This is not going well

I weighed in on Wednesday, and I was up one pound from the week before. I guess it's possible that my three pound loss wasn't really a three pound loss, and that some of that was water weight or something. In other words, maybe this one pound gain was really just a normal fluctuation in weight based on all the weird factors that make your weight fluctuate on a daily basis. I'm trying not to dwell on it. The thing that threw me, though, was that my body fat was up to 30%. Normally my scale has my body fat ranging anywhere from 26% to 29%. It's never been higher than 29%, until Wednesday, which doesn't make any sense to me, considering how hard it feels like I've been working my muscles. I don't understand any of this.

Now as far as my workouts go, things are going well. I've been following my Bikini Butt Lift program every day, doing the prescribed workouts for my butt shape. They're not easy, and I'm hoping that the soreness that I often feel is producing good results—that my body shape is actually changing. But I know that if I don't lose the fat, the difference will never ben noticable, so I've got to get this eating thing in check.

When I'm at work, everything just seems to go so smoothly. It's easy for me to resist the junk food, although it's hard for me to resist the baked goods that appear often on Wednesday mornings, so I just try to not go into the kitchen on those days. But I'm starting to crave sugar, and it's driving me nuts. I did so well those first two weeks, but then once I caved last weekend and had some sugar, I'm now finding that it's harder and harder to resist. Also, I keep baking. I love to bake. I need to bake, as I try to find new recipes that I can make for my customers. But trying new recipes means tasting them, too, and that's where my problem is. I can't leave well enough alone at just one bite. I have to eat the whole cookie, or the whole biscotti, or a whole piece of cake, or worse yet, two or three of those things.

So, I've decided to go back to the thing that worked best for me—Weight Watchers. A good friend of mine recently joined, and we could attend meetings together. There's something very appealing about that to me. I think it will be good to be paying for my attempt at weight loss, as it may help keep me motivated, plus I think it will be good to attend meetings and be accountable to the group, and to my weight loss buddy. And Weight Watchers has recently changed their points system. Fruits and vegetables are now 0 points (at least for the non-starchy ones). And the points value of various foods now takes into consideration the healthfulness of the food, so the healthier things count for less points. This all sounds very promising, and I'm really excited to get back at it. I'm tired of saying that I want to lose these 10 pounds. And this time I have to lose it, and learn to keep it off. I don't want to be back here again next winter.

I think my first meeting will be in a week, so I'll let you know how that goes. Until then, stay healthy, eat healthy, and exercise. I think that's my new motto. I hope it's yours, too.

Why, oh why!?!

Today stunk.

I went to Zumba this morning, so at least I got in a good, 400-calorie burn. But my food choices today were the pits!

The day started out ok. Not great, but not bad. I made French toast for breakfast. Normally, I use fresh Italian bread, and I can usually eat a good 4 or 5 pieces. I know, that sounds like a lot, huh? It is so good, though, I usually don't care, and just eat until I'm super full. Well, today I made two pieces with low-calorie whole wheat bread, and I only ate those two pieces, plus one egg. I felt like I really should have added the protein in there. I think it was the right thing to do.

At lunch time, I had an apple, plus a roast beef sandwich (2 oz. roast beef, plus one slice of low-fat swiss cheese) on two slices of that same low-calorie whole wheat bread. I also think I ate a cookie after lunch that was about 130 calories. And I had a snack in the afternoon that consisted of Fage non-fat Greek yogurt, with a small amount of dried fruit in it, plus a few almonds.

It was after that that it all went downhill. I decided to make scones. I've never made them before, and I've been trying out some new recipes for my baking business, and it just seemed like a good day for baking. Of course when they were done, I ate one of the smaller ones. But then I ate half of another. I didn't need any of that. But I ate them anyway.

In the meantime, I also had decided to bake some bread (wheat bread) using my mom's bread machine that I borrowed a few months back. Of course when that was done, I had to have a slice with butter on it (low calorie butter made with canola oil).

When dinnertime came, I wasn't even hungry. Jack, Lila, and I each ate our own dinner when we became hungry. I ended up having two slices of leftover pizza I made the other day (whole wheat Boboli crust, sliced tomatoes, low-fat mozzarella).

Then, to top it off, Jack had a bowl of cereal later in the evening. I wasn't even hungry, but was craving something sweet, so I snacked on dry cereal. More than I needed to. I finished the box. Oh, and I can't forget the several handfuls of caramel corn I ate while sitting on the couch watching the football game.

