of health and fitness with others and they are there to help you more importantly they WANT to help you. That being said I think 90% of people who use the gym are there because they want to be healthy, not pick up people or make fun of people. I've noticed that gym people rarely talk to each other, we all just kind of do our own thing and focus on our workouts. So don't let what other people might say to you keep you from using a gym if you want to use a gym. Gyms are great ways to get motivated, if it hadn't have been for the gym on the campus of my school opening I may not have started this journey. In the beginning I was not a workout oust side type person. If you do pay for a gym or fitness classes DO NOT WASTE THEM, go use them, even if you don't feel like it, it's your money don't throw it away. Like I say all the time, if I can do it anyone can. So get over being worried about what other people think and make a healthy change for YOU! You are the only thing standing in your own way! Have a great Saturday guys!!! :)
Friday, September 23, 2011
Lies We Tell Ourselves
My friends! Long time no blog, it has been an ultra busy, emotional week for me. I still made it to the gym even when I didn't feel like it or did not have a lot of time. It may not have been my best week gym wise, but i still pushed and pushed as hard I was physically and emotionally able this week.
So I want to talk about liars, to quote the really cool Dr. House "everyone lies", and it is totally true. Everyone lies and we mainly lie to ourselves. Yesterday I was watching the Dr. Oz show (I love this show, he has awesome health and diet tips, and I actually follow one of his diets from his show) and there was a woman on there who weighs over 700 pounds and is TRYING to get to 1,800 pounds. She earns money from being a super -sized big beautiful woman (ssbbw) model, and men actually pay to watch her eat. All the sexual fetishisms aside, she claims that she is the picture of health, AT 700 POUNDS! It's not possible and in fact Dr. Oz proved just how unhealthy she was, but it did not matter to her she has convinced her self that she is healthy and what she is doing to her body is perfectly okay. What is sad is that at 410 pounds I did the same exact thing.
I was never diabetic, not even pre-diabetic, I got tested every year because my mom is a diabetic (what is funny is when she first became diabetic when i was 8 years old she was not overweight at all) and has been for 21 years. So diabetes has always been something that scared me, but other than that I come from good genes, no heart disease, strokes anything like that and my family lives a very long time (my maternal great grandmother and her twin lived to be 102 and 103) so other than being fat I have good healthy genes on my side. However at 410 pounds, I did not exercise, I did not eat as well as I should have and I was in fact very unhealthy. That is not what I told myself however, I always said "well I'm not diabetic so it's all good". That was a lie, flat out. I could not walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, walking around the mall would make my ankles swell and my feet hurt and forget running. These things do not happen to a healthy person.
The best day of my life was when I decided to quit lying to myself and get healthy, I'm now 268 pounds (yay I've lost more this week) and I am the healthiest I have ever been in my life. I can go up three flights of stairs in my university's library with out getting winded and it feels amazing. So if you are reading this and you are overweight and not doing anything about it stop being a liar, get off the couch and walk around the block. You will feel amazing I promise and it does not take much, you do not need to be like me and be balls to the wall all the time. Stop lying and do fifteen minuets of cardio three times a week ( anyone can find fifteen minuets in a day)and your body will love you for it. The world will be a much better place when we all stop lying, I know my world got better when I stop telling my self lies. Have a great friday my friends!
So I want to talk about liars, to quote the really cool Dr. House "everyone lies", and it is totally true. Everyone lies and we mainly lie to ourselves. Yesterday I was watching the Dr. Oz show (I love this show, he has awesome health and diet tips, and I actually follow one of his diets from his show) and there was a woman on there who weighs over 700 pounds and is TRYING to get to 1,800 pounds. She earns money from being a super -sized big beautiful woman (ssbbw) model, and men actually pay to watch her eat. All the sexual fetishisms aside, she claims that she is the picture of health, AT 700 POUNDS! It's not possible and in fact Dr. Oz proved just how unhealthy she was, but it did not matter to her she has convinced her self that she is healthy and what she is doing to her body is perfectly okay. What is sad is that at 410 pounds I did the same exact thing.
