Caloric Intake

This morning as I was sitting in traffic during my commute into work, my mind was wandering and I started trying to figure out why the scale had been mean to me this week.  I tracked all of my food and tracked it honestly.  I worked out three days on the elliptical. And yet, I was up a half a pound on Monday, and two pounds as of this morning.

I ran my week thru my brain over and over trying to figure out what the deal was and what I could do to fix it.  I knew I went over calories a few days, but it wasn't by much and the days I worked out I was under calories.  In my head that broke even.  But I figured I should probably check the numbers to see if that might be my problem. 

Here is the last 10 over/under:

3/4: -185
3/5: +374
3/6: +437
3/7: +237
3/8: -383
3/9: -72
3/10: -571
3/11: -31
3/12: +248
3/13: +61
3/14: -897

Total:  -782

Yea. So. Makes sense now, don't it?

Granted, yesterday's emotional random binge didn't help the situation.  I would have been +115 if I had been a good girl yesterday.

So maybe that's not my problem after all?

Regardless, it's not good what I am doing.

This is what I miss most about Weight Watchers: Weekly Points Allowance. 

After looking at all of this, I have decided to start keeping track of my over/under.  I need to keep it as close to 0 as possible.  That's my new goal.  I don't need to be under calories every day, and some days I can go over, but as long as in the end, I still break even, we are all good in the neighborhood.

And on a completely unrelated note....This happened:

It is so amazing to me. I can't believe it. I look like that in a bikini. I don't hate it. I'm not embarrassed. I don't feel the need to cover anything up.  Hard to believe that in 2007 I was that chubby girl...and I got bigger than that before I realized the error of my ways! And now, here I am, bikini ready for a vacation in 15 days. And the best part about all of this? This body ain't going no where. I didn't do all of this work the last 5 years just to go back to that girl. I refuse, flat out refuse, to be her again.  I will NOT be one of those people who lose all the weight just to put it back on again. My health and my body are too important to me.  I love myself like this and will do whatever it takes to keep it this way! :)

Well darlings, I hope you have a fabulous weekend. I know there are a BUNCH of races this weekend and to be honest I'm a little sad to not be running one of them. (I don't fully miss running yet...maybe I will soon.)  Good luck to you all!

XOXO

Monday Madness

After a lovely weekend, I have plenty to download.  Enjoy the random bullet points of thought going through my brain this morning...

• I am SO sore from the core work I did on Friday. It was the good sore on Saturday. Today it is an annoying sore. I did core work...why the eff do my inner thighs and shoulder blades hurt like a mo fo?
• Saturday night I went to a going away party for a college friend.  It was at a bar. Like the noisy, meat market, country music karaoke in between dance songs kind of bar. I haven't been to one in years. All 20 of our classmates were invited and only 3 showed up. I'm mildly disappointed in them. We all claimed to be there for each other and never lose touch but here it is, two months later and people can't be bothered to some say farewell to a dear friend. Anyway, I had 2 drinks total and danced like I did in my early 20s. It was a blast! Now that I think about it, that's likely why my inner thighs hurt. Dancing like that in 5 inch heels...um, yea. I got home at 2 am. It was delightful, but I am too old for that crap.
• Vacation is just 5 weeks away.  I'm dying of excitement. I want to get out of town so badly! (I know the pic says 4 weeks...but I messed up..and corrected it...but was too lazy to take another picture.)

