Finally Getting Fit

Another Monday, another week of finally getting fit.

Welcome to the Weigh In.

This morning sees me at a familiar looking number: 254. That number is beginning to turn into an old ‘friend’ you don’t really like having around but somehow always is anyway. That’s four pounds down from the after-Easter gain last Monday, so I’m pretty happy with it.

As I mentioned on Friday, I’ll be starting the South Beach diet this week. I’ve come to realize that I have some very bad food addictions happening (namely chocolate and breads) and I need to break the addictions.

I feel like South Beach could really be the way for me to go because it can help balance out your blood sugar, which, as an insulin resistant person, is very important to me.

This week also marks the beginning of a weight loss challenge on the Yanks Down Under forum, a place for Americans moving to Australia to hand out. (But others are welcome!) I have to say that having the challenges on that site definitely help keep me motivated. Not only do people regularly donate prizes for these challenges, it also helps with the sense that you’re not alone in this. None of us are; we just need to find the support that is out there.

So what is your plan for this week? Have you seen a loss or gain today? Stayed still? What’s been a challenge in your life when it comes to getting fit? Do you have a hard time finding support?

Well, after a sort of slap in the face reminder about how serious insulin resistance is, I have decided to give the South Beach diet a go.

I went on the South Beach diet a few years ago and got pretty good results while I was on it. I didn’t have any sort of support system though, so I ended up stopping and wondering what the point of it all was anyway.

South Beach is the diet recommended for everyone, but especially for people with blood sugar problems, be them diabetes or insulin resistant (prediabetes) related. The creator of the diet is also very up front and honest, which I like. He’s also very focused on the eating six times a day thing, which gives South Beach a lot more brownie points in the ‘making sense’ department in my opinion.

I have realized lately that something has to give. I’m not losing weight like I should be. And while that’s not to be unexpected of me with insulin resistance and possible PCOS, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for me to lose weight. I just need to find the right way for my body to do it.

I’m going with South Beach because I have an addiction to bread. Bread, pasta, rice, more bread, and then even more bread. I have also been having problems with chocolate cravings, and I recognize that I am getting myself well and truly addicted to the stuff.

So wish me luck. I will definitely be reporting how it goes here. I’ll be starting next Thursday. (Why? So I can have a few days to clean up my eating before hitting the strict phase.)

Best of fitness to all of you.

I have been thinking of other ways to determine how well I have been doing that don’t have to do with movement on the scale. I then thought of how crappy my diet used to be and how much it has improved.

For this Thursday Thirteen, I decided to list thirteen bad foods I have given up. If you decide to do this list, please link to it in the comments. I’m curious to see what you’ve given up.

Consider it a list of accomplishments. I didn’t realize how many positive changes I have made.

1. Potato chips/crisps
2. Mountain Dew/Mellow Yellow
3. White bread
4. Pop Tarts
5. Gardettos Snack Mix
6. Chex Snack Mix
7. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream
8. Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Taco John’s, etc
9. Toblerones (I occasionally indulge, but I used to eat it all the time.)
10. Surgary cereal
11. M&Ms - Another occasional indulgence that used to be an all the time thing
12. Pasta, ravioli, etc in a can
13. Chocolate milk

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens at Fiction Scribe, Write Anyway, and The Book Stacks

You’ve looked at yourself in the mirror. You’ve twisted and turned. You’ve thought about what you’re eating and how you can change it. You’ve even thought about joining the local gym.

You are one of the millions of people changing their lives to get healthier.

Having decided to do this, you would think it would be easy to get your friends and family to support your decision. You would think they would be more than happy to help you on your way to becoming a healthier person.

Not always.

Believe it or not, once you have decided to start on your weight loss journey, you might find your spouse complaining about how you won’t be cuddly anymore or your friends saying that, “You don’t need to do that. You look fine.”

When it comes to getting fit, you can’t be in denial about your weight. You shouldn’t let anyone else be in denial about it either.

What can you do when the people whose support you need the most aren’t exactly supportive of your journey to become healthy?

You might need to sit some down and let them know what their lack of support is doing to you. Tell them why you want to lose weight, what prompted you to start, and what your goals are.

You can also find support elsewhere. Start talking to other people about your weight loss plans and maybe those people will start talking to the people who aren’t supporting you.

If all else fails, just don’t talk to them about it. Don’t share meal times with them if you can avoid it and don’t talk about getting healthier. Some people just don’t like people they know losing weight because it’s a threat to them on some level.

That’s their problem to deal with. You have to focus on you and your health.

