New Start and Preparation

The new start date for my first Whole30 is September 1st. It just made more sense to use the entire month, plus I am hoping to go to a wedding in Chehalis, WA on Oct 5th and don't want to end up shocking my stomach with wedding cake. :) 

I'm making a big pot of chicken soup this weekend, along with pre-cooking a bunch of veggies, sides, bacon and a whole roasted chicken to cut up and freeze for salads later.

I also printed the Time Line to help me recognize the phases of the withdrawal from processed foods.

You can look it over here. It's pretty funny: http://whole9life.com/2012/06/the-whole30-timeline/

Whole 30

I'm hopping on the Whole 30 bandwagon beginning September 4th.

I plan to log my meals, some photos and my reactions/progress each day on this very blog.

I have read up on the likely side effects of breaking the addictions that processed foods are known to cause (e.g. headaches, mood swings, initial fatigue) and I'm hoping for a swift passing through all of the stages.

I hope to see a benefit in the form of better sleep, better alertness, weight loss, and a reprogrammed set of taste buds.

I have planned a menu ahead of time and made grocery lists of the items I will need to buy/make for each week.

Beginning stats will be posted the morning of Day 1 along with the day's meal plan and some photos.


If anyone wants to do this with me, I will send you my menu to give you an idea and that you can tailor to your liking and we can call/text/email to keep accountability and encouragement going day to day.

Send me a note if you want to be my accountability buddy! :)
meldamico@gmail.com

Short Round

So dressing room mirrors make no sense. One would think a department store would want their clientele looking at their reflections with amazement at how flattering the garments look in the perfect lighting. Yet, the fluorescent and stark light beams down as harsh as a 13 year old girl pointing out all flaws and magnifying each bump, spot, and blemish beyond the capabilities of even the most skilled at denial.

Today, the mirrors in the fitting room at Kohl's reminded me of my shortcomings. Literally.

I know I'm not even close to average height for my age, but I love to forget... and just feel like my legs go all the way to the ground. Yet, the mirror tells no lies (except that it swears that left is right and right is left)... Also, the stupid mirror made me feel chubby... I really hate that!

All of my changes in eating patterns, every squat, lunge, push-up (albeit, the sissy kind), and every time I said "no, thanks" to cake can't be seen in this evil reflective surface. It's only a matter of time before truth becomes reality, but I will need to push every bit of willpower to the surface so I can get past this reminder that, as of now, my progress is in progress.

I'm Still Here

I really want to like Atlas Shrugged. I feel like I'm forcing myself to read it though. I got all the way through Chapter 1 and I felt like I do when I chug the last two cups of water to hit my daily fluid intake goal.

I don't know what it is, but it just doesn't quite grab me... Yet... Because what I've heard is that it is a very compelling and memorable story.

The same thing is going on with my nutrition. I'm not at all interested in the right foods as I was Pre-Easter. It's like the salvation of the Lord stirred up a burning passion for all things fried and crunchy.

I've not gone anywhere near the deep end, not even to the water, but I am full on struggling to keep my mind and body focused on the long term benefit of not giving in to temptations like boneless buffalo wings dipped in blue cheese... Oh man, I can hardly type that without salivating.

I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things with going to the gym too. The twice weekly visits have waned due to illness, injury, and really convincing excuses and getting back on track has been hard.


I've been in the "I want to be healthy" club for a long time and am still not close to goal number one... "Make peace with the fact that I must make changes in order to change."

So I am taking my tiny milestones of having lost and kept off 10lbs and always returning to a cleaner eating lifestyle and running with them, rather than giving up and buying stretch pants and cheeseburgers.

Lifelong change needs to happen now for this to be the year I finally get the weight off and get stronger...

I wanna do a push up... and, by the end of this year... ONE CHIN UP!!!

Almost Months

I said I would not post until I had "Months under my belt" and I will count this as only sort of lying.

