When starting this diet, I decided I would only weigh myself on Mondays. I don't want to freak myself out by weighing myself everyday. I understand that a persons weight fluctuates between 2-3 lbs regularly, so weighing that often would only make me crazy. Today was the first "weigh in" since I started. Good News!!! I am down 3.4 lbs. Secretly my goal is to lose 4 lbs a week. I know that it is not a very realistic goal and that maybe 2 lbs would be a better goal. I figure, I will strive for 4 lbs and then even if I lose 2 lbs, I will still be losing weight and that will make me happy.
I have been pretty good so far with the food. Technically the diet REALLY only started today, so I would hope I have been good so far. However, the exercising has not been too good. Do you know how easy it is to talk myself out of exercising at 5:30 in the morning when I am lying in my extremely comfy bed? I'll tell you...REALLY EASY!!! I will try harder tomorrow.
I think I need to get a Diet Planner. This way I don't have to think about what comes next. Kind of like my check off list at work. Everything on the list has to be done in order to keep things running smoothly. I will work on that tomorrow.
Talk to you again soon.
3.02.2009
3.01.2009
Going on a Diet...AGAIN
This is a constant struggle for me. I have literally been on and off diets for 20-25 years. It wasn't too bad until I developed Hoshimoto's Disease which affects the thyroid, which affects the metabolism... among other things. I have lost about 25 pounds since Jan 2008, but would like to lose much more. Right now I weigh about 60 lbs more than the heaviest I was when I was pregnant with either of my children. I can't completely blame my disease, with the frustration of not seeing any results, I turn to food (or shopping) to comfort me. Since it is less expensive to eat than to shop, I tend to do that more frequently.
I've tried everything...Weight Watchers, South Beach, Atkins, etc. My doctor had me on weight loss medications, but I also have a condition called Superior Oblique Myokymia which is a twitching of the superior oblique eye muscle. You know those movies that are filmed with a hand held camera and has a lot of shaking, almost giving you motion shickness? Well that is what happens with my left eye. Anyways, weight loss medications increase your heart rate, which affects how hard and long the blood pumps through your body. When I am taking these medications, my eye twitches are heavily increased...causing severe headaches and making me sick to my stomach. So, those are out of the question.
Weight watchers was great when I was in high school because it was so structured. You are what they said when they said. Nowadays, the program is not structured at all and allows everyone to customize their food. For me, this is not helpful. It makes it possible for me to eat well for days, and then one day totally blow it by eating all the rest of my points in one day. That didn't work.
Atkins was not good for me because I am not a sweets eater, I am a carb eater. I tried it for a couple weeks, and was hungry all the time and I was so sick of MEAT!!! I love meat, but too much is too much. That didn't work.
I read the South Beach Diet book cover to cover and thought this was a better fit for me. It allowed me to eat some carbs. However, this was just a very expensive diet. After a couple weeks of $200 grocery bills for just my food, I was going broke. That didn't work.
I am going to try something different now. Clean eating. Fruits, veggies, whole grain breads and pastas, and lean meats. I am not following any one persons diet book or plan. I am coming up with this for myself. I need to plan something the is easier for me to follow, as well as for my husband and kids to follow. Since my husband does most of the cooking for dinner, it had to be something that he would accept. He is strongly against plain foods and likes his sauces and fats and he likes to grill. He has no problem with making my meat seperate from everyone else so it is cooked with no fats, and he doesn't mind whole grain pastas and brown rice.
So far, my plan is kind on simple...3 meals a day with 2 snacks. For breakfast I will have either an omlete made with veggies and egg whites, or fruit with ff cottage cheese. Lunch will consist of either steamed veggies and protein left over from the night before with a small salad, or a big salad with lots of different veggies and a little protein. For Dinner there will be lean protein, steamed veggies, a small salad, and sometimes brown rice, whole grain pasta, or plain potato. The 2 snacks will be something like string cheese and cut up veggies or some almonds and fruit. Hopefully this works.
However, I am going to step up my exercise. I was doing 3-4 days of elliptical machine, but all that I felt was getting worked out was my quads. They were always tired. I have always wanted to be a runner, but have had problems with shin splints since high school. I got some advise from a podiatrist and I think I can go ahead with running. I have decided that just exercising after work is no good because I get my heart rate up, then come home, eat dinner, and then sit my but on the couch and watch TV because I am tired from exercising. Mornings are going to be better for me, however much harder for me to do. I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON!! I have heard from many friends how great P90X is and I just purchased it. This will be a good workout in the morning before I go to work. Then I am still going to workout after work, but instead of the elliptical, I am going to try the great outdoors and run/walk on the track trail at work. Also, myself and a couple coworkers are going to be walking stairs at work. We get rewards each month from our Healthy Balance Department for walking as many stairs as we can each month.
