Weigh In, Week Three

So here it is....

(drumroll, please)

240.5

(small round of applause--can't you hear it?)

I dropped almost six pounds this week! Yay, me! I am running around like a crazy person again today, but wanted to check in and stay accountable. Still active and making good choices although I know next weekend is going to be tough...more on that later...

And you, how are you doing?

Update and the plan

Well, I promised a weigh-in on Monday, but after walking at the mall for an hour and then going grocery shopping, I forgot to get online and post my weigh in. But don't worry...I did weigh in.

(drum roll please)

246.3

(gasp)

It's horrible, I know. But it's in the past now. Each day I've managed to get active--even if it was just running around town picking up donated items for the silent auction at my daughter's middle school. I figure getting the baby in and out of the car twelve times in a day, plus walking to and from the car to pick up the items has to count as some sort of workout.

And I have changed how I eat. I have cut out almost all processed foods from my diet. My breakfast consists of puffed kamut, soymilk, fruit, a cup of coffee, and a cheese stick (mozzarella, because being part-skim makes it lower fat). I have a light snack mid-morning, a sensible lunch, another light snack in the afternoon, and a sensible dinner. My goal is to eat between 1200-1500 calories a day, and to get at least 30-60 minutes of physical exercise each day.

And I'm doing it. I'm choosing low-fat, nutrient dense foods, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and I know that those clothes in the closet downstairs are going to fit again. It may be a long road, and one that I will keep walking for the rest of my life, but I will get there.

Tools...everyone always wants to know what diet you're doing. Me? I'm doing the Food Pyramid. The USDA has a neat little tool called the MyPyramid Tracker. I am really liking it. It's relatively simple to use, and the best part: IT'S FREE! It's basically just a well-rounded diet, not requiring you to add something odd to your diet or drop whole food groups. It's not trendy. It isn't cool. But it works. And there isn't something amazingly beautiful about being able to say that you've lost (and kept off) lots of weight without surgery or prescription drugs. I know, I was there for a while.

So that's it. As I workout more, I have to drink more water; my body craves it. I also am able to sleep better (although my back problem remains due to weight, no doubt). We plan to buy a new bed and mattress with our tax return money though. (grins from ear to ear)

I'll check back in on Monday with an updated weight. And a different thought about obesity and weight loss for the believer.

Resiliency and weight loss

Back when I was taking college classes, I took this really cool intro to Sociology class. Of all the things that I remember from college, I remember my teacher telling us that resiliency (the ability to change and transition easily) was a greater indicator of a person's potential for success than any other factor--social, economic, emotional.

I believe that in weight loss, resiliency is the greatest factor to potential success. Obviously, change is required to choose and adopt habits that lead to healthier eating and more physical activity for a lifetime. Beyond the initial change, however, there is the ability to keep weight off. During our lives, things change. Children are born, parents age, jobs change, households change dramatically, the economy blooms or depresses. All of these things may force us to adapt how we eat and act.

I am writing about this because I had this glorious plan. Payday was supposed to hold certain things. And it did. But our spending didn't pan out the way I had hoped it would. I had planned to purchase alli to assist with my dieting plans, in addition to some sweatpants, and good walking shoes.

I got good walking shoes. But I am not going to be able to buy alli right now. And I'm not going to be able to buy the sweatpants either. Now, don't tell me...you can work out without new sweatpants and you can change your diet without alli. I know both of these things. But my plan was destroyed today.

Resiliency tells me to find a new plan. My old plan says give up.

Fortunately, I am highly resilient. After spending about an hour online, I have found a way to make diet modifications that will be helpful without the added expense of alli. In addition, I will continue to go walking, regardless of whether or not I get the new pants to boost my spirits while I establish a new habit. I will be successful, but only after finding a new plan and adjusting my attitude to accept life as what it is...changing and unpredictable.

Tomorrow I go grocery shopping and do my first official weigh-in. Here's to change for a lifetime!

Update: Week Two

Just a quick check in. Exercise appears to be a very magic ingredient to my lifestyle change. On Monday, I went to the local mall and walked six laps (3 miles) in one hour. I was pretty impressed with myself considering how inactive I've been for so long and how heavy I am that I was able to do it. Last night, I slept better than I have in months! I didn't even wake up to use the bathroom!

Also, exercise like requires drinking lots of water. And I can't chug down coffee after working out, so that took care of that problem too. I also found a not so unhealthy smoothie (soy based with no added sugar, made with whole fruits) that I can splurge on that makes me feel like I've had something sweet and special. I get the small. I haven't figured out the calories, and while I figure it to be about 200 calories, I use it in place of a mid-morning snack and eat a very light lunch afterward.

