289.4 - Weekly Report

     Oh my... Surprise, surprise... I weighed in this morning at 289.4, much to my surprise losing 2.8 pounds this week. I really didn't think that much would come off after last weekend. I couldn't be happier about this!
     This all being said, I do think some calorie adjustments are in order. My BMR is currentyly 2,092 calories. This is the amount of calories I would burn if I stayed in bed ALL day. Obviously I do not stay in bed all day so that number is probably greater. Right now my Daily Calorie Target is 1,784 (this is also if I am sedentary, meaning if I stayed in bed all day). Now, I have eaten under this nearly the whole time (my beginning calorie target was over 2,000). Under the advice of my doctor I was consuming 1,500 calories a day, allowing for maximum SAFE weight loss. When everything slowed down I figured that because the 1,500 was given to me at still over 400 pounds that I could safely move that number down to 1,400 and be ok. My body is telling me otherwise. I have never felt so hungry during this journey. My stomach talks to me (growls) nearly all day, and I find that I am craving things I normally wouldn't. I never would have thought that 100 calories would make such a difference. I will be moving back to 1,500 where I felt satisfied. Yes this means that weight loss may be slower, but a growling tummy all the time means I am potentially doing more harm than good. For once in my life I think I can trust my body.

Today I am 170 pounds lighter than I was 10 months ago, I am 29.4 pounds away from losing 200 pounds, 39.4 pounds away from my next goal, and only 89.4 pounds away from my final goal. Today, I am happy!

         An average car tire weighs 20 pounds
        I have lost 8 1/2 car tires!



     Good morning! I am slow at getting an update in, shame on me :( . So my anniversary dates went amazingly. I do have to admit, while I did well the night we went out to dinner, I decided that I was in need of a true cheat weekend. Normally on my cheat days, I do not go over my calorie limit and I always log, the cheat consists of a non healthy food and that is about the extent. On a true cheat weekend, I do not log and most likely go over my calorie limit. I have not had one of these since New Year's Eve. I did not suffer any grave consequences as it was only for a day. Saturday and Sunday I ate with reckless abandon and though I am sure I did not eat over my BMR, I am positive that I exceeded my calorie limit and blew the sodium and fats out of the water. Needless to say I do not expect big losses on Friday, just hoping for no gain. I will not be surprised either way. Now that I have it out of my system, I am back on track this week. I will be sharing some new recipes over the next month or so. I am really excited because July's calendar is full of new things for dinner. Here is what we had last night:

Sweet & Sour Pork 335 Calories

     Now, to tell you about my dates.... Friday night we ate at the Outback Steakhouse, it was really good, and I love lobster! My only complaint was their silverware, it was HUGE. I know, silly thing to not like, but I felt a little like Alice In Wonderland. After dinner we went to a place called Boondocks and played miniature golf, I lost LOL. We also hit the arcade area of this place and let me tell you, I don't remember ever having such a good time on a date. We were total kids, played things like ski ball, and air hockey. When we were done there ,it was off to Dairy Queen to have Ice Cream. We took that to a local park (this was like 10 at night). The childish playing continued as we played on the playground. This experience reminded us of the importance of laughter. On Saturday, we attended my family reunion. It was so great to see everyone. Later that night, Daniel and I went to the Drive In and watched a couple of movies. What a great way to close out a great weekend. Daniel must have also enjoyed our time because Sunday morning he says: "What do you think about a date for every year we are married, to celebrate our anniversary."... I love this idea though I must admit that when we get up in the double digits it will be interesting. LOL.
     I guess that will be enough rambling for today, stay tuned for tomorrow, where I will talk about..... something else. LOL  Have a great day yall!