I was never diabetic, not even pre-diabetic, I got tested every year because my mom is a diabetic (what is funny is when she first became diabetic when i was 8 years old she was not overweight at all) and has been for 21 years. So diabetes has always been something that scared me, but other than that I come from good genes, no heart disease, strokes anything like that and my family lives a very long time (my maternal great grandmother and her twin lived to be 102 and 103) so other than being fat I have good healthy genes on my side. However at 410 pounds, I did not exercise, I did not eat as well as I should have and I was in fact very unhealthy. That is not what I told myself however, I always said "well I'm not diabetic so it's all good". That was a lie, flat out. I could not walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, walking around the mall would make my ankles swell and my feet hurt and forget running. These things do not happen to a healthy person.
The best day of my life was when I decided to quit lying to myself and get healthy, I'm now 268 pounds (yay I've lost more this week) and I am the healthiest I have ever been in my life. I can go up three flights of stairs in my university's library with out getting winded and it feels amazing. So if you are reading this and you are overweight and not doing anything about it stop being a liar, get off the couch and walk around the block. You will feel amazing I promise and it does not take much, you do not need to be like me and be balls to the wall all the time. Stop lying and do fifteen minuets of cardio three times a week ( anyone can find fifteen minuets in a day)and your body will love you for it. The world will be a much better place when we all stop lying, I know my world got better when I stop telling my self lies. Have a great friday my friends!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Body Image Stuff
Hola my friends!!! How is every one's weekend? Did everyone have a fun Friday night? I stayed home and cried my way through Beaches.. because I love that movie and we all need a good cry every once in awhile. Anyway enough about my total love for Bette Midler, lets talk about how we all see our bodies shall we? If i posed the question " what is your least favorite part of your body and why" to every woman (and some men) i know there is not a doubt in my mind I would get a detailed list from all of them of every body part they hated. How about if I asked you what part of your body you loved? How would you answer that one? Because, shouldn't we, no matter what our size love some portion of ourselves? I know at my biggest I still loved particular parts of my body, namely my hair and my eyes. They were something I was very proud about and something that I thought made me special.
Now here I am 145 lbs lighter (yup I've lost another 10 pound since starting this blog woo hoo!) and i find myself focusing on what I hate about my body. I am one of those unlucky apple shaped girls that carries a lot of her weight in her stomach. It sucks so much sometimes, even though logically i know my stomach is smaller (I can see it) I still get upset that it's not flat yet. Also the bigger I got the bigger my legs got, I got fat girl legs. Cankles, fat calves and SUPER thick thighs. While my legs are better (namely my ankles and calves) they still aren't normal looking in my opinion (I hate my inner thighs). So instead of looking down on myself for what i don't like I made a list of the body parts I LOVE since I've started losing weight.
My List:
Now here I am 145 lbs lighter (yup I've lost another 10 pound since starting this blog woo hoo!) and i find myself focusing on what I hate about my body. I am one of those unlucky apple shaped girls that carries a lot of her weight in her stomach. It sucks so much sometimes, even though logically i know my stomach is smaller (I can see it) I still get upset that it's not flat yet. Also the bigger I got the bigger my legs got, I got fat girl legs. Cankles, fat calves and SUPER thick thighs. While my legs are better (namely my ankles and calves) they still aren't normal looking in my opinion (I hate my inner thighs). So instead of looking down on myself for what i don't like I made a list of the body parts I LOVE since I've started losing weight.
My List:
- My ankles - I no longer have cankles, I can now put on a pair of heels with pride and not worry about them look fleshy and gross.
- My Calves - When I started this my calves were about 24 inches around, not even wide calf boots fit, it was so upsetting. Now my right calf is 18 inches and my left is 19 (why the discrepancy can't tell you, but i have what i lovingly call my fat and skinny leg). I love my calves so much that I bought two pairs of calf high boots for the fall and I'm soooo excited to wear them. Yes they are still wide width, but i don't care at all, they fit and I feel hot in them.
