8 weeks!

Yes, its been 8 weeks since I started this new journey. I can't believe it. Its been easy at points and challenging at others. All in all... I'm proud of myself. I'm doing really well.

I apologize for not getting week 7 in, but there was no official weigh in. The members of my group were all too sick so they cancelled the meeting. I should have posted something anyway.

This last few days have been so very cold that my knees have been aching and even my hips and back have been aching. Yesterday was -43C with the windchill!!!!  Today warmed up to a balmy -34C. Its harsh. With the heat in the apartment not working properly, its even more frustrating. I kept the kids home from school yesterday because I felt it was too cold for them to go out, which meant that I had had between 1 and 3 kids at home every day for 5 days straight. I find I don't get as much activity when the kids are home. Although my 10yr old (11yrs in 2 days) was awesome and played bowling and river adventure on the Kinnect with me on Friday.

I am doing really great with recording my food every day on myfitnesspal.com!  I have logged in every day for 3 weeks straight without missing a day!  This is a bit of a miracle in my life because I had not succeeded in journaling my food for more than 3 days in over a decade! Its been really quite revealing. I honestly have to admit that it makes me stop and look at what I'm putting into my body and if I could find a better option. It also just makes me think. Little things. Like a handful of candy. How much the milk & sugar in my coffee actually adds up to over the course of the day. Whether nibbling on those nachos is worth it.

Its been so revealing that I've decided to cut my coffee intake back to two cups of coffee, and to switch to black unsweetened. Its not as tasty. But that's the point. It will help me cut back. And wow.... in 4 days I've saved nearly 1000 calories! WOW! At 250 calories a day, that's 91,250 calories a year, which equals 26 lbs in one year!!!!! Just by taking my coffee differently. HOLY MACKEREL!!  SERIOUSLY!!!  (that's the equivalent of ONE Tim Horton's Large Double Double a day. that's it! HOLY SMOKES!!)

So I've been opening my eyes, being more diligent, and starting to move more. And its paying off!!


Last week: 202.0 lbs
This week: 199.0 lbs

 Loss this week of 3.0 lbs!

Net LOSS of 8.4 lbs in 8 weeks

Look at me!!! I CAN DO IT!!

Continuing on!

 After week 6, I'm doing well. Staying on track.

I had a successful weigh in, and I'm really happy. Especially because I haven't been doing well physically.

I had had fun with my Zumba intro class, but ended up on the couch for four days with a tweaked muscle in my back. I literally took less than a thousand steps each day, hobbling to the bathroom and back, crying a lot.

So being down at all is a great accomplishment! for me, I think it speaks of how hard I am trying at watching what I'm eating. I really am starting to get in the groove.

Starting on Monday the 21st, I'm going to up my motivation!  I placed a $25 bet on myself that I could lose 4% of my body weight in 4 weeks. That means a loss of 8 lbs in a month. VERY reasonable, very doable. And if I succeed? I get a split of the pot.  I figured it would motivate me a little more!! Every little bit counts!
www.dietbet.com

So here it is!! Week 6:

Last week: 203.8 lbs
This week: 202.0 lbs

Loss this week of 1.8 lbs

Net LOSS of 5.4 lbs in 6 weeks

Riding the High

I'm still riding the "High" from my 4.4 lb loss this week. I'm very excited. And proud of myself.

I love this feeling because I am much more diligent during this feeling. The hope is to keep it going until next week so I can get a new "rush" from my success.

Every little thing I am doing right, every choice I make that is healthy, I want to proclaim it to the world that I, Fyre, am doing it! I am going to live a healthy life!  Its what I need until the choices become habit. Right now, the little things are still conscious choices and not habits. They WILL become habits, I know that. After a while.

Little things... I ordered my Subway sub vegan again (no cheese, 9 grain wheat bread, loads of veggies, half amount of sweet onion sauce).  Then I only ate half of it for supper. I saved the other half for today's lunch. Well, this morning I realized I really didn't want the sub because the bread was soggy. I scraped the contents of the sub into a bowl for the basis of my yummy salad today and crisped up the bun in the oven for my eldest son  to enjoy with his supper tonight. Small. But exciting for me.

Today, my exercise will be stairs. 27 flights down then up. Yay laundry! Work my glutes!!!

Back on track!

Week 5 weigh in went much better!!!

I worked harder this week. Effort is rewarded.