• I've started weighing myself twice a week. Monday's and Thursday's.  Reason: I forget all my goals on Saturday and Sunday and am super focused during the week.  By Thursday the scale shows a beautiful number and on Monday is it up from there.  Which is why I am floating in between 152 and 150 each week, but never going below 150. That being said, I can see changes in the shape of my body from the elliptical work I have been doing, so I am okay with it.  Still....I want to be below 150 if I am putting on a swimsuit. Especially a bikini.
• So a good friend's sister whom I have known her whole life has decided to start losing weight. She signed up for a gym and MyFitnessPal, which is great. But that's where the greatness stops.  She has lost 19lbs in 2 weeks. She eats 100 calories a day, and burns over 800.  I have sent her several notes telling her to slow down, focus on being healthy, and work on a plan that is maintainable not a crash diet. She told me that since she takes several vitamins a day what she is doing is completely healthy, and she is in nursing school so she knows this as fact. I told her "Well, its your body, destroy it if you want to. But you will never maintain your goals with that approach." I was then immediately blocked on FB and MFP.  Which makes me laugh. SO mature. Whatever. I know her well enough to know that this is just a phase she is going through.  Just like her jewelry making "business" and "equestrian training" she will get bored and quit. Which is sad because she is obese and does need to lose weight, it is good because what she is doing is even more unhealthy than being large (in my opinion). 
• On Friday I will post about my #FoodiePenPals experience. I'm going to start drafting that blog tomorrow as it won't be polite and it will take several edits to remove the Bitch-factor.
• I love Trader Joe's. Like LOVE.  We went for the first time last Sunday, and again yesterday. I have their pre-made salads for lunch all this week, plus lots of other goodies for dinner.
• This weeks menu:
• Monday: Shrimp salad for lunch. Broccoli Beef with brown rice for dinner. (Elliptical)
• Tuesday: Santa Fe salad for lunch. Grilled chicken with Cheese Tortellini & tomato sauce for dinner. (Elliptical)
• Wednesday: Lunch will be fruit with yogurt & hard boiled eggs. Taking the Man to my favorite Lebanese restaurant for dinner. (This will be my splurge meal of the week.)
• Thursday: Greek salad for lunch.  Spinach, feta, and red pepper stuffed flank steaks with roasted potatoes for dinner. (Elliptical)
• Friday: Another salad for lunch (forgot what flavor). Leftovers for dinner. (Elliptical)
• Saturday: Late lunch/early dinner at fave BBQ restaurant followed by shoe shopping. (Elliptical)
• Sunday: Corned Beef & Cabbage in the crock pot.
• Speaking of the elliptical.  I need a nag buddy. I got on it Monday, Wednesday & Thursday last week. Meant to get on it Friday...did ab work instead. Said I would do it Saturday and didn't.  Promised I would do it Sunday and didn't. I'm a liar. This week I WILL haul my ass up there 4 days. I should really do the ab video that I found on Friday too.

Have a great week everyone!  XOXOX

Thursday Things

I have a bunch of random crap in my head that I need somewhere do dump...so here it is...

• Been tracking on MyFitnessPal the last few weeks, and while I love the program and am doing great at tracking, I'm not doing so good at staying within my calories for the day.  I put myself at wanting to lose a half a pound a week because that feels like a good amount for me as I am okay with what I weigh now and am in no hurry or dire need to get the few pounds I put on last year back off.  I liked how on WW I had "Weeklies" to use when I go over my daily allotment.  I wish I had the same on MFP because I go over each day. Some days by a lot, and some days by a little. But it all adds up.
• I'm really irritated at Weight Watchers right now and I don't know if this is still left over random hormonal rage or real annoyance.  I'm only a few ounces away from my Lifetime weight so with minor effort I could get to where it was free for me again and start going back.  But I just don't want to.  I'm not going to detail out why I am mad mostly because it is ridiculous, but also because my rant will hurt some people's feelings. I haven't yet sorted out my anger into a way that is only directed at the company so until I do, I will keep it to myself.  I still love the program, and I know that it works and is an amazing system that I will continue to recommend to everyone who wants to lose weight and get healthy.
• Finally bought an elliptical last night. As my treadmill is in storage, and I have completely lost all interest in running, this seemed like a good way for me to get some activity in. The only problem is that we currently have no room for it in the house where we are living.  Some drastic changes to our living arrangement needs to be made in order for it to fit in our room.  These changes are out of my control as it isn't my house or my crap that is in the way.
• Speaking of living situations...looks like we aren't buying a house any time soon. Nor does it look like the MIL will be moving out any time soon.  While I am disappointed with both scenarios, I understand the reasons and I am coping with the fact that all of this is also out of my control and I just have to have patience.  For right now, I take each day as it comes and deal the best I can.
• My emotions have finally calmed down from the hormonal roller coaster I have been on the last few weeks.  The extreme rage and random tears really freaked me out.  It's nice to have my body & mind back in my control again.  I'm still saddened by the situation, but I've come to terms with it and I feel okay.  The support I received from everyone on Twitter was amazing and that really helped. I can't even begin to explain how much it helped. (Support from the real people in my life? Well that's a different story completely that I won't get into. Some of them were fantastic..and others behaved "par for the course"). Today marks 2 weeks from my hospital visit. In 2 months we can try again. Not that we tried before. I've cut myself off from margaritas until then, just to be safe.
• I have a serious shoe crush right now. It's bad. I can't stop thinking about them, but I am too cheap to actually buy them.  I have hated boat shoes for years and years because I have this irrational feeling that unless you own a boat they are silly.  But then I realized I own ballet flats, but don't do ballet. Plus I need a sturdy pair of flats that are cute, pair with socks, and aren't boring.  They come in other colors. Right now, I love the white, but I would also like the pink, silver, and purple

• I've been spending money like crazy lately so I need to hold back on silly purchases like glittery shoes for a while. Well, at least until the check clears from paying off my credit card that we used on vacation.
• I have changed my address with every place that has it, and yet mail still goes to the old house. Yesterday I emailed 2 people confirming the new address. I resisted the urge to type "For the SECOND TIME, here is my new address...".  I feel like a lot of things are getting lost in the mail and it is stressing me out. We used to get a ton of mail at the old house and now we get like one or two things every other day. That can't be right.
• I should post more often with random bullet points of crap in my brain. Mostly because it feels nice, but also so that I have less to dump on my few readers. Likely no one has even gotten this far into my rambling, so I guess it doesn't matter.  I post here for me anyway.
• I can't remember what else I had to bitch about.  I guess that's a good thing!

xoxo

30 days later...