- My back - My back looks sooo good, it's getting thin and sexy and i love it.
- My Butt - To go along with my back, if i could walk backwards everywhere i would, that is how much I'm loving my back and butt.
- My arms, clavicle and shoulders - This was the first place i really started to see my weight loss, i love the muscle tone I'm getting in my arms and shoulders, and how jackets fit me sooo much better.
So I think you should make a list the next time you look in the mirror and go "i have the ugliest fill in the blank", stop yourself, look at what you do love. No matter what it is. Continue to work on your trouble areas at the gym, but don't obsess. Everyone of us is beautiful to someone and none of us are perfect and perfection is boring anyway. If you don't believe me ask your husband, boyfriend, best friend or your mom or your dad if your worst part is as bad as you think it is and I bet they will look at you like you came from another planet. So love yourself and only once you love yourself can you really improve yourself!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Diet and Exercise
Hey y'all so it's been a couple of days since my last post, and I'm sorry about that but I'm back! Tonight I want to talk about how important it is to eat when you exercise. Now losing weight is simple math, you need to eat less calories than you exert and you will lose weight. And we can all do that, we can all count calories but that's not all what nutrition is about. I exercise A LOT, I work out like an athlete, i run at least five miles a day, and recently i have taken on the StairMaster. Then I do weight work , my average work out is about 4 hours a day, and sometimes I head back to the gym in the evening. Recently I've figured out I am no getting enough protein in my diet to repair the muscles I damage when I exercise. This was making me slow and sluggish and really not able to push myself like I wanted.
Does this mean I'm gonna eat an 8 ounce sirloin a day, no but I wish! There are lots of super healthy lean proteins out there. I eat lots of quiona (which is an AWESOME vegetarian protein), chicken and egg whites. I also never miss a meal, and always have snacks with me. You should eat five (yes FIVE) times a day.
Even when everything in your system says no don't eat I'll burn more calories, it's not true. Eat, eat healthy and eat often. If you're exercising you WILL burn off what you eat and it's all about balance. You have to relearn how to be healthy if you want your weight loss to last your entire life! :)
Does this mean I'm gonna eat an 8 ounce sirloin a day, no but I wish! There are lots of super healthy lean proteins out there. I eat lots of quiona (which is an AWESOME vegetarian protein), chicken and egg whites. I also never miss a meal, and always have snacks with me. You should eat five (yes FIVE) times a day.
Even when everything in your system says no don't eat I'll burn more calories, it's not true. Eat, eat healthy and eat often. If you're exercising you WILL burn off what you eat and it's all about balance. You have to relearn how to be healthy if you want your weight loss to last your entire life! :)
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Support and Haters
Hola! Let's talk about having a support system, because I think like trying to quit drinking stopping bad food and exercise habits is just as hard if not harder. If you're an alcoholic you can not go to bars, not go down the beer aisle in a grocery store, it is completely possible to avoid drinking in your life until you get to a place where you can be around it and not want it. With food we HAVE to eat, you can avoid restaurants but you still have to go to the grocery store, you still have to cook dinner, you can't just put all food in a box and never see it again. This is why it is important to have people who support you, to talk you down from eating an entire big family bag of potato chips.
I don't do group exercise, an occasional kick boxing class cause I think it's cool, but no aerobics or anything like that. I'll go running with a friend, but for the most part I exercise alone. I have no problems with that, I've never really been shy nor cared about what people thought about how I looked, my attitude has been and always will be if you don't like how I look you are more than welcome to look in the other direction. For most people they don't like to workout alone, so get a buddy or do join that class, you WILL make friends with same goals you have and they will help you through the tough times. I still need support, I'm lucky most of my friends embrace and love the changes I have made. If I'm having a bad workout day I talk about it on my Facebook and my friends get me through it. The opposite is true also, I use my Facebook to post my milestones and most of my friends support it. Not everyone in your life is going to support your weight loss however and you need to be prepared for that.