My goal is to make it to the mall everyday this week and walk for an hour, approx. 3 miles. I am going before hours which greatly reduces the temptations of fatty, sugary foods or spending on stuff that I don't need. Our local mall opens its doors at 7am to allow people like myself to come and walk in a climate controlled environment. I was genuinely surprised to see that there were about 40 other people in the mall at the same time as me before hours today to walk.

Here's to reaching my goals this week and getting a day closer to the full-on diet alteration and lifestyle change. I schedule a complete physical to make sure I'm okay to go ahead, and I plan to carry this through.

If I can do it, you can too!

2 Hard 2 B: Week 2 Goals

So the goal is simple: shed the weight I've put on over the last 18 months and return to a healthy, active lifestyle. By doing this, I will achieve several things:


1. I will feel better about myself--emotionally and physically.


2. I will eliminate physical problems that I've developed (hopefully).

3. I will have a wardrobe of clothes that I am not embarassed to wear (or be seen in).

Last week, my goal was to cut back on my very high caffeine intake. I had been drinking a pot (or more) of coffee each day. Each cup was full of Splenda (2 packs/mug) plus 2 Tbsp of vanilla coffee creamer. Let's not do the math and leave it at this: too much caffeine, too much artificial sweetener, and lots of hidden empty calories.

Because I have been having trouble with my sleep patterns, I know that cutting back dramatically on my coffee intake is a must. I was successful on cutting back on my coffee intake although I still drink more than what I had set as a quota. However, I did cut my coffee and caffeine intake by more than 50%. The second part of my goal was to increase my water intake. I did this although I still fell dramatically short of my goal of 8-10 cups/day. I have average 3-4 cups/day which is a definite move in the right direction. The third part of my caffeine and water goal was to cut my diet soda intake back to one 12-ounce can of diet soda/day. I wasn't as successful in this as I had hoped. I don't know what exactly led me to drink the second can 4 out of 6 days, but it happened.

So I am still working on these goals. I know that I'm making steps in the right direction so I'm not going to beat myself up over what I didn't achieve. Instead, I am going to pride myself on being successful with what I've already done and encourage myself to keep plugging along. This is a lifelong journey and there will be speed bumps and potholes along the way.

But I have to keep moving on also. And so the next step is exercise. Weight loss is not a magic equation, elusive or expensive. It's like a bank account. To lose, you must use more than you put in. There are several ways to do that. You can cut back on your caloric intake (eating) without increasing your physical activity. You can continue to eat the same way and increase your physical activity level. Or you can do both. Ideally, to lose weight, look great, and maintain the loss for a lifetime, you must find a balance of fewer calories in and more calories expended.

So my goal this week is to increase my physical activity level. The recommended amount of physical activity for healthy adults vary dramatically depending on the source. But what I know for weight loss is this: I have to eat 3500 fewer calories to lose a pound, or burn 3500 more calories to lose that same pound. Or you can do a combination of the two.

Once I get completely underway with my weight loss, my goal is to lose 1.5-2 pounds per week. To do that, I will need to eat 500 calories each day in deficit and burn an extra 500 calories each day through physical exercise. Fortunately, I am home with my baby most days and can easily schedule time for working out. Unfortunately, I am home alone with my baby most days and can easily find a way to do something else instead. Sigh.

But I will not be defeated. To encourage myself in my goal, I am actually going to get out to do my exercise, at least until the weather improves and I can go for walks through the neighborhood. It's not that I don't have the equipment to workout here, but I know that I won't do it. In time, as I am losing weight and seeing results, I will be able to jump on the elliptical. In fact, I know that I will get to a point where I will actually crave the physical activity.

So the plan is to get out and walk for 30-60 minutes three times this week. I have plans to meet a friend and walk on Wednesday which means I have little room to really mess this up. That said, I have messed up much simpler goals. I plan to head to the mall and walk with the baby tomorrow morning after I get the older kids off to school, and I plan to do the same Thursday morning. In addition, if I'm feeling really gutsy, I may jump on the elliptical and start building my endurance back up.

I also hope that by the end of the week, this increase in physical activity will also help with my sleeping issue enough that I can plan to get up 30 minutes earlier each day to do Winsor Pilates each morning. I don't like to "promote" a specific product particularly, but I really enjoyed the Winsor Pilates program when I did it three times a week several years ago.

More specifically, the basic introductory program that they send you--the 20 Minute Circle Workout--is mainly designed to target your core muscles, although it gives attention to your arms and legs also. Like the name implies, it is a brief 20 minutes in length, ideal for a quick morning workout (in case like me, you are morning-challenged!). I believe that this kind of workout is especially helpful at the beginning of a lifestyle change because it does two things:

1. It's quick and easy to do regularly and at home.

2. You will get results that are noticeable if you do it faithfully.

And who doesn't want to notice a difference in their midsection pretty quickly when they start a weight loss program? Even men want to see their love handles disappear!

