Happy Leap Day!

Don't you think everyone should just get today off?  I mean, this special day only comes once every 4 years!

So, I have to be honest about my progress for February.  If you look at my numbers you'd think that it was just not a very successful month for me.  However, I am glad that I've had this month because a few things have happened that I'm really happy about.

First, the numbers.  As of this this morning, I am down a total of 0.3 pounds for the month.  Like I said, that looks kind of depressing seeing as how I wanted more than anything to beat my January number.  You see, after the first week of February, I started gaining.  And I continued gaining until around February 17th when I finally stopped myself and said "this is NOT working".  I was up 1.3 pounds and needed that to stop instantly.

So I finally did something I'd been planning on doing for a few months now.  I started writing.  I wrote down all my goals, why I wanted my goals (serious reasons not just the "look good in clothes" reason), I wrote down ways I sabotage myself, I wrote down ways I could positively reinforce myself (you know, positive self-talk), I wrote down ways to curb negative reinforcements, I wrote down possible obstacles, I wrote down how to handle people who inadvertently sabotage, I wrote down strategies to deal with urges, I wrote down a mantra, I wrote down ways to visualize my success, I wrote down who I would specifically talk to if I needed help,  and I wrote down EXACTLY what I was going to do if something went wrong and I started failing. 

I wrote down a lot.

I sat on my couch for hours writing all this down.  And after I got thru the list of specifics that I wanted to write, I wrote down rewards.

I figured, why not?

So I made a huge list of specific weight amounts and what I could give myself if I made it.  We're talking a magazine or lip gloss kind of rewards.  Fun stuff that I don't always allow myself to indulge in.

And that's it.  I didn't make some crazy eating or exercise plan.   I just wrote.  I read something a long time ago about the power of writing stuff down.

And I read it every now and then as a reminder of what I'm doing.

Anyway, after that day I followed what I wrote.  For instance, I've asked my boyfriend or best friend to encourage me to make good choices.  I've made sure to take an extra snack to work to eat at the end of the day so I don't go home STARVING and end up ordering pizza or something unhealthy.  When I go on my walks I repeat my goals and my mantra to myself and all that positive self talk.  I just constantly remind myself of what I'm doing.

And while it's not a miracle cure to the hard work that is required it's really helped with my motivation.  So since that February 17th, I've lost .. gasp..  1.3 pounds.

THANK GOODNESS!!

Another awesome thing that I figured out this month is a balance with my eating.  I've kind of figured out how many calories (you know, give or take 50-100) that I need to eat at to see weight loss.  This is HUGE for me.  The only reason I figured it out is because of my diligent record keeping and my daily weigh-ins with the moving average figure.  Seriously, I've posted before and I'll post again, using the moving average is one of the best things I've started to do just in terms of information.

I've also given myself permission to not beat myself up at the gym.  I've always been of the mind set that if I'm not sweating profusely and breathing heavily then it does me no good.  So I let myself off the hook and downed my intensity BUT upped my total minutes.  So, instead of going to the gym for 35 minutes of sprint intervals, I go on a 60 minute walk (not strolling on a flat surface kind of walk mind you - a hilly, walking fast but doable walk).  I find I stress out about doing my walks much less and it gets me outside because we've been having the most AMAZING weather out here.

Another thing that I want to work towards is strength training.  I know the benefits, I know how good it is for me, and I will eventually do it.  However, for whatever reason I can't stand it.  But I'm not going to stress about forcing myself to do it.  Trust me, I have enough stress in my life at this moment.  

 And that's it.  That's my February thus far.  I guess my actual end of the month weight will be tomorrow so I'll record it then but overall I'm really happy with this month for ... mental reasons I guess.

Today's Menu:

B:  protein shake
S:  Cottage cheese, tangerine
L:  chicken salad with whole grain crackers, side salad with light dressing
D:

Perhaps I'll have the vegetarian chili I just made -- it's pretty good.  

Mama Mia!

I don't know if I've mentioned it on here before but I love Italian food.  And when I say love, I mean the kind of unconditional love that is rare and beautiful.

Seriously, I love it.

This month I've been on an Italian kick and while it is good for my soul it is NOT good for my waist.  I'll admit weeks 2 to 3 were a little difficult for me on the food front.  Lots of stresses and stuff and I didn't handle them too well.  I ate a little more than I should have and went up a tiny bit.  A pound to be exact, but no fear,  I am already on my way back down.

So not to deprive myself I have been trying to find ways to continue to love my Italian and eat it too!

First I went w/ a quinoa risotto.  I don't know if you've tried quinoa before but it's amazing.  It's very reminiscent of couscous in texture and taste but it's technically not a grain.  It's actually a complete protein which, forgive the science for a minute, means it has all the essential amino acids that humans need.  That's cool because usually your complete proteins come from animals, dairy and what you regularly think of as protein.

Anyway, that was my first foray into an edited Italian experience.  The second, was actually not much of a stretch but I always forget how much I love it.

Caprese Salad!

A chopped caprese salad to be exact.  I also added some seared beef and that's what I've been having for lunch this week.  And it's really, really good.  The fresh mozzarella helps to make it taste more decadent than it really is.   I mean, for 1 oz., it's only 70 calories.  Not bad right?