It was a major shock to me when one of my friends was down right mean to me about my weight loss. She said something about always being thin and never having to work out, to which i replied "lucky you" and smiled. The truth of the matter is that lots of people don't handle change well. When you lose the kind of weight I have (and am still losing) it is a major change. I'm no longer the funny fat girl when we go to the bars who doesn't really get hit on, now I'm just like my friends, very normal sized, and men notice me. Is it because now I represent more competition? I don't know maybe, but I think more likely people just become used to the status quo and don't like it disrupted. You have to just get rid of the negativity. If they are people that aren't vital to your life boot 'em out, delete them from your Facebook and smile when you see them at the mall rockin' your size smaller jeans. If they are friends you love and don't want to delete from your life, avoid talking about your progress with them, just go on like everything is normal, because hearing the negativity will eventually bring you down and you do not want that when doing something like conquering a weight problem. Keep the ones that support you super close. I am lucky, my best friend in the entire world is my number one supporter (and I am hers, she's gone from a size 22 to a 12 in like the last two years) and last night when I was having a rough night she texted me and told me I was beautiful. Surround yourself with people like my best friend, because with people who love us for who we truly are and support us no matter what we can take whatever the world throws at us.
I don't do group exercise, an occasional kick boxing class cause I think it's cool, but no aerobics or anything like that. I'll go running with a friend, but for the most part I exercise alone. I have no problems with that, I've never really been shy nor cared about what people thought about how I looked, my attitude has been and always will be if you don't like how I look you are more than welcome to look in the other direction. For most people they don't like to workout alone, so get a buddy or do join that class, you WILL make friends with same goals you have and they will help you through the tough times. I still need support, I'm lucky most of my friends embrace and love the changes I have made. If I'm having a bad workout day I talk about it on my Facebook and my friends get me through it. The opposite is true also, I use my Facebook to post my milestones and most of my friends support it. Not everyone in your life is going to support your weight loss however and you need to be prepared for that.
It was a major shock to me when one of my friends was down right mean to me about my weight loss. She said something about always being thin and never having to work out, to which i replied "lucky you" and smiled. The truth of the matter is that lots of people don't handle change well. When you lose the kind of weight I have (and am still losing) it is a major change. I'm no longer the funny fat girl when we go to the bars who doesn't really get hit on, now I'm just like my friends, very normal sized, and men notice me. Is it because now I represent more competition? I don't know maybe, but I think more likely people just become used to the status quo and don't like it disrupted. You have to just get rid of the negativity. If they are people that aren't vital to your life boot 'em out, delete them from your Facebook and smile when you see them at the mall rockin' your size smaller jeans. If they are friends you love and don't want to delete from your life, avoid talking about your progress with them, just go on like everything is normal, because hearing the negativity will eventually bring you down and you do not want that when doing something like conquering a weight problem. Keep the ones that support you super close. I am lucky, my best friend in the entire world is my number one supporter (and I am hers, she's gone from a size 22 to a 12 in like the last two years) and last night when I was having a rough night she texted me and told me I was beautiful. Surround yourself with people like my best friend, because with people who love us for who we truly are and support us no matter what we can take whatever the world throws at us.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Getting Started
Hey guys! Sorry it's been a couple of days since my last post, I've had some family issues going on but I promise I will try my best to post daily, I know y'all miss my neurotic rantings when i don't post. So I mentioned in my previous blog I would explain why my weight loss in the beginning was super slow. It's an easy answer I started out gradually.
Starting out slow is I think the best way to do it. I remember when I decided to hit the gym I needed tennis shoes and work out clothes, cause I had none of neither, and I didn't run out and buy 50 dollar shoes and expensive workout clothes. I got my shoes for 9 bucks at walmart and one work out outfit at the dollar store cause it was on sale. The last thing I wanted to do was spend lots of money and not keep up with the gym. I also did not change my diet at all. I kept eating crap, like a huge quesidilla then going to the gym and trying to run, worst work out ever.
