Better days ahead

I am posting because I need to.   I had a better week this week.  So far as of Friday, I have lost another lb from not having lost for a few weeks.  I think Stacey is right (this time..HA...she usually is)  about really watching every bite of food that goes in my mouth.  I did that and finally broke through with the lb. weight loss.   I have now lost 10.8 lbs....so far.  

I am still having trouble with the fat content of my meals.   Yesterday I burned 2147 calories and ate 1,288 calories.   I had 45 grams of protein, 164 grams of carbs, and the bad...54 grams of fat...46 gms of Cholestral, 1727 mg of sodium, I had pretty good fiber (for me)   16 gms of fiber..and I have gotten my calcium up with 1782 mg .  

I did 30 mins of weight lifting from one of my new DVD's...using weights and bands...I didn't get to finish it all since 6:30 came too early, Keith got up and I needed to start my day.   Will try to do that sometime during the day ...all the way through.

I found an interesting article yesterday on the Internet  called Cheat or Treat?   Kind of summed it up how I feel about food.  The question was , Why is it important to occasionally cheat when it comes to your diet?  The answer was "Let's define cheat.  If cheat means making room for a beloved high calorie treat then I am all for it.  You cannot feel like you're in diet prison because that just leads binging and throwing in the towel.  You have to feel like you have the right and the power to eat whatever you want; however the trick is to shape your wants to be for wholesome foods most of the time.  Over time, you learn to identify tasty foods that are low in calories or at least have nutrient profiles in proportion to their calorie counts.  If your day to day food is very tasty and satisfying you will yearn for a cheat less often.  But there are times when you'll want to partake in a favorite high calorie food and that is normal and good. You actually owe it to yourself to engage in that activity because that's how you develop self -trust.  You must keep practicing until you feel comfortable and guilt free for enjoying a reasonable amount.  A bad cheat is an eating frenzy that adds back the calories you've lost all week.  But that isn't a cheat...it is a binge.  I don't use the word cheat because it sounds so shady.  I'd rather  call it a splurge or indulgence or some word that addresses the sensual enjoyment but forgoes the guilt.  In my opinion the best cheat is the one that you really love, that tastes out of this world and is enjoyed slowly.  Realizing that there isn't much room in the diet for high calorie foods with little nutritional value, you will fine tune your discriminatory thinking to become very choosy about the foods you let in.  If you start to eat something indulgent and it doesn't taste great, then why bother?  Stop right there.  But its important to learn about the calories in the food so that you can make informed choices. "

I thought this article good and addressed some of my issues with food.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Don't have much time to write but doing better on tracking food.  That is one of the important keys.  Might even have a loss this week...we will see.  Will try to post more later this week.

Something's wrong

Ok....this is 4 weeks without a lb being lost.  Something is wrong.   Yes, I have lost inches...lost another 1/2 off of my thigh and 1/4 off of my arm but no weight lost.   I think I must be underestimating my calories.  They say even the back of boxes are not always correct.     Perhaps I should cut out all snacks...even the good ones of vegetables that I have .....of course those add up to less than 100 calories.....just not sure what is wrong.   I have not been able to exercise because of my hip and leg that much which is a problem but if my calories are truly lower than my burn.....still should be losing lbs.    Grrrrrr !  I use measuring cups and the scale at every meal........?   So what should I do?    I do sometimes think I might have a thyroid problem...I realize that could just be an excuse.   I am cold a lot of the time, thinning hair, tired and constipated at times...all signs of an underactive thyroid.   Years ago I was tested for that and they said no.  I had heard that the test I was given does not always detect this problem.   I am probably grasping at straws but I want answers.   This next week I will be a fanatic of watching every tiny thing that goes in my mouth and see if that helps.   Any suggestion???????  I am very tempted to go below a 1000 calories a day just to see some results !!!!!!!

Friday-yeah

Just a small post.   Did ok yesterday...probably not as good as I should but better than I  use to.
So far my weight as not moved.   No doubt underestimating my calories...something to work on.