What did I do? I started challenging myself to do SOMETHING every day, even if its small. I made charts for my wall to track the number of squats, push ups and crunches I do every day. As well, I made a chart to track cardio minutes. It may sound childish or silly, but if it doesn't work for you, no problem. But how will you know unless you try?  Most of us are children at heart. Most of us really do enjoy getting pretty stickers for our accomplishments.... even if we don't want to admit it to anyone else.

I also got myself some workout videos (lots of places to get them, including the library for FREE!!)
Yoga, Zumba, "Ballet Booty", P90X (that's for a lot later on when I'm well on my way), "RockinBody" which is a dance/aerobics.  I know that in this really poor cold weather I just can't get much walking in because of my arthritis. So I had to decide on a solution. This is it. Lots of people feel silly dancing around in front of their tv in the livingroom. You know what? So do I!  But I rather do something about the fact that I can barely move than to just keep sitting on the sofa. Honestly, the cat doesn't care what I look like while I'm shaking my hips!

I only did my Intro to Zumba dvd once, for 37 minutes, this week, but I DID IT! (and pulled a muscle in the back of my hip that took two days to recover from..... reminder to myself... START SLOWLY!)

I also stopped using Sugar Twin in my coffee and switched to sugar. I know, this sounds backwards. Adding calories. Really its not!  I've been using Sugar Twin for 12 years. Its time to let go. Go NATURAL!!   Eventually there will be more changes in this category, but if I want it to work, I KNOW that it needs to be done one step at a time.

We have all decided we are going to go COMPLETELY healthy, no junk food, no coffee, no soda, no white starches (or worse, no carbs at all), or vegetarian (or vegan), all at once in one day. How did that work out for ANY of us? Guaranteed, one in 100 actually stuck to it past a week... most of us didn't make it through day 2. So I am making changes one at a time. It sounds small... but I have to make changes that I will stick with. One at a time.

So, all of those LITTLE things I did this week... food journal, writing down squats & pushups & crunches, zumba, quitting Sugar Twin... it paid off!

Last week:  208.2 lbs
This week:  203.8 lbs

Loss this week of 4.4 lbs!

Net LOSS of 3.6 lbs in 5 weeks

See... it was only a set back!!! Right back at it!!! Can't EVER talk yourself down!

I WILL DO THIS

OOOPS....

Yup... we knew it would happen. I'm sure you all knew it would happen. I had hoped it wouldn't happen. But I didn't do enough to prevent it from happening.

I slipped up.

I gained. A lot. Over the holidays. A lot.

*sigh*  I can't obsess over it. I know why. I can only sit and make some plans on how to prevent it from happening again. Strategies.


Its the new year. 2013. It started off with a challenging day emotionally. With effort my sister located and contacted me to let me know my mother had passed away New Year's morning. The news itself wasn't as distressing for me as it is for most because we had become estranged over 20 years ago.  The stress was a combination of a conversation with a sibling who thinks she is better than me (no one person is better than another person. at all. ever).  And from the news that it was her 4th heart attack. FOURTH. 
FOUR HEART ATTACKS.

My health is my TOP priority this year. TOP.


I've made the decision to transition to vegan. I am already cooking vegan meals and buying vegan products for my son, so I have a head start....now to curb the non-vegan snacking. This will be trickier especially because my partner is an omnivore who enjoys a lot of non-vegan foods. And shares. Saying no will be a daily challenge. I need to stand on my own wobbly vegan legs for a while. Get a little more sturdy footing.

I made the choice to switch to SILK soy creamer for my coffee and to drink more tea instead of coffee because I can drink it black. Its only day two but its going well. Sort of. One day, one choice at a time.

I also am VERY proud of my choice for supper tonight. After grocery shopping my love suggested we grab a bite to eat. Subway was agreed on because its on the way home and across the street from where I go to get weighed every Wednesday night.

I ordered a foot long veggie sub on whole wheat. I skipped the cheese. Super simple to do. I realized that the cheese has gotten skimpier and skimpier lately and doesn't really add that much flavour if you load up on the yummy veggies!  I usually get all the veggies except the hot peppers and get LOTS of pickles. LOTS. For dressing I asked for just a little sweet onion sauce and the sandwich artist was awesome and did just that!  Such a simple thing. But cuts SO MANY calories!!!

For now, I'm trying to make one choice at a time.

Last week: 205.4 lbs
This week: 208.2 lbs

Gain this week 2.8 lbs

Net GAIN of 0.8 lbs in 4 weeks.


I am not beating myself up over this. There is no point to doing that. It has happened. I can not change the past. However, I can LEARN from this and CHOOSE to act differently TODAY.

I WILL DO THIS