Starting of slow was important, at first the goal was 3 miles on the elliptical in an hour, then a month later it was 3 miles in an hour doing intervals, then four miles, now i run five in an hour and run for two hours a day. If I had started with unrealistic goals I would not be where I am today.
My whole philosophy in losing weight is change one thing, I don't care if you weigh 500 lbs and can't exercise, or have bad knees, or anything, just change one thing. Give up sodas, or don't eat bread at dinner, or give up candy five days out of the week. Walk to your mail box, walk your dog around the block anything. I promise you will see a change, not day one, or two maybe not till day 20, but you will see a change and those changes will become addicting. Like me it took me like four months to lose the first 20 pounds and go down a pants size, and I knew then I wanted more, so changed my diet, pretty radically and I was okay with it. Am I perfect when it comes to my diet, no because it's not a diet, I re-taught myself how to eat and if you are morbidly obese and want to get it off and keep it off you will also have to re-teach your self somethings.
So start off slow, but don't ever stop. Keep going to the gym or the park with your dogs. If I can do it anyone can, because trust me I'm a very average person just trying to accomplish a goal like you are! Thanks guys! :)
Starting out slow is I think the best way to do it. I remember when I decided to hit the gym I needed tennis shoes and work out clothes, cause I had none of neither, and I didn't run out and buy 50 dollar shoes and expensive workout clothes. I got my shoes for 9 bucks at walmart and one work out outfit at the dollar store cause it was on sale. The last thing I wanted to do was spend lots of money and not keep up with the gym. I also did not change my diet at all. I kept eating crap, like a huge quesidilla then going to the gym and trying to run, worst work out ever.
Starting of slow was important, at first the goal was 3 miles on the elliptical in an hour, then a month later it was 3 miles in an hour doing intervals, then four miles, now i run five in an hour and run for two hours a day. If I had started with unrealistic goals I would not be where I am today.
My whole philosophy in losing weight is change one thing, I don't care if you weigh 500 lbs and can't exercise, or have bad knees, or anything, just change one thing. Give up sodas, or don't eat bread at dinner, or give up candy five days out of the week. Walk to your mail box, walk your dog around the block anything. I promise you will see a change, not day one, or two maybe not till day 20, but you will see a change and those changes will become addicting. Like me it took me like four months to lose the first 20 pounds and go down a pants size, and I knew then I wanted more, so changed my diet, pretty radically and I was okay with it. Am I perfect when it comes to my diet, no because it's not a diet, I re-taught myself how to eat and if you are morbidly obese and want to get it off and keep it off you will also have to re-teach your self somethings.
So start off slow, but don't ever stop. Keep going to the gym or the park with your dogs. If I can do it anyone can, because trust me I'm a very average person just trying to accomplish a goal like you are! Thanks guys! :)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Stress and The Scale
Something y'all may not know about me is I am a biologist. So when I hear something that pertains to the body I typically understand it. This makes losing weight a little easier for me, not much mind you, but a little bit. So stress, stress is a bad, bad thing, but no one can ever be stress free. For sure not me, a college student with several jobs and a sick mom, so stress is a part of my life. Unfortunately stress does raise cortisol levels and cortisol is a steroid hormone that is released in response to low blood sugar (skipping meals) and stress. All cortisol does is try to increase blood sugar, and it tells your body "hey we are starving when we do get food store it as fat" because fat is a quick easy energy storage device in the body. This is a great hormone if your a nomadic person with weeks between meals, however most of us are fairly seditory whose next meal is a drive-thru away. All that being said our stress in our lives is very real and when you are trying to lose weight it is something we have to deal with.