Body bugg says I burned 2203 and ate 1479 calories.

Protein was 67 g,  Carbs 211gms, Fat 39 gms...still high....Chos 99 mg, sodium 1888 mg, fiber 21 grams...that is better than it has been, sat. fat 12 grams and calcium 1184 mg.  

Got up this morning and did 30 minutes of exercise.  Have not broken out the new exercise DVD's that I have bought.  Will try them out this next week.

I am a work in progress !!!!!!!!

Made it through the Night

Just a quick post.   Made it through the evening of the Women's fellowship meal without too much damage. 
We had a spinach salad that had oil on it.  My salad was fairly small so I ate that.   Then we had some wonderful (ask Melissa) soft and juicy beef, green beans and some red potatoes and cheesecake for dessert.  

I ate the salad, 1/2 or approx. 4 ozs of the beef .   It was so good I could have eaten it all.   Then I ate  2 of the little chunks of potatoes and all of the green beans.  I also ate 2 bites of the cheese cake.   Yummy ...I could have eaten all of that too.     Except for the meat, I forced my potatoes and my cheesecake onto Melissa...who claimed that I was trying to make her fat now !!!!!   She can stand the extra food more than me since she runs every morning and I barely struggle out of bed !

The speaker was really good .   She talked about inner beauty and how God sees us, etc.   She was speaking to  me.   I put too much emphasis on what the outside of me looks like.    I liked Nici's saying when she was talking about jewelry.   "If you can't lose it, decorate it !!!! "    I still want to lose it though...not so much for how I look.   I just want to feel good health wise and strong...and at the moment...I feel neither of those.  That is my goal.

Writing On Track

Weds.   I am feeling a bit better about stuff and trying not to get so down on myself as I tend to do.    I also watched The Biggest Loser that I taped last night.   Got in some exercise yesterday in the morning as I told you and then when I got home...saw that Big Grandpa had mowed so I spent some time mowing around the house and bushes and such.  My calorie burn for the day was 2,364 and my eating was 1469.   Protein was 66 grams, Carbs were 144 gm, Cholestral was 604 mg, Sodium was 2884 mg, Calcium was 561 mg and my last two...on the good side...my fiber was 18 mg.   But the ugly old fat gms mounted up again.  Was doing well till Dad wanted to eat at I-Hops.    (That buy one meal, get one free thing)   Anyway for being at I-Hops...I made the wisest choice I could.  I got a veggie Omelet and a piece of dry Rye toast.  I looked the calories up on line and was told it was 406 calories.  Who knows?  

Today as of 5:40 I have burned 1553 calories and have eaten 826 calories.   My Protein is 24 grams, my carb ia 113 gms, fat is 36 gms, Cholestral is 8 mg, Sodium is 627 mg, Fiber is 17 gms, Sat. Fat is 8 grams and calcium is 355 mg.   My problem is that the women's banquet at church is tonight and who knows what they will serve.  I have no way of knowing the calorie count when they do a lot of mixing stuff together.  My thought is that I will eat a little of everything.   Eat the most of say the vegetable if it is just a plan vegetable, A little meat if it not some weird type meat.   Take a few bites of dessert and leave a lot on my plate.  

2 nice things is I found a bar with fiber that I like.   Not sure on the health side of it.  It is made by Kellogg's and it is called Fiber Plus Antioxidants.   Here is the break down of it   1 bar 120 calories  Fat 4 g, Sat. Fat 2 g, Trans fat 0 g.  Sodium 55 mg,  Cholestrerol is 0 gms, Total carbs...26 gms, Fiber 9 g, sugar 7 g, and Protein 2 gms.     What do you think ?   Is it really too bad for a person... It  beats a candy bar.

