Day 54: The Best Things

What is most important to me? My next meal?
This is a very specific challenge and it's going to take more effort than I gave to any other endeavor.
Losing pounds is hard work and requires focus.
Like everything worth the effort; good health is not easily attained.

That's where I am today, stronger, healthier and focused on reality.

• This is not easy
• I can't eat whatever I want
• I have to workout (just as often as, or more often than, I do)
• This isn't a "lifestyle change", this is war

I've worked out every single day for the past 9... Hooray's are in order! :)
I love the circuit training videos the best and feel the most rapid results from that type of workout.
I am making healthy choices more often in my diet, but could definitely use more discipline there.
My mood is even and elevated for the most part and I'm putting God in the center of it...
He's not just for praying for stuff you want, y'know! :)

I'm seeing it this way now, God gave me this body to use to serve Him and I trashed it. Like a spoiled rich kid who totals their sweet 16 Mercedes and says, "Daddy fix it, k? Thanks, bye!" I have begged and pleaded that God just fix my body and my mental problem with my body image with a wave of His hand and for good reason He answered no... This is my body, on loan from God, to care for. The damage done is mine to repair. He gives me strength and encouragement and people in my life to motivate me and hold me accountable, but I have to do the moving and the discipline part.

Day 50: Don't Be In Such A Hurry

I haven't blogged about this for a few days due to technical dificulties and whatnot... I've been working out everyday as planned and I've been watching my calories and sticking to my food plan and it's been 5 days... I haven't lost any weight yet... I'm working out like mad, feeling better, taller and stronger but that stupid scale won't move... I just need to keep going and be patient right? Yeah...

Day 46: 2 in a row

Day 2 of my Lent challenge went swimmingly aside from some discouraging factors...

I weigh myself every morning to keep things in perspective and my heart dropped when I saw that I had a gain of 0.2 since Wednesday morning, also I can't stop thinking about food and am almost constantly wanting to eat... not hungry, just want to munch on crackers or tortilla chips...

I have followed my workout plan wholeheartedly for two straight days and am so glad to be feeling sore muscles again... I know the soreness isn't the best feeling in the world, but I also know that it's a part of building lean muscle to help burn the fat more efficiently.

As for the meal plan I have strictly adhered to my intended food list with no additions and just need to get used to not getting whatever unhealthy indulgence I want whenever I want it... The same can be said for my life in general.

Rewarding myself for getting through a bad day by eating a box of crackers or a bunch of junk food and sugary garbage is actually punishment.

Day 45: Day 1

Woke up early and did my workout at the gym
Ate according to plan even though my mouth wanted to chew and chew and chew something crunchy
Had wonderfully delicious sushi for dinner with an awesome friend
Tried to drink my one beer for the week and was too full/tired to finish half a pnit
Got to bed at a decent hour

I think I'm going to stop tracking my exercise calories out... maybe it'll be better to not know that I can eat another hundred calories because I walked for 20 minutes? I don't think I'm to the point where I have to increase my intake to support my activity level just yet.

All in all... One day of "Lent" down... 39 to go.

Day 44: 40 Days of Sweating

Today is Fat Tuesday, so I'm pretending calories don't exist and just not stressing out today. As of this morning I'm back down to 213 (yay!) and in need of a better short term goal (834 calories/day? What was I thinking???)

Tomorrow I'm beginning a 40 Day intensive challenge to get below 200lbs by the end of Lent. I'm not catholic, but it's as good a time as any to give up sweets and junk food and to put focus on activity.

The plan includes:

• Working out every morning at the gym (They open at 6am!)
• Going to the gym after work if my whiny, lazy inner child won't let me wake up early enough
• Following a balanced meal plan (kinda like weight watchers)
• Counting the calories in everything I eat
• Weighing every Sunday and measuring on 2/17, 3/10 and 3/28
• Drinking a ton of water and only 1 beer or glass of wine/week
• Avoiding sugar and fatty meats like the plague and limiting my bread intake
• Updating my blog daily, like the good old days

I've been feeling really discouraged lately and giving up the fight on a daily basis and it would be super helpful if everyone that reads this would send me notes of encouragement throughout this endeavor.

