Counting Calories at Week 10…

Still on track, though my weightloss has slowed a bit due to the holidays and all the eating out. I’m happy to say I’m still losing – not GAINING – through this year’s season! I’ve lost enough weight now that a lot of people are coming forward and saying something to me [or to others about me] – people I see every day at work, family members, friends, even people I see periodically, like the girl that does my laser hair removal treatments [underarms – I hate shaving them. My gift to myself!]. Now everyone is asking me ‘what’s your secret!!??” Most people’s face falls when I tell them hard work, exercise and counting calories. A lot of people, at one time myself included, want to hear about a magic pill or diet. But  here are a few that are impressed and inspired when I tell them what I’m doing. It really isn’t hard anymore, it just takes consistent work, but once it becomes part of your life, it’s the same as brushing your teeth before bed or balancing your checkbook – necessary, but also beneficial.

To date, I’ve lost 45 lbs! I’m about halfway to my goal now. I started out at 255lbs. I’m now 210lbs and for some reason, no longer embarrassed to say what my weight actually is. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them my weight now. I’m tall [5’7″] and I do have an athletic frame, so I tend to run heavy anyway. I’d like to get to 170lbs and then decide if I need to lose more or not, but I think that’s a good intial goal to have. That’s what I weighed the end of highschool and I was a size 10. I can probably go lower – 148-155, but I’m not sure I want to go too low with the body fat. I have no desire to look like a skinned rabit, or look 10 years older than I am because there’s no fat left on my face to fill in the ‘cracks’. lol… I’m still taking it one step at a time, one day at a time.

I’m also happy to say that I’m now a real size 14 and my days of shopping at the ‘big girl’ store are behind me. I can buy regular clothes in regular sizes, which has been so much fun. I always thought I hated shopping. Nope. I just hated shopping when nothing looked good on me. Now, it’s dangerous already! I started out at a stretchy 18 – if I was honest with myself at the time, I was probably more like a 20 or a 22, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy anything that went beyond 18, so I’d stuff myself into jeans and I’d have horrendous ‘muffin top’. I was so wrapped up in the numbers. Not anymore. I have a dress I bought last year that’s a size 18 – it finally fits me now and looks great and the size doesn’t bother me. It’s just cut differently from the majority of brands and styles I tend to buy – no biggie. The only problem is, it’s a very lightweight dress that’s more suited to Spring or Summer, so by then it’ll probably be too big and I’ll never get a single use out of it. Unless we go to Florida in the next month or two to visit my mother – then I’ll bring it with me and wear it one night when we go out for dinner.  =)

I’m still using my body bugg – without it, I’d be lost. It really has made the difference for me – a person that had no concept of calories or potion size – or how much I was eating on a daily basis, for that matter. I never wanted to count calories because it never made any sense to me – why count what goes in if you have no idea what you’re burning? Now I know what I’m burning, and it’s made it not only easy, but it motivates me to stick within a certain calorie range so that I stick to a certain calorie burn each day. I shoot to create a calorie deficit of between 1,000-1,250 calories a day. Most days I make it, here and there I don’t, but I always burn more than I consume – even if it’s only by 250 calories.

Now that I’ve been doing this for a while [I started using the body bugg and tracking my calories on 9/27], I also know my body’s cycle, so fluctuations on the scale don’t freak me out. Take today, for instance. I’m about to get my “.” any minute now and I’m up 2lbs from yesterday. I know I’ll hang on to that 2 extra lbs until my “.” is over, and then I’ll drop the 2 lbs over night, and the next day or two I’ll drop 2 more lbs.. My body is funny like that. But it’s okay because overall I’m still losing 1-2lbs per week, which is a good pace for me. In 9 weeks I’ve lost 18 lbs. Woo-hoo! If I can stick to this pace I’l be at my goal weight in the Spring and if I want to keep going, I’ll get to what I call my ‘ultimate weight’ in the summer – in time for our Anniversary in September. The last 2 years we went to Bermuda that week. I’m already dreaming of the cute sundresses and bikinis I’m going to wear next time.  =)

I still have plenty of room for improvement, though. Once the holidays are over I do need to refocus and start getting more of the sugar out of my diet. I live within my calories, but not all calories are equal. My New Year’s resolution will be to clean up my diet and finally ditch the ‘white stuff’ – refined sugar & flour. I still eat a lot of chocolate and I rely on a lot of bars – they’re all natural, but they also have a decent amount of calories and because of that I tend ot eat less fruits and veggies that I otherwise would. I also need to get back to planning my meals better so I maximize my fresh groceries.