Here is a plus, exercising produces serotonin this is an amazing stress reliever and this will help lower your cortisol levels, but what happens when the exercising is causing the stress. For me it is the scale, now in the beginning of my journey I weighed myself before I started working out and then did it once every three months. In the beginning my weight loss was suuuuuuupppppeeerrrr sloooooow, I will explain why in a later post. So when i saw that first 20 pounds i was so happy. However this summer I started going hard to the gym, and I started weighing my self more, like once a week more and this is bad. Your body weight fluctuates sooooo much. Weighing once a week is insanity don't do it, learn from my mistakes. Weigh in once every two weeks or even better once a month. Or don't weigh in at all, let your doctor do your weighing at your regular check up, just workout and enjoy the shrinking inches and dropping pants sizes. Don't let the scale stress you out, there is so much real stress in your life there is no need to add to it. You will be happier for it I promise!
Here is a plus, exercising produces serotonin this is an amazing stress reliever and this will help lower your cortisol levels, but what happens when the exercising is causing the stress. For me it is the scale, now in the beginning of my journey I weighed myself before I started working out and then did it once every three months. In the beginning my weight loss was suuuuuuupppppeeerrrr sloooooow, I will explain why in a later post. So when i saw that first 20 pounds i was so happy. However this summer I started going hard to the gym, and I started weighing my self more, like once a week more and this is bad. Your body weight fluctuates sooooo much. Weighing once a week is insanity don't do it, learn from my mistakes. Weigh in once every two weeks or even better once a month. Or don't weigh in at all, let your doctor do your weighing at your regular check up, just workout and enjoy the shrinking inches and dropping pants sizes. Don't let the scale stress you out, there is so much real stress in your life there is no need to add to it. You will be happier for it I promise!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Holidays and Guilt
Yesterday was Labor Day! Yay! Everyone enjoy the last holiday of summer? I know I did, but for me a holiday meant the gym wasn't open (I utilize my campus gym so it's closed when the university is closed) so this meant light work out day. I work out 6 -7 days a week, missing one day for Labor day is not going to set back my goals at all. It's actually probably good for my body to have a rest day but it doesn't stop me from freaking out.
I have LOTS of personality flaws and probably the main one is I am a neurotic worry-wort. I over analyze, and i am just generally too cerebral for my own good. So for me missing a work out starts this chain reaction of thoughts, "oh my god, what did i eat today? I'm gonna put on a pound I know it and if i put on a pound I'm gonna put on ten." So I have had to learn how to deal with those thoughts.
First, I am not on The Biggest Loser, this is not a competition, i will not die if i only lose 2 pounds one week instead of 3.6 (my average weekly loss during the summer). Second, this is the real world, life gets in the way sometimes and I can't make it to the gym everyday, some days i NEED to sleep past 5:00am and I don't have time for my full four hour work out. Third, some days my body just won't do it, it will not run all the miles i want it too, or lift all the weight i want it too. I have to listen to my body, or i might end up with an injury that will put me out of the gym for a long time.
So this is kind of my guidelines for not freaking out. If I miss a day at the gym it's okay, even two as long as I'm there five days I will lose weight, and if I have a bad week where i feel i didn't work out enough i go hard the next week, but i don't punish myself, i push myself. If I'm missing 3 0r 4 days then I'm making excuses, because unless my appendix ruptures there is no reason in the world to miss four days at the gym, and i need to get back on my routine.
Not everyone can spend 6-7days a week in the gym for four hours a day. I'm lucky, i took the summer off of school and this fall semester also (family reasons, but it does allow me more gym time) so I feel like i don't want to waste this opportunity, and i want to try and get as fit as possible, but even when i go back to my full time schedule and my three jobs (only have two right now) I can still find 2 hours a day to be in the gym. I'm a girl whose body likes to be fat, I have to work harder to maintain a healthy weight, that's life and that's okay. I just need to not worry about it so much! I hope everyone had a great holiday and bring on the fall!!!