When it comes to weight loss, having people there who can support you and know what you are going through can make the difference between weight loss success and falling back into old habits. That’s why I’m very happy to point you to the Healthy You Challenge.

I don’t think I can put it much better than the site itself, so… What is the Healthy You Challenge?

The Healthy You Challenge is just that, a challenge to become a healthier version of who you are right now. It doesn’t matter if you need to lose a little or a lot or even if you just want to maintain and make a healthier version of who you are right now you’ve come to the right place.

This is not a quick fix diet, if you are looking for a fad diet that promises quick and easy results, this is NOT the place for you. You won’t find advice on diet or nutrition because I am not an expert in diet or nutrition. I’m the first person to admit that what works for one person, just might not work for someone else. We all have to find the best path to walk. Each journey is as unique as each of us.

What I encourage and celebrate:

• Pounds lost
• Exercise - according to your limitations and doctors recommendations
• Stay on YOUR healthy eating plan
• Non Scale Victories
• Goal setting
• Rewarding yourself
• Challenging yourself
• Supporting other bloggers with similar goals, even if they aren’t a part of the challenge
• Asking for help when you feel discouraged

I am one woman who has a lot of weight to lose and wants to give and receive support along the way.

Do you want to know more? Go here to check out the Healthy you Challenge frequently asked questions.

This is another late weigh in. My apologies. I’m not long back from a vacation that has left me sore and tired so I’m running a little behind on things. Plus it’s time of month along with me having just had four days of eating on the road, so getting on the scale to see how I am doing wasn’t exactly my priority.

I tried to be good even though we were on vacation, but it’s not easy with the meals offered at some places. Plus you’re on vacation, so even if you did pack your food diary, you might not always have it right on hand.

I wasn’t perfect this weekend by any means, so part of me is scared to get on the scale. But I certainly will tomorrow morning just because it’s better to know what I’m working with. It’ll help motivate me along.

My plan this week is to get back to the gym Wednesday (to give myself a day of slow recovery from the hiking). I need to put a real focus on drinking the minimum amount of water as well as eating bland foods for a while. I came home and found myself with a very sensitive and upset digestive system. I have no doubt that’s from all the crappy eating that I did over the long weekend.

How are you doing with your weight loss? Did you see a loss or a gain this week? No change? How are your measurements looking? What’s your plan of action for this week?

Having the option of coffee (caffeine), chai (caffeine), or tea (wholesome goodness of grossness) to drink this afternoon while working my arse off to cover blog posts while my husband and I are away on vacation, I immediately disregarded coffee. I have yet to figure out how to operate our new coffee maker.

Between chai and tea, my choice would usually be chai. So you can imagine my surprise when I found myself reaching for the sample of tea I received in the mail last week. I paused to consider a chai once more, but I yawned and figured that tea of any kind would probably be better for me.

Now that’s what I call living the lifestyle.

I didn’t think about how the caffeine/sugar in chai would probably be bad for me and my diet and how I would have to watch what I ate for sugar content for the rest of the day. No, I just figured tea would be better for me.

Too often I, and many others, forget that weight loss – true weight loss – isn’t about the temporary fix. It’s not all about doing whatever it takes to get to that ideal weight regardless of the consequences. Those sorts of diets and actions will get you nowhere but gaining back all your weight and then some after the goal is achieved.

That is, if it is achieved at all.

Given that this is something you will ideally be doing for the rest of your life, it’s good to celebrate the small changes you make. The automatic habits you develop when it comes to your health.

Celebrate because you’re doing one of the hardest things out there – changing your life.

Since I started changing my life towards being healthier, I have discovered a lot of foods that I had never tried or had previously disliked. It turns out when you get rid of a lot of the crappy food, whole new food worlds open up.

1. Garlic. I love garlic, but I never used it at all before I started eating healthier.
2. Broccoli. I used to hate broccoli, but it turns out I just prefer it steamed.
3. Pumpkin. Yum. I never knew what I was missing.
4. Mushrooms. It turns out that the canned crappy tiny mushroom bits that tasted like rubber that my family used to like are nothing like cooking with fresh ones.
5. Potatoes. Yet another things I simply prefer steamed. And baked. Hehe.
6. Multigrain bread.
7. Salads. Salads can be a lot more interesting and can have more variety than I realized. (Plus, my husband makes awesome dressing.)
8. Cinnamon. Who knew you could add it to so many things and that it’s actually good for your blood sugar?
9. Sushi! I love sushi. Absolutely love it.
10. Lamb’s fry. As in liver. It actually tastes pretty good.
11. Apples. Yum. I have re-cultivated my love for fruit.
12. Oysters. I’m not sure how good they are for you, but they’re yummy.
13. Salmon. I love salmon and it’s very good for you.