I’m still bouncing away on my ball when I watch TV which is both the gift and the curse – it’s a gift because it makes it easy to hit my calorie target for the day, but the curse because it also gives me an out to be lazy and skip a workout BECAUSE I can still hit my target as long as I watch TV on my ball. lol… I need to get back to working out in the mornings again, so that if I feel like skipping an evening workout, it’s not so bad. Or if I feel like just relaxing on the couch or reading, I wont’ miss hitting my target because I hadn’t exercised yet.

Anyway… I know that if I can tweak and tune up my routine, I can increase my weightloss from 1-2lbs per week to 2-3lbs per week, which would be great, but I also think I’ll feel that much better, too. I’m going to be 36 in February – but I feel like I’m going on 16 physically. It’s hard ot believe how old and tired I felt just 2 years ago. I was 34 going on 64 with all my aches and pains, fatigue, shortness of breath when I’d go up some stairs. It was horrible. I could never go back to feeling that way…

The most interesting thing for me now is, when I reach one of my smaller goals – whether it’s hitting a target on the scale, or fitting into an old pair of jeans or a dress, it’s great, but not a big deal. Because I know I’m not stopping here, I’ve got more to do, so if some old piece of clothing fits, but I know I won’t wear it because it’s out of style or not the best quality [because I bought it YEARS ago and it never fit and I always hung onto it hoping it would some day], I just donate it right away and look for the next ‘benchmark’ to shoot for. I’m running out of them, though – I have nothing below a size 12 anymore so once all my old size 12 clothes fit, I’ll have to start buying 10s and 8s to have something to work toward. I actually bought a pair of size 12 jeans last week, and because they have a more than usual amount of stretch to them, they fit me pretty nicely – snug, but not tight. I knew they would because I have the 14s in the same style and they’re already too big in the waste and I have to wear a belt with them. Ironically the black version fo the same jeans in a 14 are still snug – they hardly have any stretch to them, but they’re definitely wearable. If I had a choice, I’d never buy anything stretchy ever again. Not only do they lose their shape too easily, but the also make it too easy to fool yourself into thinking your’e not gaining weight right away. Kind of like not updating your checkbook for a while. You think you’re good until you finally check it and realize you’re broke!

Since my last batch of measurements I’ve lost another 1/2-inch off my chest and off my calves, but the rest are the same. Though my middle is smaller, it isn’t around my waist or hips where I actually measure. It’s almost like the areas above and below my waist are shrinking and tightening up, but I wont’ see a change in my waist measurement until it becomes one, cohesive unit again. lol… I almost don’t have ‘rolls’ anymore and my tummy is ‘this close’ to being flat – still a bit thick, but I’ll take it!

Thoughts: 11.1.09

This is beginning of week 5 for me with the body bugg, and I’m down 11 lbs. It does what it says it does if you track your calories. I’m finally a believer. After dieting and FAILING miserably for so many years, I finally feel like I’m going to do this and make it to my goals. It’s very new, very awesome sensation. lol…

I would have figured I’d get bored with tracking calories, but I haven’t. I actually love knowing how many calories I’m consuming because I love hitting all my daily targets for calorie burning, steps, activity duration, etc. I’m a body bugg-a-holic if there is such a thing. lol

I’ve also discovered a great trick to making sure I burn up all my calories for the day. I love TV and I watch too much of it, but I bought myself a stability ball, and now I bounce on it while I watch TV – it works so well that I know I burn 350 calories while watching 45 minutes of news! If I know we have a lot of shows ot catch up on and will be in front of the TV for 2-3 hours [I know, it’s a lot…], at least now I know I can burn 1,000 calories or more doing it. It doesn’t replace my daily workouts but it does mean I can just do ONE workout a day and then burn off the rest of my calories while watching TV vs. doing 2 workouts a day like I was doing before, which felt like too much. Bouncing isn’t that hard on the body, but working out twice a day can be.