It was a total carb-overload day. And now I hate myself for it. And I'm paying the price with heartburn. But I just couldn't bring myself to eat another salad today... at least not one of my own. And we didn't have much protein in the house that was quick and easy to eat, aside from the roast beef I finished at lunch.

I just made terrible choices. I hope that this doesn't derail any weight loss I might have had this week. I'm hoping that I can once again get on that wagon tomorrow, and get right back to it. I can't let these kind of slip-ups get me down. I have to be doing some good with what I'm doing right most of the days of the week, right?

I sure hope so. We'll see what the scale says on Wednesday.

Check it over

So check this out—on Day 1, which was on January 3, I weighed in at 136.4 pounds. Today, a week and a few days later, I'm down to 133.4. I lost 3 pounds! I'm so elated. Scared, but elated. Elated that I've made a big leap towards my goal of losing 10 pounds. Scared that it's going to get harder and harder each week to lose any weight.

As far as eating goes since I last checked in (which was just a few days ago), I've been doing pretty well. I spend a lot of time on the weekend planning what I'm going to eat all week. Normally I just plan dinners, but this time, I planned all three meals, plus snacks, for each day of the coming week. I needed to do this in order to get everything I'd need at the grocery store. I find that if I don't plan my meals when I'm trying to lose weight, it's pointless because I will just eat whatever I can get my hands on, whether it's healthy or not. I really need to build some life-long healthy eating habits that I don't stray from even when I'm not trying to lose weight.

Anyway, Monday's breakfast was really good. I had two slices of Candian bacon on one slice of whole wheat toast, with a piece of low-fat Swiss cheese melted on it. I actually cut the bread in half, made a little panini, and toasted it in the skillet after I cooked up the Canadian bacon (I didn't add any oil or anything). Along with that, I had a 1/2 of a grapefruit. Tuesday's breakfast was not as good. I had 1 egg and 2 egg whites with 1 oz. of low-fat feta (I do weigh my food as much as I can, as I don't trust my ability to eyeball portions), along with a piece of toast with nothing on it. I also had 1/2 cup of strawberries. In my book, eggs are ok, but not in abundance, and not without toast that has some buttery flavor and moisture to it. Fortunately, I've run out of eggs, so no more eggs for breakfast this week.

This week my morning snack has been 1/2 of an apple with 2 tsp. of peanut butter. I've mentioned that I'm supposed to be eating protein with every meal. It seems hard to believe that 2 tsp. of peanut butter can really be that punch of protein that is needed to go with that apple, but I guess I won't complain. It's nice to have some variety and mix it up, as opposed to just eating a plain apple. Although, I am eating that snack at work, so I can't really measure the peanut butter. I'm guessing at what 2 tsp. looks like. Hope I'm getting it right. My afternoon snacks have been a 6 oz. container of Fage non-fat plain yogurt. I add 2 packs of Splenda, though. I can't eat the stuff plain, unless there was a deluge of dried fruit in it, but I'm not doing that either (too many calories in that dried fruit, as yummy as it is). I suspect that in order to be a perfect snack, there should be some kind of fiber in there, too, but I don't know what to add that wouldn't have very many calories but still add a good bit of fiber. So that snack is mostly about getting in a lot of protein in the middle of the afternoon.

I decided that for lunches this week, I would alternate between two of the prescribed meals. One consists of a roast beef sandwich on light wheat bread with a slice of low-fat Swiss, lettuce, and tomato, along with a cup of vegetable soup (this can be canned, no more than 80 calories). The other lunch consists of a salad with low-fat dressing and low-fat feta, plus a cup of black bean soup (no more than 150 calories). I'm satisfied with these lunches, and could continue to eat these for a long time.

Dinner on Monday was a flank steak, baked potato, and broccoli. I used about a tablespoon of the Fage on the baked potato. This meal was OK. I should have marinated the beef for much longer than I did. It was lacking flavor. On Tuesday night, we just made a big salad (lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, Italian dressing), and put the leftover steak on top, along with a little bit of low-fat mozzarella. This was a decent meal.

The next few dinners planned consist of a Weight Watchers pizza recipe, and then chicken fajitas with high-carb tortillas (no more than 100 calories per tortilla.... have you ever looked at how many calories are in a tortilla? We think we're eating healthy when we get a wrap when we eat out, but tortillas often have as many, if not more, calories than two slices of bread!). Considering leftovers, too, these two meals should take me through the rest of the week.

I had one splurge since the doughnut incident on Sunday. Last night, I tried a new recipe for a flourless chocolate chip peanut butter cookie. They were so good! I had to try one when they were still warm (delicious), and then again once they cooled (still delicious). I have a side business where I bake from my home kitchen and sell my products at the local farmer's market, so I'm always on the lookout for new recipes. This one is great, because it's gluten free and delicious. So now I can advertise that I have a gluten free item on my menu. Yay! And it was worth the calories to try it out. But no more of that, or I will quickly derail my plan.