Well, my month of My Fitness Pal is officially over.  I stuck with it and only missed a few days of tracking. 

I have to say, the first week was really tough. I struggled a lot with being hungry.  After the first week, it got easier and by the end of the month, hunger was barely an issue.

I missed eating "free" fruits and veggies quite a bit. One big lesson I learned during this month was that I eat WAY too much fruit. I was eating about 600 calories a day of just fruit/veggies alone. I used to say all the time that no one ever got fat from eating bananas, but as it turns out...I was on my way to doing just that!

Another thing that I learned was that I wasn't tracking honestly on WW. A long time ago I chose to not track my daily coffee w/cream as well as my alcohol consumption. I also didn't track my activity and in my head these two balanced each other out. Turns out that wasn't happening at all. After eating 600 extra calories of fruit, I was drinking an average of 400 calories a night in beer/wine.  (Disclaimer: I didn't drink EVERY night...but when I did drink...I DRANK. Hence why I said "average".) 

I liked that this challenge got me back to weighing and measuring everything I ate. I really was slacking with that the last year. I also liked that my calories burned for each day were cashed in immediately for food. That saved me a lot of times when I would want to eat something or not want to work out.  Granted, I didn't work out every day, but I did increase my level of activity quite a bit.

So...How did I do?

3-Apr: 152.0 (Starting weight)

10-Apr: 150.4 = -1.6

17-Apr: 149.2 = -1.2

24-Apr: 148.8 = -0.4

1-May: 149.4 = +0.6

8-May: 147.8 = -1.6

Overall, 4.2lbs lost!  I will take that! 

This is the lowest I have weighed since July. I am about 6lbs away from my ideal weight which I was at exactly a year ago from today.

I have decided to stick with MFP for awhile longer.  I really like it and it is working for me right now.

I hope all of my WW friends understand that this decision has NOTHING to do with WW. I love, love, LOVE WW and always will. The program works and is amazing. WW changed my life. I lost 68 lbs on WW (well,technically 58 since I gained 10lbs back), and will continue to go to meetings and do my monthly Lifetime check ins.

Does this make sense?

My birthday is at the end of this month and I am running my 2nd 10k that morning to celebrate. I'm super excited. I need to plan an outfit to make it known that it's my birthday! (Can I attach birthday balloons to myself?)

Please, if you read my blog and like it...nag me to post more often. This once a month crap is silly.

xoxox

Mixing it up a bit...

My super husband has been using MyFitnessPal for the last few months to track what he is eating. He has lost nearly 30 lbs and I am SO proud of him. He is about 15 lbs away from his goal and working really hard to get there.

Naturally with me being an avid Weight Watcher and him doing his thing (which is cool, not all plans work for everyone) there have been some bumps along the way.

For example, over the weekend we had the following conversation:

Man: I have 784 calories left for the day, what can I have for dinner?
Me: I have no idea. I don't think in calories, I think in PointsPlus.
Man: Okay, well how many calories are in a PointsPlus.
Me: I have no idea. Weight Watchers doesn't use calories to calculate PointsPlus.
Man: Oh...well...that sucks...and is really not helpful for planning meals.
Me: Tell me about it.

This got me thinking. 

The Man and I speak a different language when it comes to our 'diets' and that kindof stinks. 

Also, I have been in a rut for the last few months with my weight. I am still under goal, but I have been struggling to lose my 8 lb "buffer zone" I had created for myself that I gained last May.

I have been struggling with motivation to lose the extra pounds and have been only able to maintain my focus for about 3 days before I dive head first into a vat of frozen yogurt.

Thinking about all this helped me to decide to give MyFitnessPal a try.  I talked to the Man about it and we agreed that maybe a month of tracking calories would go me some good. 

Not to say Weight Watchers isn't amazing and that I will turn my back on it. That won't happen AT ALL! 

I just need something new and different to get me to where I want to be. Plus it will be a nice challenge to put myself in the Man's shoes for a while. I will gain some perspective on the value of a calorie and maybe I will discover that I do in fact eat WAY to much fruit.

Day 1 of MFP is almost complete and I can tell already that it will be a challenge. I had to log out of Weight Watchers entirely because I was comparing them. (I consumed 2/3 of my calories for the day by lunch, but had only eaten 9 Pt+...that was a BIG blow.)

(If you are on MFP, come find me! My user name is SuperRizzle.)

I will let you know in a month how things went...

...Oh, and I have my first 10k on Sunday...Totally not prepared...Ugh...