292.2 - Weekly Report

     Well good morning... The good word today is 292.2, I have lost 3 pounds this week. I am kind of surprised because it has not been a stellar week. I must admit that the 5 day challenge was an epic fail this time. Thanks to my non cooperative ankle, I skipped Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. By the time it felt ok on Thursday, I did not want to do it. I know, I know, naughty me! I also struggled with many junk food cravings over the last week. Don't worry it's not as bad as you think. I was able to stave off most of them and stay at least close to my calorie range but I did go over a couple of days and blew the sodium and fat intake on a few. Hence my surprise at a 3 pound loss, oh and bloating on top of that.
     In all my junk food madness, I found some new things to curb the cravings. I will start with what I like to call "Devil's Chips". Special K Cracker Chips are absolutely AHMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I was wanting some potato chips something fierce so I decided to give these a whirl. Almost a mistake, I am super glad that they come in small packages, otherwise I may be unable to stop myself. I paired this little gem with a sour cream dipping sauce made with fat free sour cream and calorie free ranch mix. So for a total of 130 calories I was able to have 30 little pieces of heaven (chips), and some scrumptious dip. This did a wonderful job at curbing the chip craving, however, it did make me crave soda.... Weird, since I don't really care for the stuff anymore. I have decided that I will only buy "Devil's Chips" on the weekends from now on, just to be on the safe side LOL. Another little beauty this week that saved a sweet tooth was Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch, really not as un-healthy as I thought they were. Of course a little high in sugar, I really could have done worse. This is the first time in my whole journey that I have craved things so badly, and junk at that! So considering what could have been, I am pretty pleased with myself.
     Yesterday was my 4 year wedding anniversary, and we have made some plans for this weekend. I am excited because due to finances we have never really done anything aside from going out to dinner. This year our anniversary is being celebrated over 3 days. Yesterday, was just a really sweet day at home. I decorated the car and snuck a card inside of Daniel's lunch box. He made me the sweetest card. Last night we watched movies in our room. Tonight we are going to the Outback Steakhouse where I will have lobster for the first time. I did my research ahead of time to see how many calories I would need to make room for. I decided on the Fillet & Lobster Tail with Grilled Asparagus and Loaded Baked Potato.... It is a special occasion so I am splurging a little. The calories in this meal are huge, a little over 1,000. I have decided that I will only eat half of the meal (probably all I can fit anyway lol) and get out of there for a little over 500. After dinner we are going to play miniature golf and air hockey. Not the most romantic date, but SUPER fun I think. I am looking forward to it. Saturday we have a family reunion to attend during the day and then the oldest is staying with my mom and the youngest will go to Daniel's mom's. We are going to the drive in movies. Again, very excited. The best part.....Coming home to an EMPTY house!
     So my goals for this week are as follows:
-     Get back with the program and exercise 5 days
-     Drink 8 glasses of water
-     Stay on calorie target and not go over (target may be changing, will explain in another post)
-     Clean out the closets (not diet related, but needs to be done lol)

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND EVERYONE


New Recipes And Recipe Pictures Added Today As Well

Favorite Recipes & Snacks

   

A Different Perspective

     Well hello my friends, I am very sorry for my absence the last little while. Father's Day activities have kept me pretty busy over the weekend, and then of course came the Monday clean up ha ha! It was a great weekend, starting with a fishing trip up to Deer Creek Reservoir. The fishing was not great, but I did manage to catch our only fish of the day! We also found our camp site for our camping trip in August. It was hot but a lot of fun!
    



I made Daniel hold it because I didn't have my gloves on LOL!
Too small to keep but still fun to catch!

     So, getting to the real point of this post "A Different Perspective", On Fridays we do our weekly trip to the grocery store and as we were getting home with our goods, I found myself thinking a familiar thought, and wanted to share it. We live up a pretty decent flight of stairs which always makes bringing anything home a lot of fun. (sarcasm noted). Knowing this and what a pain it is we carry up as much as we can handle to avoid making too many trips. As I was carryng up my first load I was really feeling it. Now, normally people don't think of 20-25 pounds as a whole lot, but I must say, it was really difficult to carry up those stairs. My back hurt, my knees, my calves were burning, you get the picture. Then I got to thinking, I used to carry around 8 times that ALL THE TIME. I honestly don't know how I did it! For anyone who has never been extremely over weight, or anyone who wonders what it would feel like, or needs to remember, pick up a 20 pound bag of flour and carry it around for a little while. That should give you a good idea or a good reminder of where you don't want to be or be again.