So these are my goals for the week:

1. Continue to work on cutting back my caffeine intake via coffee and diet soda.

2. Continue to increase my daily water intake.

3. Add regular physical activity into my schedule--for this week, 30-60 minutes walking, three times this week.

What's your goal?

Too Many Excuses...to be fat...

So my goal for the week was pretty simple. Cut back my out of control coffee consumption and diet soda consumption while increasing my water intake. Should have been so simple to do.

And yet this week has been very atypical. My three school-aged children who should have been at school all day all week have only had one day of school this week due to weather concerns. And I haven't been sleeping well. We walk a finely balanced timeline around here because DH works graveyard shift, we have children attending school, and we have an infant. This week, my schedule is completely out of whack due to the school closures and I'm beat. I'm fighting a cold. I soooo tired.

So I drank more coffee yesterday and took a two hour morning nap with the baby. Then later in the day I craved my soda. I had two cans. I had two cans the night before also. So I did great on Tuesday morning, drinking less coffee but destroyed the day by drinking two sodas before bed. And yesterday I blew completely out of the water by having coffee in the afternoon and two sodas.

Here is what I know about excuses--they don't achieve anything. Excuses are the walls we build between ourselves and our goals, versus circumstances which are mountains that exist between us and our goals. What's the difference? Mountains were created by something other than ourselves. They can be climbed, defeated, and crossed. Walls are our own creation. They are far too difficult to climb over without lots of extra gear, and I can't walk through them (perhaps you can?). The more excuses we make, I equate with adding grease to the side of the wall. It makes it even more difficult to overcome that wall.

But the amazing thing about excuses/walls is that since we create them, we have the control to NOT build them. Excuses represent a choice we can make.

Perhaps this sounds preachy. That wasn't the intent really. No, the point was to remind myself of these things. See, I know that above I listed out "excuses" for why I failed to make the choices that would make me successful. I made the choice drink more coffee than I should have. I had a choice. I made a bad one. No excuse. I was weak and messed up.

I can choose to continue making bad choices because I've already messed up. But that makes the wall taller. Instead, I am going to choose to turn off the coffeepot and pour out the rest of the coffee (oh, I did start brewing only a small part of the pot each day because I know that if it's there I will drink it). I am going to fill a cup with ice and water. And I'm going to feel better because of it.

Why?

Because I will know I was successful today.

Because I will have less caffeine in my system to keep me from sleeping well tonight.

Because my body will begin to clean out the toxins by flushing it with water.

How are you doing? Check in!

My first goal

I have read and read and read articles about lasting weight loss. I've read and read and read some more about fad diets. And I've successfully lost 60 pounds on two occasions before (once in 1999, and again in 2006) only to end up one year later, obese and in the same cycle of self-loathing and overeating coupled with inactivity. This time, I have vowed to myself that it has to be different. This weight loss has to be permanent.

But what I've read over and over is to make small goals and to meet them before making tons of huge goals and "failing" because you couldn't master all of them at once. So for now, I am setting a small goal that I believe that I can be successful at.

Goal #1: Reduce caffeine intake by 1/2.

How will I do this? Well, let me fess up. I am a heavy coffee drinker, and I end my day with lots of diet soda. On an average day, I will consume 10-12 cups (6-oz. size) of coffee, followed later by 2-3 cans of diet soda. According to the chart I found at Overcaffeinated.org, this makes my daily intake from liquids alone as following:

Brewed coffee
66 ounces/day * 16.876 mg/ounce = 1113.816 mg/day

Diet Pepsi
30 ounces/day * 3 mg/ounce = 90 mg/day

For a whopping grand total each day of: 1203.816 mg/day of caffeine!

My goal is to consume only 3 cups (6-oz. size) of coffee each day, only one diet soda each day, and to increase my water intake this week. If successful, my new caffeine intake would be only 339.768 mg/day. That would be a decrease of almost 72%.

Perhaps you are wondering why I want to cut back on caffeine consumption. Many people increase their caffeine consumption when dieting because they believe that it gives them an energy boost, especially in the early stages of a diet when exercise is hard to commit to.

I took a nutrition class back in college, and I know that any so-called benefits of caffeine are greatly reduced by the side effects of caffeine. Here's a short bit of info I found about weight loss and caffeine at the Mayoclinic.com website:

Caffeine may act as an appetite suppressant. However, while studies have
shown that some people eat less after consuming caffeine, this effect is brief — not long enough to lead to significant weight loss.

Caffeine may increase your body's ability to burn calories. Caffeine is
thought to stimulate thermogenesis — one way your body generates heat and energy from digesting food. However, caffeine's role in thermogenesis probably isn't enough to result in significant weight loss.

Caffeine acts as a diuretic, which means it causes an increase in the
amount of urine you excrete. This water loss may temporarily decrease your body weight.