The second thing was when I went to PT today.   The lady working on me said, "You've lost weight haven't you?   She said, I can tell.    That was pretty cool, considering they give you these shorts that "one size fits all" and some of them don't fit all !!!!   Plus she is rubbing your body so she can tell !   And a long with the shorts,  I keep my black socks on...so you have grey one size fits all and snow white legs and black socks....not the greatest picture in the world !!!!!   She told me that my knee  that is hurting so bad is swollen and has inflammation in it....no wonder it really hurts.  

Well, must go do my hair for tonight.  

Unsuccessful day.

Well my first day of trying to get on track did not seem to work.  I am a bit discouraged.

I burned over 2000 calories and kept my food calories to under 1500 but my nutrition was not that good.  Some of it was ...some of it was not.   I ate 59 grams of Protein, 186 grams of Carbs, Cholestral was 86 mg...fiber was up  16 grams, Calcium was not good at 487 mg, sodium was so-so with 1494 gms but the bad part was Fat....52 grams of fat.   Way too much !

On the bright side.....I got up and did a lower body exercise program for 30 minutes this morning.  Perhaps that will help with the eating today.  My computer was putt-putting along for a while so I am running out of time to plug into the body bugg program ...but will later.    

Busy Week

This has been a busy week as you can see by the lack of posting.   And apparently too busy to pay attention to my eating and my exercising since I lost nothing again this week.   I did not gain so that is a plus  and I lost another 1/2 " off of my thigh and 1/2 " off of my calf.   That is good but not good enough.  I seem to be stuck at the moment of losing 10 lbs.   It is my own fault...I need to really buckle down and get in gear...my body and my mind.  .I had an active day yesterday but can't tell you how active as the Body bugg site is down for maintenance at the moment.

I pledge this next week to try to up my exercise, watch my eating better and to post and see if I can get off this plateau that I seem to have gotten myself into for several weeks.   

Well Who Knows?

I thought I was doing better today...I certainly feel better.   But my nutrition still sucks.    For Breakfast I had Crispex Cereal.  I hate cereal.  But I had a bowl of it with some skim milk on it.   For a snack I had yogurt and felt fairly full all morning...at least not light headed.   Then for lunch I had the Vegetarian pizza with  zucchini, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, onions, spinach, etc.  For a p.m. snack some raw almonds.   Then for Supper the No noodle stuff that I wrote to you about.   I had approx 1490 calories.  Burned 2161 and that was with doing mowing....need to get moving more.

Here is the breakdown.   53g of Protein , 121 g of Carbs, 33 g of Fat, Cholestrol 77 mg, Sodium 1028 mg
and again only 9 gms of fiber, Sat. fat was 8 gms and calcium was over 1200 mg.   So there it is.

Suggestions??????

Exhausted Monday

I am sorry ...got up at 5:30 to exercise but at 6:04 ...still sitting her in a stupor!  I don't think I could move or exercise if my life depended on it.     I will try to do something about it later today.  My mornings are always so busy, eating, getting ready for work, making dad's lunch, straightening up the house.   Plus slept like a log but still feel like I need sleep.

I ate ok yesterday...enough calories.   Took Cleo's out for lunch at Ruby Tuesdays.   I ate a good salad at lunch (to begin with)   Had lots of mixed greens, zucchini, garbanzo beans, onions, tomatoes, and other veggies on it.   Had a mini turkey burger (2 of them but only ate 1)  My downside is that I ate 10 french fries...dad ate the rest of mine.     I had enough calories...did not go over .  Not sure about my nutritional break down for the day...here it is.    43 gms of protein, carbs , 174 gms of carbs, 41 gms of fat, 94mg of Chos, 1269 mg of salt ( probably too much again) 16 grams of fiber (that is a bit better) and 464 mg of calcium (still low)   So that is my breakdown.   I will keep trying.

Sunday 4-11

Rather disappointed today.  No weight loss.   I drank a lot of water before I went to bed.  Not sure if that is the problem or not.  My diet stunk yesterday.   I burned 2419 calories and oops...(busy) ate less than a 1000.   I did have a piece of Vegetarian Gourmet Pizza for supper with articoke hearts, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, etc on it.  So at least their were some vegetables on it.  I ate 1/12 of it which was what I was told was 270 calories BUT was probably more than stated on the web.  For the day My protein was 45 grams, carbs 98 grams, Fat 24 grams, Sodium (high again) 1577 mg.  Fiber 2 grams and calcium (low) 279 grams.     Need to work on this.