     I am going to participate again this week in the 5 day work out challenge, though I am getting a late start because I over did it this weekend and my ankle is again protesting. I am going to try  tonight and hope I don't fall over LOL. Of course, that may be good entertainment! I am also going to continue with the same goals as last week. On a side note, I have been hearing a lot about fluctuaing your calorie intake. It is supposed to help when you are heading towards a plateu, by shaking things up with the metabolism. I have been giving this some thought and may try 2 weeks 1400 and then 1  1500 (repeating process), just to see what happens. This means that I have last week and this week at 1400 and next week I will try 1500. If I decide to do it (trying to gather courage for experiment) :)

I hope you all are having a great week so far, I will check back in soon!

295.2 - Weekly Report.... Back In The Game!

     Well, I did it, I stuck to all of my goals that I set last week, and it paid off. I lost 3 pounds this week and am back to being happy about it. Funny how a 1.4 pound difference (from last week) can be such a big deal in my head, but it is.
     My 5 day Zumba challenge is going well and today will complete 5 days, then I get a rest. Thank heaven because I am sore! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be though, taking the initiative was the hardest part. Day 4 was weird because my muscles were the sorest they had been all week but, I had more vigor in my routine. I am definitely feeling it this morning. It feels good!! Tomorrow I will be going on a fishing trip with Daniel (big surprise lol) but we are going somewhere new and there is supposed to be a bit of hiking involved. I pray that my tired muscles won't protest ha ha. This 5 day work out challenge was amazing and I am going to continue it, thank you for the inspiration spunkysuzi ! Anybody else wanna take the challenge?
     The illusive picture (for my measurements) is coming I swear... Excuses, excuses, I know, but I can not locate my tripod so I will need Daniel to take them for me. It will be up this weekend, I must not chicken out! In the meantime, I did find this cool website where you can create a virtual you, it is kind of funny. Other than taking in account for saggy skin it is pretty accurate. It also helped me to put into perspective that I am no longer the girl who started this journey, often times in my minds eye I still see her.

Current                                Goal
My Virtual Model

Like I said, other than putting into account my loose skin, pretty accurate, and fun to create. I wish that I had saved the site because now I can not remember where exactly I got it. If you type in Virtual Weight Loss, there are several different places you can do your own.

Have A Great Weekend Everyone!!

   

Eyes On The Prize

     I have been working really hard this week to achieve the goals I set for myself last Friday. I am happy to report that so far, I have succeeded in keeping my calories around 1400 (100 less than I normally eat), drinking at least 64 oz of water per day, and am 2 for 2 on Zumba days. A fellow blogger had set a personal challenge to achieve 5 days of physical activity and I thought that was a good idea. I was only doing 2-3 days of Zumba before so it is going to take a little positive self talk, but I can do it. Will all of these changes be enough to shake up my metabolism and see bigger results?? I hope so, tune in on Friday to find out.
     Although last Friday found me a little less than ecstatic, I do have good news to report, I have lost several inches over the last month! After all the great comments I received about weather or not to post a pic of myself to illustrate my measurements, I have decided, in the interest of staying true to why I started blogging, I am going to do it! The pics should be on my measurements page by tomorrow, provided that I do not get too busy (i.e. distracted :) ). Anyway, here are the comparisons from last month:

                          Last Month                          This Month


Neck                             17.25 inches                   16.5 inches                 lost     .75 inches
Bust                                51.5 inches                   49.5 inches                 lost        2 inches
Under Bust                    47.5 inches                  46.25 inches                 lost   1.25 inches
Waist                            52.25 inches                  50.25 inches                 lost        2 inches
Hips                                   61 inches                       58 inches                 lost        3 inches
R. Bicep                             16 inches                13.875 inches                 lost 2.125 inches
L. Bicep                             16 inches                       14 inches                lost        2 inches
R. Forearm                   11.75 inches                      11 inches                 lost    .75 inches
L. Forearm                     11.5 inches                      11 inches                 lost      .5 inches
R. Wrist                          7.11 inches                 6.125 inches                 lost  .985 inches
L. Wrist                          7.11 inches                        7 inches                 lost    .11 inches
R. Thigh                       24.25 inches                   23.5 inches                lost    .75 inches
L. Thigh                         24.5 inches                      24 inches                lost     .5 inches
R. Calf                            18.5 inches                   17.5 inches              lost       1 inches
L. Calf                             18.5 inches                17.75 inches            lost    .75 inches
R. Ankle                          10.5 inches                10.25 inches            lost     .25 inches
L. Ankle (Swollen)         10.5 inches                   10.5 inches             lost        0 inches
                                                                                                   TOTAL   18.72 INCHES

     So there you have it, even though the numbers have slowed, the inches are falling, and that makes me smile!!

Handy Tools I Can't Live Without

     Ok, so I am not sure what made me feel like I needed to share this, but I do, so here I am. My weight loss has not been without the help of some very handy tools, and honestly I could not do it without them.

    First, I take you to the kitchen. Now here we have all of my measuring tools. Calorie counting is impossible without them. I HIGHLY suggest a digital scale, it has been by far the most accurate way to measure my food. I tried to use a non digital one first as they are cheaper, but I noticed that it was not very accurate when weighing really light things (think pasta, and salad). Anyway, a good digital scale will give you weight in many formats (ounces, grams, pounds, etc.) It is however, not the most convenient tool if you are not at home, or if you are measuring loose things like spices. Therefore I have the liquid and dry measuring cups (no heaping cups are not a sign of accurate measuring :) ). You may be wondering why I have so many measuring cups and only 1 measuring spoon, if not, I am going to tell you anyway LOL... Well that is because I use this for condiments, most condiment serving sizes are done by the TBSP. I recommend a few sets of these because you go through them quickly. (I don't like washing dishes all day and learned that real fast)

Here we have some of my favorite kitchen gadgets (some are not pictured because they would have been a big hassle to get out, don't worry, I'll fill you in). I could not live without my air popper... I absolutely love me some pop corn but the microwave variety is so high in calories and doesn't taste near as good. You don't get as much for the calories either. There are sprays and such that you can buy that are low or no calorie to put on it making it a great treat, high in fiber too. For me, I splurge on the topping and use Popping and Topping Oil from Orville Redenbacher. It is a little high in calories, but so worth it, and still less than microwave pop corn. Moving on, the cutting board and knife are pretty self explanatory, when you are calorie restricted you eat a lot of fresh food from produce to meat, you need to be able to cut them. The apple corer is fantastic, it slices and cores those yummy apples. Now for the not pictured items... George Foreman grill & BBQ grill. This is the healthiest way to cook most meats. I use the foreman on days that I can't grill outside. Did you know that with beef especially, you can almost double the calories by cooking it in the pan. When you grill it, a lot of the fat drips off of it, saving calories. I almost fell on the floor when I learned this. My rice cooker is another fav go to, I can perfectly cook a batch of rice and steam my veggies all at the same time. It comes out perfect every time, I will never eat minute rice again.

     Last but not least my other devices I could not live without... First my scale, for my weekly weigh in of course! A good trusty measuring tape. I wish I had used this all along so I could say exactly how many inches I had lost, but last month was the first time that I had any desire to do so (doing monthly from now on). The next 4 items kind of go together Zumba DVDs (not pictured because I don't need any trouble with the folks over at Zumba), my Zumba toning sticks, jazz shoes (this makes doing the workout so much easier, it is hard to move the way they want me to on carpet without them), and lastly... water, it is absolutely essential to good health and hydration. Your body will thank you for it, mine does! It has also been proven that, often times thirst is mistaken for hunger. I didn't really buy that when I heard it, so I tried it. It is true as far as I can tell. Next time you are feeling hungry and don't really have a reason to be (i.e. you just ate not too long ago) try it and see how it works for you.

     I hope at least some of this information helps, I will try to get it on to a separate page soon for quick reference. I hope you all have a fabulous week!