Week 2: Recap

{ Weigh in date: Saturday, March 30, 2013 }

{ Results: +3 lbs }

Well, crap.

I did not see this one coming. Okay...maybe a little, considering we were "on holiday" last week at my in-laws and that equates to snacking, snacking, snacking. And cocktails. And we got 8 inches of snow the second day we were there, so I pretty much just phoned in the rest of the week. And I paid for it this morning when I stepped on the scale.

Today I am working on getting my menus and my tracking in order and figuring out how to work in weekly work-outs and my gosh, I am overwhelmed! I want to hit my goal weight by June 30, which to me - the master of procrastination - seems like plenty of time, but I tend to see-saw so much from week to week, that it makes me anxious and sweaty and overwhelmed. 

 And then I stopped and stepped back and said to myself, stop looking at the big picture. The big picture always overwhelms me because I have such big plans. And sometimes my plans are unrealistic, although I think that 1.5 lbs a week is not unrealistic. And sometimes life gets very much in the way of what I want to accomplish.  HOWEVER, if I take it one week at a time, that's not so overwhelming. And if I break it down even further, one small change each day - whether it's 15 minutes of weights before I make the bed in the morning or skipping a snack that I don't really need - no matter how healthy - one small concession each day will make 1.5 lbs a week attainable.

Goals for this week:

1. Plan dinners for the next 2 weeks, complete with points and in pencil so I can change my mind if life gets in the way!  
2. Walk 3 times - weights 3 times.
3. No alcohol   No excuses - last week was indulgent.  This week, I am going to best friends with Betty Ford.

And also, I'd really like to beat my April miles from last year, which was 66.2 miles!  (I think I did nothing but walk last spring!)

Here's to starting a new week on a hopeful and realistic foot! 

{ Life-Style Changes so far }

• {Multi-Vitamin every day} - so far so good, I just keep them by my bed and take one before I go to sleep at night.  I do not like to take them in the morning because they don't sit well in my belly and tend to make me feel like throwing up.  I hate to throw up, so I just take mine before bed.
• {No caffeine after 12pm} - the days I cheat and have a Diet Pepsi in the afternoon, I am absolutely dying for the rest of the evening.  I could snack my way to bed time and beyond!  The days that I stick hard and fast to my rule, I have a much easier time controlling those cravings.
• {Water, water, water!}  - I just keep a glass of ice water full on the counter in a large mason jar.  It's fun to drink out of (I even have to share with Finn sometimes, but that's okay, I'm pretty sure he doesn't backwash too much!).  Sometimes I add a lemon or a lime, but mostly I just drink it plain.  And I thought I'd be peeing a lot more, but I guess my body really needs water, because I don't feel like I'm excessively running to the potty!
• {Exercise 3 times a week} - this one is getting easier now that the weather isn't ridiculously cold.  Also, my back has started to bother me again, so it is imperative that I get out and move for a couple of miles each day in order to get that beast under control.

Week 1 Recap

{ Weigh in date: Saturday, March 16, 2013 }

{ Results: +/- 0 lbs }

I didn't gain and I didn't lose, so I can assure you that I'm okay with how the first week went.  It is still too cold here to get outside and do anything, and it snowed again earlier in the week, so it's really going to be awhile before I can venture forth outside.  Free weights inside, I guess or maybe some shoveling - that will surely get my heart rate up (there is so much snow outside my back door!).  

I have managed to successfully go cold-turkey on the No Caffeine After 12pm Rule that I set for myself.  I found that a hit of Diet Pepsi in the afternoon was causing huge snack cravings and I know that was due completely to the jolt of caffeine.  Now, I have a cup (or 2 or a 3) of coffee in the morning and that is it...water the rest of the day.  I had some pretty dull-throbbing headaches for the first three or four days, but now I'm pretty much used to it.  Don't get me wrong, about the time Finn goes down for a nap, I would love to enjoy my Diet Pepsi snack, but I have also found that since I cut that out, I've had almost no afternoon snack-cravings, so I find something else to occupy my time during those craving moments (folding laundry, empty dishwasher).  They pass pretty quickly anyway.