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens at Fiction Scribe, Write Anyway, and The Book Stacks

There is so much out there to read when it comes to health. I catch myself letting hours slip by as I read this about weight, that about food…

Instead of doing a post for each cool/interesting/whatever link I find, I am going to put up “headlines” posts every now and then full of links I’ve found in the past whatever.

I hope you enjoy and find things that interest you.

Junk-Food Dieters – An article talking about the new wave of junk food dieters and what the cost of diet soda, sugar free gum, and other junk food do to your body even if you don’t put on the pounds. “According to their credo, low-calorie is good; no-calorie is better — even if the food contains more chemicals than a can of hair spray.”

20 Worst Foods When Eating Out – While some things are obvious when it comes to the calorie load, your ‘low calorie’ choices might not be as great as you think. Going beyond just the calories as well, you can see even the best of the worst of the list are very bad.

A New Diet Equation – We all know the bottom line to losing weight is to burn more calories than we consume. But there’s also the fact that we’re all different and that’s why one diet never works for everyone. So what can you do? Where you pack on the pounds could be your answer to finding out what works best for your body.

That’s it for today. If you have any links you think I and the readers here would like to read, feel free to send me the link using the ‘contact me’ button under the site description on the right.

No, I’m not talking about weight loss success stories, unfortunately. However, I have found a video you might have a good chuckle at because it sounds oh so familiar even for how it’s taken to extreme levels.

Okay, so maybe I’m a bit of a hypocrite for posting this given I am taking weight loss supplements, but I figured that if I can get a laugh out of this video, other people can as well.

Haven’t we all heard it thousands of times? Try this! You’ll lose weight instantly. The pounds will melt off. It’s the latest and greatest diet out there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Something I read today really resounded to me because it makes so much sense. As we all know, 99 percent of these things plain don’t work. Or they don’t work in the long term if you are one of the lucky few to see some kind of result.

Why? To keep us spending money!

Just like any other companies, they’re all out to make a dollar. So why give people something that works when you can make a lot more money by keeping people coming back?

This is more of a ramble than a rant, but I am a bit peeved at all this. These companies know exactly what they are doing because it has worked for so many companies before. People are so addicted to the quick fix that the psychology of obesity simply doesn’t come into play.

Now that’s a thought – if a company started a psychological program, maybe more of us would get real help.

What do you think? Are you sick of all the ads or don’t you mind them? Do you wish there was more focus on the psychology of obesity?

Is it Monday already? I think the weekend went entirely too fast. Then again, there is a long weekend coming up, so I shouldn’t be complaining.

Monday means it’s that time again…and I’m not very happy with my results, but they could be worse.

SW: 256
CW: 254

I was sick all of last week with a cold/cough/flu, which I’m still trying to shrug off completely. With all that going on, I still managed to keep a food diary, but that doesn’t mean I stopped to think for too long before reaching for the ice cream to soothe my sore throat. So, ice cream and all, I didn’t gain any weight, which is great.

I have to admit that I had some high hopes since I started taking the weight loss supplement, but again, I didn’t take it all the time because I was sick. Also, I didn’t get to the gym either, so no exercise plus ice cream equals no weight gain?

Sounds pretty good to me.

I went back to the gym this morning and pushed myself to a level I’m rather proud of. I plan on doing that all week, watching what I eat, keeping on with my food diary, and also getting into some positive thinking.

I truly believe positive thinking is a part of weight loss, and it’s long past time I started thinking positively about my weight loss with statements like “I can lose weight” and “I will lose weight”.
How are you doing this week? Do you have any specific plans of action? New recipes to try?

It’s no secret that I’m anti-McDonalds, but this isn’t a rant on how evil it is or whatever else comments I could say about the corporation. This is merely a video I would like to pass on so you can make your own judgments.

Author and Obesity Activist Julia Havey has kept a McDonald’s burger and fries with her for over three years now. No shrink wrap, no preservatives – just a McDonald’s happy meal in a lunch box. Nothing beyond that.

And yet, somehow, the McDonald’s burger seems to be aging better than every skin-cream addicted, botox-loving person out there.

Scary stuff.

I think the thing I really can’t get past is that the fries are still golden and greasy. You would think they would at least have dried out completely by now or be falling apart like the hamburger bun is starting to. But no, still greasy, oily, and the same colour.

And people are feeding this to their children? Gross.

The thing is, most people don’t chew properly. Even the people who do chew properly get things stuck in their intestines. We’re talking whole pieces of broccoli sometimes. Just imagine what McDonalds does when it gets stuck in your body.