January 2nd I began a very strict "Clean Eating" and exercise plan that is definitely producing changes in me that I did not think possible in such a short amount of time (3 solid weeks).

I am working out twice a week with Bryan and we are pushing each other to try a little harder each time (more laps, more weight, more reps, more sets, hold longer).
I am excited to go to the gym.
I ran... a whole lap... non-stop (small-ish track, but I RAN IT!)

I have lost 10 pounds.
I have only slipped all the way off the "eating right" wagon once and I recovered in a day, rather than a few months/years.

This is the year. I'm getting out of Obese and into Overweight before summer.

I'm getting to a healthy BMI by December.

I'm taking pictures and measurements to keep track (which I will share when I have a better quality progress pic).

This is MY year.

Spanning Time

I have been very tired lately, like all of the time. I'm tired now. I could sleep the entire day and still feel like I need to lie down. I am sure this mystery can be solved by some regular activity... I did give a mini-strength training work-out a try last night and it was mad hard to get up off the floor after sit-ups, but it felt good... On that note, however:
I'm going to get some Months under my belt... I'm reading old posts today about how I've gone __ days since I started, cheated, started again on my fitness goals. I'm not talking about my progress on this site again until I have some Months to talk about. Until then... We dance!

Since my tech savvy-ness is too tired to figure out how to post one, just imagine a funny animated meme of a cat dancing.

I don't think I've talked very much about what I do for a living.

I am fortunate enough to have an exciting career in the art of Accounting Analysis!!! Though the work is often boring, repetitive, boring, and BORING I rather enjoy the company of my coworkers. We have a lot of fun throughout the day making jokes and fart sounds. :) I have also been deemed the Party Planner here because I had two good ideas in a row once and that's how you take over an office social scene (who knew?) I am in the midst of planning a baseball themed party for this Friday to celebrate the Detroit Tigers making it to the World Series!!! I'm mostly excited because this means I get to wear jeans to work and my Tiger's T-shirt... and eat hot dogs...

I got a little grill so we can cook out near the "picnic" area of our office park and the rest of the office is bringing side dishes to share. It should be great as every potluck we have had was overflowing with delicious culinary talent... and cheese dip! Everything is better with processed cheese food... heh heh!

"What are you struggling with right now?"

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/

I recently signed up for the Nerd Fitness email list and the introductory email asked a question that I thought I would answer briefly...

 "What are you struggling with right now?"

-Right now? Right now I am struggling to keep my eyes open during the most boring day that I have experienced at work in the longest time. This curse/blessing of a day is aggravating because it highlights the fact that the hours of the day that I have the willpower to do anything, be it physical or mental, are spent chained to a chair in a partial cubicle staring at a monitor (accountant). I eat right most of the time, or at least what I thought was "right", and the same way I ate when I was 26 (now 32) and lost 30 lbs in 6 months, but I'm constantly either fighting with the 5 year old inside that wants a McDonald's Happy Meal or rationalizing why working out is "not an option today" due various ridiculous reasons (no time, too tired, already walked a lot...) Also, my boyfriend hates home cooking, or rather, prefers going out to eat or getting take out. My willpower is generally shot by the time I'm sitting in a booth looking at pictures of golden fried chicken on a bed of lettuce with eggs, cheese and bacon... but there has been a kind of "leveling up" in the works for a bit before I stumbled upon the site

Improvements that I have been able to stick with this year include: Shorter, more attainable goals - 10 lbs in two months rather than looking at the 100 I want to lose as it s l o w l y dwindles down <- I just hit this one!!!

Using my stove - I now cook/make lunch every day for work and make most dinners for myself either ahead of time and freeze them or when I get home from work

Don't give up - In all of the years that I have been "struggling" with my weight, and overall health and fitness level, I have never been able to say, "I give up" and just let it go... I know there is no other option than getting healthy. I did stop counting attempts, but I have not stopped attempting to change my body for the better.

 I'm looking forward to using all that Nerd Fitness has to offer to aid in my goals.

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/