Since it's Spring Break week and we are headed for Kansas City, goals for this week are as follows:

1. Limit snacks and cocktails.  Essential - alcohol is empty calories and they cause me to be very un-motivated.
2. Pack running shoes - if weather permits, outside I go (at least twice).  
3. Pack healthy snacks for road trip - this includes trail mix, fruit, and lots of water!

Are you playing along?  Have anything motivating to share from your week?  I really would love to hear from you!

The Pilot Episode

Hi.  I'm Heather.  I've had an on-again off-again relationship with dieting and weight loss for pretty much my whole life.  I am a stress-baker, and subsequently a stress-eater.  I don't handle change very well, I cope by cooking - and therefore, eating.  I don't like to run.  Or be sweaty.  Or over-exert myself.

Clearly, I am a case-study in food and exercise issues.

About 2 years ago, in the midst of a major move and during the heat of an Iowa summer, I threw out my back.  At the time, I had a baby who wasn't yet mobile, a surly 11 year old and we were in a new town with nary a family member or friend for 200 miles.  Oh, and my husband had just started a new job (read: 50+ hour work weeks), I had just decided to be a stay-at-mom and we were valiantly trying to figure out how our new household positions worked (Do I have to do all the laundry now that I stay at home?  When do I get a day off?  Can I consider yoga pants to be my "work uniform?" How do we balance everything now that my work is home and my home is work?).  In retrospect, it was the best thing to ever happen to me and it is ultimately what catapulted me into an exercise and weight-loss routine.  You can read about some of my weight loss struggles and triumphs here and here and here.

I have since lost almost 50 pounds, but over the course of yet another major move, this time from Iowa to Northern Minnesota, and a very, very, very long and cold Minnesota winter, I've only managed to keep about 40 of those pounds off.

I have a hard time motivating myself, so this blog is my accountability tool.  My ultimate goal is to lose another 46 pounds.  And keep it off.  At that point, I am either going to:

1. Go on a fantastic tropical vacation with my husband where I will leave the children at home, wear a bathing suit from Victoria's Secret and enjoy fruity drinks with umbrellas in them while I lounge pool-side.
2. Have another baby - and get back on the weight-gaining track instead of the weight-losing track.
3. Be ready to move into a rest home because I'm afraid I will be so old by the time I finally get that extra 46 pounds off!

So...here's what this little blog is for: motivation and accountability.  I plan to post each Saturday about what went well the week before and what sucked.  I guess we can consider it my open journal of keeping it real in the world of fatty-fats.  I might post a recipe or something motivating or what I'm going to try the next week.  I might just sob incoherent sentences depending on how the week went.

I will not be posting my weight number.  I am not that brave.  But also, because weight is really, truly just a number and if I've learned one thing it is that it will change from week to week and month to month - up and down like a damned roller-coaster at World's of Fun (I hate roller coasters, ps). I weighed myself this morning, so I have a base-line to go off of and based on that I will post weekly (probably on Saturdays, but maybe on Sunday's if I have something awesome to do on Saturday) the number of pounds up or number of pounds down.  Once a month I will post measurements - again, not actual numbers, just up or down in inches.

This week, I have but 3 small goals to get me motivated:

1. Drink water all. day. long.  No soda.  No iced tea.  Coffee before noon only.
2. Take my multi-vitamin every day.
3. Exercise 3 times this week.

I would love it if you joined me on Saturday's by posting in the comments section what your weekly goals were and if you met them, or, if you're brave and you're tracking, was your weight up or down?  What worked for you?  We can motivate each other!  Or you can just read about what I'm doing, which is fine, but it would be more fun if we worked together!




READ THIS, IF NOTHING ELSE!!  I am not a doctor (although I play one in my head).  This blog is about things that work for me.  I am not endorsed by Weight Watchers (even though I could totally have taken Jessica Simpson's place when she got knocked up again) or by Dr. Atkins (because he's no longer alive, so he can't endorse me. Obviously.).  Talk to your doctor if you want to start losing weight.  Mine told me lots of things that would be benefits to losing weight (Smaller boobs! No plantar fascittis! No back pain!) and lots of things that made me want to cry into my ill-fitting paper gown if I didn't lose some weight (umm...death.  And also diabetes.  And also...death. That was a pretty big one.).