That’s right – a whole lot of nothing because it seems to be a bit impervious to the natural laws surrounding ‘real’ food.

I am tempted to buy my own little happy meal and see this happen with my own eyes, but I don’t think I could keep that smell in the house. I just hope this video gets around and wakes people up a bit.

Too often we weight loss journeyers focus what is going on on the scale and only on the scale. We forget about measurements, how we can do things we couldn’t do before, and other non-scale accomplishments.

For this week’s Thursday Thirteen, I am going to focus on the non-scale achievements I have made since starting on my journey to a healthier lifestyle.

Happy Thursday Thirteen!

1. Less acne. I’ve always had a problem with acne, but it’s not as bad as it used to be.
2. Mirror time. It’s not always fun, but it is enlightening. I take time to really look at myself now.
3. No microwave. I’m not trying to insult people with microwaves, but it’s one more way I’m making things natural in my life.
4. No numbers. I read nutritional facts. I occasionally have a number or two, but the more numbers anything has, the much less likely I am to buy it.
5. More veggies! I’ve found I actually like veggies if they’re prepared correctly. Mushrooms, pumpkin, broccoli… Yum.
6. Less illness. I’m not sick nearly as often as I used to be.
7. No crisps! I haven’t had potato chips in years.
8. More water. I’m drinking more water now than I ever have.
9. Less hair-related problems. Growing it and losing it has tamed down.
10. I eat less. I can leave food on the plate.
11. No inhaler. I just plain don’t need it anymore.
12. I think before I stuff my mouth.
13. I go to the gym and exercise. For the first time ever!

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens at Fiction Scribe, Write Anyway, and The Book Stacks

As per usual, easier said than done.

It’s easy enough to say that you should lose weight for you. To live longer, to look better, to feel better about yourself. But more often than not, it’s difficult to start a diet with ‘for me’ in mind.

Why? Because many overweight people just don’t care that much about themselves.

Unlike what a lot of the skinnier population seems to think, being overweight is not always just a matter of “I’m a glutton”. There are mental, emotional, and psychological components all adding up to a lack of not caring about the value of one’s own life.

There are many reasons for ‘do it for you’ not being quite enough to get you busting to go to the gym.

So what can you do if ‘do it for you’ just doesn’t cut it?

Try making a list of the people closest to you. (Even if they don’t exist. My future daughter, not even conceived yet, has been a big motivator for me in the past.) You can use that as a list of motivators.

Not really close to many people? I know how you feel. The next step is to make a list of reasons you want to lose the weight. Even things like the little black dress/suit of your dreams.

It’s entirely possible that you’ll find you have lists of things that aren’t quite the ‘bottom line’ to get you to start changing your life. However, if you wait for motivation, it’s possible that you’ll never lose weight.

Sometimes it’s a matter of doing it and the motivation will come.

Having a spreadsheet to track your weight loss (and measurements if you want) can not only be useful to have on hand, but it can be great for numbers addicts (like me).

If you have Microsoft Excel, excellent. That’s what I’ll be using. If you don’t, you can use Word and just make your tables. (Note: This is definitely something you can do on paper! I am at the computer a lot, which is why a spreadsheet is better for me.)

What you include in your spreadsheet is completely up to you. I’m just going to talk about what works for me.

First off, I have the basics – weekly weigh-in dates and what my current weight is.

As you can see, between the date and my current weight, I have two columns with “if losing 1lb/week” and “if losing 2lb/week”. I have these in there to help keep me on track as well as motivate me. It helps me when I can look at the spreadsheet and see, “Hey, I could be at xxx by the end of this month!” It also helps me stay within the parameters of recommended loss.

As you can imagine, if you hit a plateau or gain weight, watching those columns might get a bit depressing. That’s why, next to my current weight column, I have CWA typed in. I have this in the same row as the beginning of each month. CWA means “Current Weight Adjustment” and means at the first weigh in of each month, I adjust the “if” columns to my current weight.

Then I don’t get depressed but keep good, healthy loss in my goal sights.

As I said, what you put on your spreadsheet is your choice. Beyond what I’ve already pointed out, I also have a bit of extra information to keep me motivated. A few columns away from all the above information, I have three columns set up (pictured at right).

The percentages are the percents of body weight lost. Next to it are the corresponding weights. Beside that is my BMI. That way I can keep track of those types of goals.

You could also put in your measurements (I keep that in a different spreadsheet, though), your goals and rewards, a star rated mood system… Anything you want, really. The goal is to have one place where you can keep track of everything you want to keep track of.