It's important to keep in mind that caffeine is a stimulant that can
increase your heart rate and blood pressure, interrupt your sleep, and cause nervousness and irritability. Also, many caffeinated beverages are high in calories, which can contribute to unwanted weight gain.

For me, caffeine replaces my intake of water which is vital during the early phases of a diet modification for washing toxins out of the body. Water acts as an eraser---one of those super high quality ones that completely removes evidence of past mistakes from your paper--and also helps make you feel fuller. And if you know that part of a lifetime-friendly diet is smaller portions, you know that feeling fuller without calories is so, so, so important.

Perhaps though, you find drinking tons of water, well...boring. I know I do! I am programmed to the taste of coffee or Diet Pepsi. A total and complete switch to water is almost impossible for me. So what alternative is there? Herbal teas!

Herbal teas are naturally caffeine-free (watch before you buy a fancy fruity blended tea as it may be mixed with black or green teas and have caffeine in it--but...the caffeine content in a 6-oz. cup of black tea is only 36-40 mg!). For me, supplementing my water intake which is limited at best with herbal tea is a great way to help me be successful.

And you know what? Besides the stimulant effects of caffeine (which may intensify hunger and lead to uncontrolled snacking), I am eliminating coffee creamer which is heavy in fat and sugar! According to my current bottle of creamer, it has 35 cals/tbsp. I use 2-3 tbsp per 20 ounces of coffee consumed for a total of almost 400 calories each day that I never think about! (By the way, I should mention here that I am going to cut back on my creamer habit in the aforementioned coffee allowance too...they just go hand in hand.)

And the diet soda...there are huge benefits to cutting it way back too! A study has found that consumption of large quantities of artificial sweeteners (whether it's Splenda/sucralose, Equal/maltodextrin, Nutrasweet/aspartame, or SweetNLow/saccharin) is linked to overeating!

In the recent Purdue studies, researchers gave rats two different liquids
for ten days. One group received sweet liquids that contained real sugar,
so the relationship between taste and calories was consistent. The
other group received sweet liquids that contained the artificial sweetener
saccharin, so the relationship between the sweet taste and the actual calories was inconsistent. After ten days, researchers allowed the animals to eat a sweet chocolate snack. The rats that were given the drinks sweetened with saccharin were less able to tell how many calories were in the snack, and at mealtime ate 3 times as much as the rats given the drinks sweetened with real sugar.

So...here is to making small changes successfully!

1. Decrease coffee consumption to no more than 3 6-oz. cups/day.
2. Decrease diet sode consumption to no more than one can (12-oz.)/day.
3. Increase water intake and herbal tea intake to at least 8-10 8-oz. servings/day.

First Things First

Welcome. I don't know how you made it to my humble blog, but you are welcome here.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Ceci. I am 32 years old, the mother of four (with two wonderful steppies). I am divorced and happily remarried. I was raised by a single mom and have had very little relationship time with my biological father. I had no stepfather. I am a Christian and was raised in the Church. I am a daughter, a stay at home mother, a wife, a friend, a mentor. I am fat.

I have to be honest with you because I've learned too many times that if I lie to you and to myself, nothing changes. Deception, especially of the "self" kind leads to a slippery slope. And that slope, my friend, is what led me to where I am now--overweight, in denial, and knowing that I have to make some drastic changes.

So perhaps you're asking where is "here"? Here is the heaviest weight I've ever been at (even though eighteen months ago I was at my smallest size as an adult!). Here is a place where I can't sleep soundly. Here is a place where after a half hour of walking, my hips ache for days. Here is a place where I have migraines more and more often than ever before. Here is a place where I have given up pretending this is just baby weight and it will magically go away without much effort. Here is a place where I have to sit on the floor to put on shoes with shoelaces and to tie them because I don't "fold" in half easily anymore. Here is a place where I look in the mirror and want to cry but know that I did this to me.

So what's next? Next is the ongoing journey from here to "there". Ultimately, there is a place where I have a healthy BMI and body fat composition. But having done this thing before, I realize that there are a number of places on the way to there. I know that weight loss isn't overnight. It's not magical. It's not just popping a pill. It's a massive and complete overhaul that takes lots and lots of time--a lifetime--and that's where I've failed before. I got to this magical number and over time, after reaching that place, I stopped doing what it took me to get together. It's alot like climbing up a mountain, getting to the edge of the peak and letting go. It can only equal one thing--sliding downhill again (or in my case, getting bigger numbers on the scale).

So...now for the part that I don't want to talk about...measurements.
Height: 5' 1"
Weight: 245
BMI: 46.3 ("Obese")

My ultimate goal:
Weight: 135
BMI: 25.5 ("Overweight") **Note: see later discussion about the fallacies of the BMI scale.**

I hope that my journey is inspirational for you. If you, like me, are in a place where things just aren't right anymore, start today to make changes.