I've been trying to find workarounds for my precious Italian just due to how heavy in carbs they are.  Don't get me wrong, I am NOT a proponent of cutting out carbs to lose weight.  I know I had my South Beach experience last year and that proved almost detrimental to my GI tract so I know that I need them.  BUT, I am also aware that if I could have my way I'd eat 90% of my calories from pasta, pizza and more pasta.  No lie ;)  And that's not good for anybody.

I do have some really good whole wheat alternatives for pasta that I've found after much trial and error (although I will never be fully converted because I just love the white stuff way too much!)

In case anyone is wondering, Gia Russa makes a great whole wheat penne.  You need to cook it a few minutes longer than suggested but it really holds well.  Also, I found De Cecco - they make a great whole wheat spaghetti - again, cook a little longer.

Seriously, they both hold up pretty well.

Today's menu:

B:  Protein shake, coffee, string cheese
S:  PR Bar (pre-workout)
L:  Chopped Caprese w/ beef


I think for dinner tonight, I will have some tortilla pizza!  It's just some low carb, whole grain tortillas topped w/ veggies and cheese and broiled until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

It's cheap, tasty and most important, very filling!

Today's exercise:
65 minute walk

February 3, 2012

I can't believe it's February already.  I swear it was just New Year's Eve two seconds ago.

So January is gone and I'm down 2.1 pounds for the entire month.  Honestly, the last 2 weeks of the month weren't my best work by any means so I was pleased to see that I came out on top for the month.  I know that doesn't seem like that much and yes, I'm striving for better, but, look at it this way, lets just say I maintained this rate for an entire year - that's over 25 pounds!  I can definitely get on board with that.


My goal is to beat that 2.1 pounds for February.  We're 3 days in and things are already looking good.  And since it's a leap year - I get a whole 29 days to make the magic happen.

Today's menu:

B:  iced coffee w/ scoop of whey protein, whole wheat toast w/ cream cheese
S:  grapefruit
L:  soup, garden salad, carrots

I was rushing this morning while I was packing my lunch and I'm just now realizing that I really didn't pack anything substantial.

The soup is Zuppa Tuscana - my own version of the stuff they serve at the Olive Garden.  Honestly, this batch I made wasn't that great.  It's usually one of my favorites but I'm just not feeling it right now.

Hopefully dinner tonight will be amazing and completely fulfilling.

Trending Weight Loss Numbers

The one thing that I'm doing really differently on this venture is trending my weight loss numbers.  One day I found this online book called The Hacker's Diet, and it really interested me.


I've always been a big fan of keeping journals, tracking numbers and recording data.  This book was written by a computer programmer who lost an extraordinary amount of weight by doing what he does best:  recording data and interpreting the numbers.

If you look through the book you'll find a lot of charts and graphs and even formulas.  Now, I love that kind of stuff but if you're not into it then just skip to the pages that talk about trend tracking.

Trend tracking is basically taking your DAILY weight and accounting for all the "noise" that goes with it.  For example, on any given day we all know that our weight can fluctuate by POUNDS up or down.  And sometimes, we can be ANGELS and still see that scale go strangely upward and it just ruins the day!

So what this guy did was use math (moving averages) to show what was really going on.

This is the example he shows:

November  1990

Date      Day      Weight      Trend       
----      ---      ------      -----       
                               173.6
  1       Thu       172.5      173.5         
  2       Fri       171.5      173.3         
  3       Sat       172        173.2         
  4       Sun       171.5      _____         
  5       ___      ______      _____        
  6       ___      ______      _____       

The Date Column:  Obviously you put whatever the date is
The Day Column:  and the actual Day
Weight Column:  The weight that shows up on the SCALE
The Trend Column:

This is where it gets fun.  The first number on the Trend Column (the one without anything else in the row) is your initial starting weight.  So the first day you decide to start, step on the scale, write this number here.  Then the next day step on the scale again:  In the example above, the guy weighed 172.5 so you write that number under the WEIGHT column.

Then you do a little math.  All you do is subtract that day's weight from the previous day's trend number.

So take day 1's weight and subtract it from the Trend number above it:

 172.5
-173.6
______

    -1.1


Then you take the -1.1 and shift the decimal point over one place to the LEFT = -.11 and then round up.  (EXAMPLE:  if you had gotten -1.7 you would shift the number to -.17 and round to -.2)

I know it sounds complicated but hang in there.

Then you take that tiny number and subtract it from the previous day's trend:

173.6
-     .1
_____
173.5

Oh wow.  I don't know if this makes any sense.  Then you continue from there.  Take the next day's ACTUAL scale reading (in the chart that would be 171.5) and then subtract it from previous trend number (173.5) and so on and so forth.


And I found that doing this helped with one huge thing.  I didn't freak out about those crazy numbers on the scale anymore.  If you look at the chart above at the Weight Column - you'll see those numbers just go back and forth back and forth.  But the Trend Column is just steadily decreasing. 

See, it takes out the noise.