As part of this plan, I will be blogging at least a couple times a week to record my success or failure. Maybe if I have to put it in writing, I will make myself be accountable for my actions. Hopefully if anyone is reading this, it will help them as well. And if you have any suggestions or comments, I would love to hear them and maybe I will learn from them as well.
So that is it. Just like every other time, I am extremely motivated. However this time I am looking at this as a lifestyle change instead of a diet. I will miss the bacon cheeseburgers and fries from Astro Burger once a week, but they will always be there if I ever NEED a fix.
Wish me luck!
I've tried everything...Weight Watchers, South Beach, Atkins, etc. My doctor had me on weight loss medications, but I also have a condition called Superior Oblique Myokymia which is a twitching of the superior oblique eye muscle. You know those movies that are filmed with a hand held camera and has a lot of shaking, almost giving you motion shickness? Well that is what happens with my left eye. Anyways, weight loss medications increase your heart rate, which affects how hard and long the blood pumps through your body. When I am taking these medications, my eye twitches are heavily increased...causing severe headaches and making me sick to my stomach. So, those are out of the question.
Weight watchers was great when I was in high school because it was so structured. You are what they said when they said. Nowadays, the program is not structured at all and allows everyone to customize their food. For me, this is not helpful. It makes it possible for me to eat well for days, and then one day totally blow it by eating all the rest of my points in one day. That didn't work.
Atkins was not good for me because I am not a sweets eater, I am a carb eater. I tried it for a couple weeks, and was hungry all the time and I was so sick of MEAT!!! I love meat, but too much is too much. That didn't work.
I read the South Beach Diet book cover to cover and thought this was a better fit for me. It allowed me to eat some carbs. However, this was just a very expensive diet. After a couple weeks of $200 grocery bills for just my food, I was going broke. That didn't work.
I am going to try something different now. Clean eating. Fruits, veggies, whole grain breads and pastas, and lean meats. I am not following any one persons diet book or plan. I am coming up with this for myself. I need to plan something the is easier for me to follow, as well as for my husband and kids to follow. Since my husband does most of the cooking for dinner, it had to be something that he would accept. He is strongly against plain foods and likes his sauces and fats and he likes to grill. He has no problem with making my meat seperate from everyone else so it is cooked with no fats, and he doesn't mind whole grain pastas and brown rice.
So far, my plan is kind on simple...3 meals a day with 2 snacks. For breakfast I will have either an omlete made with veggies and egg whites, or fruit with ff cottage cheese. Lunch will consist of either steamed veggies and protein left over from the night before with a small salad, or a big salad with lots of different veggies and a little protein. For Dinner there will be lean protein, steamed veggies, a small salad, and sometimes brown rice, whole grain pasta, or plain potato. The 2 snacks will be something like string cheese and cut up veggies or some almonds and fruit. Hopefully this works.
However, I am going to step up my exercise. I was doing 3-4 days of elliptical machine, but all that I felt was getting worked out was my quads. They were always tired. I have always wanted to be a runner, but have had problems with shin splints since high school. I got some advise from a podiatrist and I think I can go ahead with running. I have decided that just exercising after work is no good because I get my heart rate up, then come home, eat dinner, and then sit my but on the couch and watch TV because I am tired from exercising. Mornings are going to be better for me, however much harder for me to do. I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON!! I have heard from many friends how great P90X is and I just purchased it. This will be a good workout in the morning before I go to work. Then I am still going to workout after work, but instead of the elliptical, I am going to try the great outdoors and run/walk on the track trail at work. Also, myself and a couple coworkers are going to be walking stairs at work. We get rewards each month from our Healthy Balance Department for walking as many stairs as we can each month.
As part of this plan, I will be blogging at least a couple times a week to record my success or failure. Maybe if I have to put it in writing, I will make myself be accountable for my actions. Hopefully if anyone is reading this, it will help them as well. And if you have any suggestions or comments, I would love to hear them and maybe I will learn from them as well.
So that is it. Just like every other time, I am extremely motivated. However this time I am looking at this as a lifestyle change instead of a diet. I will miss the bacon cheeseburgers and fries from Astro Burger once a week, but they will always be there if I ever NEED a fix.
Wish me luck!
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