Abbreviated work out : So I should have gone to the track and ran with my best friend, she called, but my thighs were so sore (I've started the evil StairMaster at the gym and ugh talk about PAIN) so no running, i jumped rope for 20 min, did my ab workout and did some kettle bell work, kettle bell is amazing it's a mixture of cardio and resistance and i LOVE IT!. In the future I'll post some links to some YouTube videos i watch for kettle bell exercises.
I have LOTS of personality flaws and probably the main one is I am a neurotic worry-wort. I over analyze, and i am just generally too cerebral for my own good. So for me missing a work out starts this chain reaction of thoughts, "oh my god, what did i eat today? I'm gonna put on a pound I know it and if i put on a pound I'm gonna put on ten." So I have had to learn how to deal with those thoughts.
First, I am not on The Biggest Loser, this is not a competition, i will not die if i only lose 2 pounds one week instead of 3.6 (my average weekly loss during the summer). Second, this is the real world, life gets in the way sometimes and I can't make it to the gym everyday, some days i NEED to sleep past 5:00am and I don't have time for my full four hour work out. Third, some days my body just won't do it, it will not run all the miles i want it too, or lift all the weight i want it too. I have to listen to my body, or i might end up with an injury that will put me out of the gym for a long time.
So this is kind of my guidelines for not freaking out. If I miss a day at the gym it's okay, even two as long as I'm there five days I will lose weight, and if I have a bad week where i feel i didn't work out enough i go hard the next week, but i don't punish myself, i push myself. If I'm missing 3 0r 4 days then I'm making excuses, because unless my appendix ruptures there is no reason in the world to miss four days at the gym, and i need to get back on my routine.
Not everyone can spend 6-7days a week in the gym for four hours a day. I'm lucky, i took the summer off of school and this fall semester also (family reasons, but it does allow me more gym time) so I feel like i don't want to waste this opportunity, and i want to try and get as fit as possible, but even when i go back to my full time schedule and my three jobs (only have two right now) I can still find 2 hours a day to be in the gym. I'm a girl whose body likes to be fat, I have to work harder to maintain a healthy weight, that's life and that's okay. I just need to not worry about it so much! I hope everyone had a great holiday and bring on the fall!!!
Abbreviated work out : So I should have gone to the track and ran with my best friend, she called, but my thighs were so sore (I've started the evil StairMaster at the gym and ugh talk about PAIN) so no running, i jumped rope for 20 min, did my ab workout and did some kettle bell work, kettle bell is amazing it's a mixture of cardio and resistance and i LOVE IT!. In the future I'll post some links to some YouTube videos i watch for kettle bell exercises.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Dating and New Challenges
So being thinner opens up all kinds of new doors (now that I can actually FIT through a door mind you). One of those is active dating. Now i dated when I was bigger, had men that loved me and that I loved, heck I almost got married, but dating when you're really big is different than when you date thinner. I think really big girls are sure of two things when we date, one lots of guys will sleep with us but not take us out in public and two if they do take us out in public this means he REALLY likes us.
Now I'm not skinny yet, don't get me wrong, but I am becoming what my mom lovingly calls more "normal sized" (the average pants size in the United States for a woman is a 14, i am currently a 16 go me!) and more men are attracted to me. Great! Right? Maybe? um hmmm.. I'm not so sure. Dating now is WAY more confusing than it has ever been in my life.
Now I go out on a really great first date (or dozens) and I think "wow we are totally hitting it off, we're out in public (400 pound girl train of thought) he must like me" and then I don't sleep with him and he never calls again, I'm left thinking "wait we had dinner, a walk on the beach, a great kiss, whats wrong here?" I'm learning the smaller I get the less up front men are about their motives in seeing me. When I was big, a guy would be like "hey I wanna have sex with you but no I can't take you around my friends" now they take me around their friends hoping, I guess, to impress me into bed, and when it doesn't work they don't call (or occasionally it works and then it doesn't last for whatever reason and rarely do they give a freaking reason).