So that's it for now. Things are going well. I'm going to try to stick to 1200 calories per day for this next week to make sure this weight loss is sticking. Maybe after this next week, I'll up it to 1500. I think I can still lose one pound a week at 1500 calories, as long as I'm keeping up with my workouts, which I have been. So until then, wish me luck! And good luck to you, too!

Here we go again

On January 3, 2011, I started over. I woke up reenergized, ready to kick these 10 pounds in the butt—and kick myself in the butt I did! In addition to starting a new healthy eating plan, I started my new Brazil Butt Lift (BBL) DVD program. My first workout set was not too bad. First, I did a 15 minute video that introduced you to the BBL moves. Then came a 30 minute cardio routine that includes a lot of butt shaking. I feel pretty stupid doing this, as my hips are not very good at doing the shimmy, but no one is watching, so I don't care much. The next day, though, had me doing the 15 minute basic video again, but this time it was followed by a 30 minute routine that focuses on moves that target the butt area, including hips and thighs (imagine the hardest squats and lunges you've ever done, with no resting in between). It's not a cardio routine, per se, where you're jumping around doing aerobics, but it was very, very difficult to keep up. I ended up having to take several breaks during the 30 minutes because I was just too tired. And it was hard. The next day was the basic video plus cardio again. And then the fourth day was that tough lower body routine (they call it Bum Bum, which is pronounced "boom boom" in Brazil). But this time, I managed a little bit better, so I have hope that I will prevail and eventually be able to do this entire routine without resting. On day 5, it was cardio and abs (also very difficult), and then on day 6, I skipped the BBL scheduled workout and went to Zumba instead. And on day 7, today, I rested.

As far as the healthy eating plan goes, this week was the kick-off week, so the meal plan suggests limiting your calories to 1000 per day (I know, I know, that's pretty low, but that's just the kick-start part of the plan, and only lasts for 6 days, and in my case, 5-1/2 because I cheated), and eating the meals they prescribe. This wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, and I never really got that throbbing headache that sometimes accompanies a low calorie, low sugar meal plan. I counted my calories each day to make sure I was sticking to the 1000, and on Monday through Friday, I did. But then the weekend came, and I find that being at home is just too tempting. It's very difficult for me to have the willpower to eat well. But I tried the best I could.

Saturday's meals were pretty good, but I did splurge at dinner, but not as bad as I could have. Lila went to a birthday party, so Jack and I went to dinner at The Italian Oven. I love it there, but usually eat some kind of panini or pizza with soup or salad. This time, because my eating plan stresses eating protein at every meal, as well as eating some kind of fruit or vegetable, I ordered a pasta dish with marinara sauce and a meatball. I only ate half of the meal, which I suspect was about a cup of linguine. I had a side salad as well with the house Italian dressing. And we asked the waiter not to bring bread to the table, so other than the carbs in my pasta and meatball, I didn't eat any unnecessary ones.

Today was not so good, though. But I decided so be it. I'm not going to let it derail me. I'll get back on it with my next meal, which will be in a few minutes when I'm done typing this entry. Today I ate the prescribed breakfast (1/2 c. Kashi cereal with 1/2 c. milk, 1/2 c. berries, and 2 Tbsp. slivered almonds). But then we took my niece to lunch at Bravo, and it is so hard to eat well when you eat out. I didn't eat any bread, and I ordered the cup of wedding soup and the chopped salad with Italian dressing. I'm sure it was more calories than I would want to believe it could be, but that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was when I got home and decided to make homemade doughnuts, and then ate two, plus several doughnut holes. Ugh! I wish I could kill this stupid sweet tooth of mine. But like I said, my dinner will get me back on track. And no more sweets for a few days.

I took a good bit of time yesterday to plan all of my meals for this week, choosing all of them from the meal plan for the BBL program, and grocery shopped accordingly. Hopefully I can stick to the plan, and see some success, even if it's only a one or two pound loss from when I weighed in last Monday. My weigh-in days are going to be Wednesdays, so look for another post later this week.

I'm also hoping that as the weeks go on, I can venture out from the prescribed meal plan, and start to make things that my whole household will want to eat. I started to subscribe to Cooking Light, and there are a million delicious recipes in every issue. I can't wait to get cooking!

Until Wednesday, stay healthy, eat healthy, and exercise! That's the plan. I hope it's yours, too!