On the high side.  I lost another 1/2 inch off my waist, 1/2 inch off my hips and  1/2 inch off of my thigh..so good there.

Gotta go exericse.  Bye

Saturday 4-10-10

I think the hardest part of this whole blogging thing is coming up with a good title.   You can tell I had great imagination by the title above.    I hope this blog is a bit more interesting than yesterday.   I had some interesting emails yesterday that was full of some good information.   A couple of things come from a book by Michael Pollen called "Food Rules".   It is a book of 64 rules for eating.    Rule # 24 is Eat what stands on one leg (mushrooms, plant foods), which is better than what stands on 2 legs (Fowl), which is better than what stands on four legs ( cows, pigs and other mammals).    Rule # 64 is Breakfast like a King, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.    Which I think is the opposite of the way I eat and most of America eats.   We eat our large meal at dinner !  Then I had a email from the "Real" Jillian (not Stacey) about busting Plateaus.    One is to keep your salt intake down (which you will see later ...I DID NOT)  Eat no processed Carbs period...no chips, sugar, white flour. (minus the chips I am NOT doing that either)  Hit the gym hard  (hmmmmm...NOT doing that either...are we seeing a trend?)   Play around with your calorie intake..For instance have 1200 calories say Monday, Weds, Friday...Tues 1600 calories, Thursday 1400 and Sunday 1700.    And sometimes plateau can just be a simple matter of flagging resolve....(gee I am NOT doing any of the above!)   No wonder I am in a Plateau.  Some things for us to think about.   Also I was reading  ShopSmart, a neat magazine by Consumers Report, that covers all sorts of interesting facts.  One of the articles was called FAT PILLS which was about medications that can make you fat or at least hamper weight loss.    Did not like that the one drug I take is in that catagory.  Zyrtec can make you gain 1% or more of body weight.  Yippee...I need to hear that...Duh !    Not as bad as Antidepressants, blood pressure drugs, diabetes drugs, seizure drugs or Steroids but still not good.   Not that that is an excuse but it said if it does not make you gain weight it slows down your metabolism !

Ok here is the more boring stuff.   The bad thing of looking at my nutritional numbers is I see how bad I am eating.  The good thing about looking at my nutritional numbers is that I can see how bad I am eating and maybe learn something from it and improve my diet.   Yesterday for breakfast I ate an egg, whole wheat toast and skim milk.   For lunch I had 2 1/2 ounces of lean thin cut ham and a 1/2 cup of mash potatoes (left overs) and the pepper gravy.   For a snack, my usual of celery and cauliflower.  For supper I had a cup of Chicken lo mein.   Not bad as far as calories 1,412 and I burned 2297 calories but when you break down the nutritional part of it....horrible.   I upped my protein to 66 grams but my fat content is 55 grams, Carb 171 grams, cholestral 264 mg , Sat. fat 15 gms.  Sodium was off the charts at 4112 and calcium is low at 460 mg and Fiber was low at 11 gms.   Now I need to figure out how to change those numbers....sounds overwelming.   Any thoughts from any of you what to eat, etc to bring up the ones I should and take down the bad ones would be helpful.

Quick Post of Food Content

I will probably most more later today but Stacey asked me break down the nutritional count of my food.  When I do that....even though I have low calories...my diet looks pretty bad.    I am out of fruit at the moment so until I go to the grocery I am lacking somewhat in that catagory.  Here goes....
47 grams of Protein, 162 grams of carbs, 46 gram of fat, 86 mg of cholestral, 2967 mg of sodium, 14 grams of fiber, 16 gram of saturated fat, 516 grams of calcium.    Does anyone know what you actually should be eating a day of each for a healthy diet ????   Help !!!!!!!