Now I'm confused when I get dumped. Recently a guy I really cared about dumped me, we had been seeing each other awhile (like nine months) but i was convinced he didn't want to be seen in public with me. I never asked, because honestly what big girl wants rejection. Well I get to the size I am now and he leaves me for a girl bigger than me and I'm left confused. Because the only reason a man might not want me is my weight. Right? Wrong, and I'm slowly learning that. Everyone always said beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I gotta say i was kind of convinced that no one would ever REALLY love me at 400 pounds and once I dropped it magically everyone would love me. I was so wrong on both accounts.
So I've learned dating sucks, at any weight, being smaller is not making it any easier. Sure there are more men attracted to me, but not necessarily more good men. So now I guess I gotta kiss even more frogs to find my prince? But goodness frogs are slimy, and here's to hoping my prince is worth all the icky, gooey frogs.
Now I'm not skinny yet, don't get me wrong, but I am becoming what my mom lovingly calls more "normal sized" (the average pants size in the United States for a woman is a 14, i am currently a 16 go me!) and more men are attracted to me. Great! Right? Maybe? um hmmm.. I'm not so sure. Dating now is WAY more confusing than it has ever been in my life.
Now I go out on a really great first date (or dozens) and I think "wow we are totally hitting it off, we're out in public (400 pound girl train of thought) he must like me" and then I don't sleep with him and he never calls again, I'm left thinking "wait we had dinner, a walk on the beach, a great kiss, whats wrong here?" I'm learning the smaller I get the less up front men are about their motives in seeing me. When I was big, a guy would be like "hey I wanna have sex with you but no I can't take you around my friends" now they take me around their friends hoping, I guess, to impress me into bed, and when it doesn't work they don't call (or occasionally it works and then it doesn't last for whatever reason and rarely do they give a freaking reason).
Now I'm confused when I get dumped. Recently a guy I really cared about dumped me, we had been seeing each other awhile (like nine months) but i was convinced he didn't want to be seen in public with me. I never asked, because honestly what big girl wants rejection. Well I get to the size I am now and he leaves me for a girl bigger than me and I'm left confused. Because the only reason a man might not want me is my weight. Right? Wrong, and I'm slowly learning that. Everyone always said beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I gotta say i was kind of convinced that no one would ever REALLY love me at 400 pounds and once I dropped it magically everyone would love me. I was so wrong on both accounts.
So I've learned dating sucks, at any weight, being smaller is not making it any easier. Sure there are more men attracted to me, but not necessarily more good men. So now I guess I gotta kiss even more frogs to find my prince? But goodness frogs are slimy, and here's to hoping my prince is worth all the icky, gooey frogs.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
I have never blogged before, or ever really felt the need to blog, but now i need an outlet. In April of 2010 I decided I was going to change my life, I was 28 years old and I weighed over 400 pounds. I know that right there sounds very sad, but I was never a sad person. I had great friends, boyfriends (not all at once), awesome jobs, in college, active in a sorority, all in all I had no real complaints about life. But then I saw my self in some pictures from a friend's wedding in January of 2010 and I thought "oh wow, when did I get soooo big?" I have been a big girl my entire life, at birth I weighed almost eleven pounds, then i was a chubby child, a chunky pre-pubescent kid, a fat teenager, and now a morbidly obese nearly thirty adult. So when my college opened up a new state of the art gym, and my friend wanted to start going I jumped at the chance, I started going to the gym and I just haven't stopped.
Now here I am a 16 months later, 135 pounds lighter (still need to lose 100 pounds) and I'm loving it. I never realized what i was missing out on weighing over 400 pounds, the simple things like going hiking or even just walking around the mall without my feet hurting. Or being able to fit in movie theatre seats or not needing extenders for airplane belts.
So this blog is going to be about the journey through the next 100 pounds, i know it's going to be a lot harder than the first 135 pounds, but I'm up for the challenge. I'm hoping this will become a forum of sorts, so i don't completely drive my loved ones crazy, a place where I can talk about and work through all the problems that come from making such a life altering change. So if your still reading buckle-up because I'm sure it's gonna be an interesting ride!
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