Thanks in advance for all of your support!

Day 38: Balancing Act

If I'm too busy, I don't have time to cook and end up eating something from a fast crap restaurant...

If I have too much free time, I fill my idle hands with crackers, popcorn and whatever else is around in the house...

Stress makes me overeat

Boredom makes me overeat

In between lies balance...

I'm currently sufficiently occupied to the point of having time to prepare meals when I'm home and also have enough time to prepare meals in advance of stressful times... I have very little hang time to ponder the combination options on the condiment shelf to create a dipping sauce to add flavor to the Triscuits I bought two weeks ago.

This is a good place to be.

Day 37: Recharged

I slipped a little more and as I realized that I was headed back to the starting point at a rapid speed I became depressed and slipped further... The Superbowl party was the turning point for me. I don't feel like I ate all that much, but managed to gain 2 lbs between Sunday morning and Monday morning. I have decided that I am limiting my alcohol intake a lot more and that I just have to track everything I consume like a maniac... track like a maniac, that is... hopefully I won't be consuming anything like a maniac.

Working out is scaled back to leisurely walking and three half hour sets of moderate cardio/week... Almost passing out really freaked me out. I plan to work with a trainer after the summer to work on the toning stuff, so I'm focusing more on limiting calories in than increasing calories out.

Anyway, back up to 215 on Monday morning... Here we go again.

Day 31: Short Term Goals

iGoal Informer is an App on my iPhone that tells me how likely my chances are of making goals happen... I've been using this to tell me what my calorie allowance is to lose 2lbs/week in an year's time to lose 100lbs...

From now until March15th I am trying something different... I set my iGoal to calculate calories to lose 25lbs within a safe time frame and it said it was possible (and not in the danger zone) to manage a balance of 834 calories/day... This does not mean I won't be eating enough calories (I think 1200 is the healthy minimum) but it does require working out more aggressively...

I think I just need a boost to my self confidence to know I can keep breaking through these obstacles... When I hit below 190 for the first time since college I'll be so happy I might pee my pants! :)

Day 30: Support and Advice

Insatiable appetite strikes again...

I don't know what to do. I either get really motivated to eat right and then I'm too lazy to workout or I'm on fire at the gym and come home to devour everything I see... Actually, lately I'm too lazy to workout and still devouring everything I see, but I recognize a change needed there... So I'm reaching out...

To those of you who are a healthy weight and have to make an effort to stay that way or are on a steady path to health; what are some of the tools you use to avoid binges and laziness? How do you fight urges to eat when you're not just "not hungry", but full? What do you do to motivate yourself to workout?

This phase of the one year challenge is calorie counting; in and out. I have to have a balance of less than 1165/day to lose 2lbs/week... So if I already used my food calorie budget and want a handfull of raisins, for instance, I have to hit the stationary bike for 15 minutes... Stupid science!

Day 24 to 29: Off the Grid

I lost my mind for a little bit...
I caught myself flubbing the quantities of food in my calorie tracking app and exaggerating the amount of time I spent working out...
I thought "Well, it's not that bad, the scale seems fine, just gonna break even this week"...

I gained 0.8 lbs...

I undid week 3 and lost two weeks worth of progress.

This is day 29 and I'm keeping a bookmark on this page to remind me of what my excuses can do.

Yesterday I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and just about every weight resistance machine in the building that worked my legs... I followed up with 30 minutes on the treadmill and a good bit of stretching...

Today I'm doing arms as well as abs because my excuses caused me to miss arms day last week.

I'm following a meal plan and have prepped just about every meal on the chart already so I shouldn't have any trouble keeping to it this week.

I'm discouraged, but going forward anyway.