And as long as you're doing what you're supposed to (ie:  eating right, exercising) that Trend column will just continue to decrease - even if one day you weigh more unexpectedly.  And if that Trend column starts increasing - then you know you're doing something wrong and it's time to reel it in.

I'll post a chunk of mine when I finish out the month so you can see what mine looks like.

I thought it was something worth sharing.  I started mine mid December and it takes 2 seconds to do and it COMPLETELY helps with those days when the scale just isn't showing what it should.

Because lets face it, we ALL need help on those days :)

Mondays: Not Always Bad

The weather outside is absolutely miserable today.  Rainy, cloudy, chillingly cold, but I was oblivious to all of that.

I weighed in today and I was down .4 lbs for the week.  And that was enough to cast sunshine and rainbows all around me.

Isn't it amazing?  One small, tiny, minute measurement had the all encompassing ability to make me insanely happy.

Well, it made me happy for the first hour of my morning.  I mean, come on!  It's rainy and it's a Monday.  A deadly combination indeed.

And if you will indulge me for a moment, I'd like to praise myself for a couple of things over the last week:

1.  I exercised 5 out of 7 days
2.  I ate out TWICE and still managed to come in under budget for each day.

Pretty good huh?

So, I am 4.6 pounds down total and I am counting the moments til I hit my first 10.

Today's eatin's:

B: breakfast calzone

Oh yes, lets talk about this for a moment.  I was coming up w/ easy, portable breakfast ideas for this week because I always eat breakfast at work.  And honestly, I was sick of eggs and the normal breakfast fare so I decided to make calzones.

Yup, regular old calzones.  I made my own whole wheat dough, my favorite pomodoro sauce and then used rotisserie chicken, cottage cheese and lowfat mozzarella to round it out.

It was my first foray into the wild world of calzone making and it was pretty successful.  I ate my first calzone this morning and it was pretty tasty.  Don't get me wrong, it was whole wheat dough so it wasn't like eating at a pizzeria but still - not bad.

S: protein bar
L: tomato soup, salad, 2 pretzels

exercise:  2+ mile run

Not bad ... for a Monday ;)

We're Gonna Score Tonight!

I went bowling last night and for some reason I keep thinking about Grease 2 and the bowling scene and the song they sing.




So anyway, I went bowling last night and it was exactly like Grease 2. Without warning, everyone in the room broke into a perfectly synchronized dance and started singing. It was beautiful.

Wouldn't life be a little more grand if things like that actually happened?

Ok, so it didn't happen but it WAS cosmic bowling. Does that count? You know, lights off, glow in the dark pins, disco ball.

No singing though.

Bowling is fun, but it also leads to bowling alley food and drinks.

And that's all I'm going to say about my evening ;) I started the day off well but lets just say my dinner did not consist of the Chicken Piccata I so lovingly prepared that was both tasty AND healthy.

C'est la vie.

Today's menu:

B: egg + cheese sandwich on ww bread + coffee
S: PR bar (low glycemic delicious thing i eat before i run)
L: clam chowder, cottage cheese, 1/2 grapefruit
D: i'm not sure yet - the world is my oyster

Today's exercise:
run - did I mention that I'm training for a 10k? A co-worker asked me to run one with him and while it's not a hard commitment yet I figure - why not? I trained for one ........ thinking .... thinking .... oh wow 2 years ago. And 2 months before the race I injured myself. I believe there's a post somewhere in here about that. It was my toe :( Anyway, I remember the training being hard, sweaty, intensive, hard, time consuming BUT very worthwhile. So, I'm going to try again. I have a good base - I can do a 5k so why not double it? right?

Exciting Times!

I logged into my email this morning and I received my usual weekly email from sitemeter who monitors this blog.

I usually don't even look at it because I know I've not been blogging so why would anyone be reading?!

Anyway, I did click on it and it told me that I had 11,000 visitors to my blog.

WHAT?

I thought it was a mistake. Nope. It wasn't. Someone found my jar of rocks entry and put it on pinterest and next thing I know -- BOOM - I've got a lot of people looking at my blog.

It made me laugh :)

Also, it reminded me I needed an update.

I'm doing extremely well. Almost scarily so. I say scarily because I'm starting week 6 and my focus is still there. I know, I know, my focus should ALWAYS be there but I tend to find that after week 4 I kind of get lazy.

Last week, I ate at maintenance all week. Not on purpose but because I think my body needed a break. It's just kind of how the numbers averaged out so that's kind of cool. But Monday was back to the grind and hopefully I will have a loss this week.

Just some numbers for you:
Since December 12, 2011, I have lost, on average, 1 pound a week.

AMAZING!

I don't have an official WI for this week yet but I'm about 5-ish down and I'm hoping to keep w/ that one pound/week loss and hit 6 at my next WI. But really, I'm super excited for any number, even if it's .2 pounds.

(That's the lowest increment on my scale)

And finally ...


Today's Menu:

B: bacon, egg white, LF cheese sandwich on whole wheat - w/ coffee
S: LF cottage cheese and 1/2 grapefruit
L: clam chowder (made my me!), side salad, crispbread
D: (most likely) chicken piccata (me also), brussel sprouts, whole wheat pasta