Anyway, that is the highs and lows of my diet yesterday.  Interesting reading, huh?

Oh and does anyone know on this crazy blog where the spell check button is?   If not...you will just have to forgive all the spelling and grammer errors  !!!!!

Back on Track !!!!!!

Okay;  Now we have a new plan that hopefully will help me stay on track a bit better and get my mind all straightened out.    1) I have decided to open my blog for others to see.  That might make me feel a bit more accountable ...plus I think or hope that others besides my lovely daughters will either give me some advice or encouragement or both or yell at me or whatever they so feel led to do. 
2)  I am going to tell you exactly what I eat so that I will think twice before putting stuff in my mouth.   I don't want you to think I am a total moron when it comes to food.   (which I might be)   Since I did not know I was going to do this today....my food might not be the best but so be it.

Breakfast was a piece of whole wheat toast with about 1/2 t of butter; 8 ozs of skim milk and precooked bacon...not good but yummy.    They are only the middle of the bacon and for some reason the calorie count is only 70 calories for 4 pieces ...so that is what I had.   For a snack, I had some cauliflower and celery with 1/2 t of light ranch dressing.   For lunch 1 cup of Chicken Lo Mein and this is where my calories came in......1/4 cup of dark chocolate M & M's.    No afternoon snack and for supper I had fish with 1/2 t of Tartar sauce and 1/2 cup of green beans, 1/2 cup of mash potatoes with pepper gravy on them.   No food after supper.     Altogether my program said that I ate 1236 calories and as of 9:30 I burned 1900 and some but if I don't move another step the body bugg said that I will burn 2141 calories....Leaving me with a deficit of approx 905 calories.  

So there we are...the facts.   

Off the Wagon

It seems I have gotten off track and rather derailed since Easter.  I have not been as careful and such.   I doubt I will lose any weight at all.   I have been busy and apparently sloppy as well.   I need to get myself together and start tracking daily again.    So we will work to start tracking calories in and calories out on a daily basis.   It is not good for anything to be out of the ordinary for me.   

Sunday 4-4-10

Well finished my fourth week.   I lost 1.2 lbs this week.  Short of my goal but at least I am losing.   Sure am not setting the world on fire but with a bad hip and lack of exercise as much as I would like....at least it is a loss.  I am 2/10th short of 10 lbs.   9.8 total. or 2.45 lbs a week.    The good news is that I lost an inch on my waist and an inch off of my big hips !   Yippee.   Altogether I over all my body I have lost...1 inch off of my neck, 1 inch off of my bicep, 1 inch off of forearm,  2 inches off of my bust; 3inches off of my waist; 2 inches off of my hips; 4 inches off of my thigh an 1/2 inch off of my calf.....for a total of  14 1/2 inches !   I am not sure in what measurement they use to measure Lean Body Mass but when I started my lean body mass was 140.82 ????   And now my Lean Body Mass is 151.01 ??????   So more lean body mass by 10.19 ????   So if that is going up....my fat level is going down !!!!!  YEAH !

Saturday

Busy day getting ready for Easter and  did yard work.  At 8:30 I have already burned over 2400 calories.  It said if I do nothing the rest of the night...it will be 2700.   I am very tired.   Didn't eat enough I know today.   Didn't feel like it.     As of this morning I at least lost 1 lb.   I guess that is better than nothing.  On the Biggest Loser I would get voted off for sure.  

Stressful week

Not sure why but this has been a very stressful week.  Very busy...lots of appointments and activities.  Do not feel real good about anything today.  I did not exercise today.   I got up and it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other.   Allergies to the trees and grass is really  kicking in right now and I feel totally out of it.   I doubt if I have lost anything this week.   Food counting has not been the best and my mind is not in the right gear right now.

On one positive note...I wore a shirt I had not ever wore before.  It wasn't a small size but did not wear it all winter because it cupped my tummy and my butt and yesterday it didn't.   That at least felt good.