I’m going to try dropping my calories from 1,850 to 1,750 and burning 3,000 a day vs. 2,850 to see if I can increase my weekly weightloss from 2lbs to 2.5lbs. If it’s too much I’ll go back to what I was doing before [1,000 calorie deficit per day instead of 1,250]. By kicking my routine up a notch, the body bugg software claims I’ll reach my goal by April 9th. Which is great because it gives me time to settle into my new size [whatever that ends up being] and gives me time to do a little shopping – we have a few weddings to go to in May. If/when I reach my goal it’ll mean I’ve lost a total of 95lbs. How crazy is that? I’m almost halfway there – I’ve lost 39 lbs so far since I started this journey. I’m still not 100% sure my goal weight of 159 lbs is correct or not, but I weighed 160 at the end of highschool and again when I lost the weight I gained after my first year of college, so my ‘ideal’ weight is probably around that number. I can always reevaluate once I get there if I think I can lose a few more lbs… and if my body stops at 165 or 170 and I look and feel great, I’m fine with that, too.  =)

The best part of counting calories and living this way is, nothing is off limits. I eat mostly healthy, but now and then I can splurge if I plan for it. Last night my husband took me out for a delicious lobster dinner. I had a 1.5 lb lobster and I dunked every piece in butter – I also made sure to let most of it drip off, and in the end I probably ate about a tablespoon total of the butter, which is about 105 calories. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. When we got home I had enough calories left over to have some popcorn while we watched a movie and a few squares of chocolate. That whole thing about some people being able to eat whatever they want is true – as long as it doesn’t mean their taking in more calories than they burn.

I used to think maintaining a big weightloss would be tough, but if you exercise, it really doesn’t need to be. If I’m burning 1,250 calories more than I’m taking in now, to lose the weight, it means I either keep up the activity level and I get to eat a LOT more, or I can eat about the same amount of food and I don’t have to worry about being SO active every day [right now I do about 10,000 steps and get in about an hour and a half of activity per day, at a minimum]. It’ll mean I can take a couple of days off each week and really let my body recover fully before pushing it again.

This whole experience has been such an eye-opener. I know I won’t ever have the same issues with weight gain again. I know I’ll be ready to move on with the rest of my life when I reach my goals. This will be the toughest thing I’ve ever done. But once I figured out what works for me it stopped being an uphill battle, and turned into a happy journey.  =)  I’m enjoying it every step of the way.

In case you’re wondering about the stability ball, this is the one I have. It’s made to withstand 1,200 lbs – it’s made more rugged for weightlifting. I’ll be getting another as we finish off part of our basement as a gym so I can use it in place of a weight bench: Rhino Skin Stability Ball [image courtesy of amazon.com]

Thoughts: 9.27.08

We got back from our vacation in Bermuda Thursday night. It was a great trip – Bermuda is so beautiful. We’ll definitely go back! While there I did a lot of swimming and walking and was happy to see I didn’t gain any weight, despite eating 3 large meals per day and dessert with either lunch or dinner. I did eat better than normal. I generally went for salads or fish if it was on the menu, but one night I did get veal. Yum… I’m a sucker for veal dishes. Not very PC, but I don’t give a crap. I grew up on it with my mother making her weiner schnitzel… and I had it almost every day when we honeymooned in Rome 6 years ago. Ahhh… Rome. I miss Rome. That was the one place I cried about leaving and still feel ‘home sick’ for it now. I told my husband we were retiring in Rome – I wasn’t kidding.  =)  I did gain 10lbs in 10 days when we were there, but I had just finished starving myself for our wedding, so no surprise there. And the food is so good… and I think we drank a bottle of wine every night with dinner, where normally we may have a glass or two per week… but I don’t regret it. 

Anyway… I’m just really happy and feel really good about how I ate while on vacation. Probably the first time ever. I normally go hog wild and then feel like complete and total crap when we get home. Not this time!  =D  I just finished working out, too and feel amazing. I’m glad to be back, though. Back to routine, my yoga room, my food. I realized while on vacation that I really do eat a lot less than I used to. And I normally do wait until I’m hungry before eating… and I’ve gotten better about snacking on fruit and nuts inbetween smaller meals. In Bermuda we didn’t snack, and because I did do a lot of swimming, stair-climbing and walking [I have the blisters to prove it!], I was FAMISHED at meal time, I’d eat too fast and get stuffed a lot quicker than I would have expected… even though I was eating healthier – or making healther vacation meal choices – I could have done with less if we were able to snack more between meals. We know next time to get on the bus, go to St. George’s to the little grocery store on York St. and buy some healthy snacks to keep at the hotel in our little fridge. Live and learn, right? That’s what it’s all about.  =)

I took that photo of Tobacco Bay on our way down from Fort St. Catherine’s as we walked back to town. It didn’t rain, thankfully, but we did get the most amazing dark & stormy sky… just gorgeous. Everything was a picture. I took about 400 in the 6 days we were there. I’ll post more here and there.  =)