Monday, May 31, 2010

Slacker #2

Ok, I have kinda My slacked off in the blogging area, too. Seems as if we all have. My slacking off includes my vigilant eating habits. And that is a bad thing.

I had a really intense, stressful class with a teacher that was a beast and expected us to be mind readers and if we guessed wrong we were penalized. If we guessed right? We were penalized anyway. It was a kind of damned if we do and damned if we don't type of 6 weeks. And when someone at work brought candy or cookies? I indulged. And I haven't been sleeping well. My momma cat died and left me with 2 wk old babies. Guess who had to bottle feed them. Even at night? And bathe them, and weigh them and keep them warm and all that other baby stuff? And three job interviews for an internship next year and didn't get any of them.

All of this has added up to me gaining 5 lbs.

But school is out for the summer, so that means that I don't have to go to work every day. The class I am taking now is really laid back and not as stressful (even if it is math/stats and math and I are not on speaking terms). So I am going to get back on track.

Today I did:
1/2 hour of morning/wake-up yoga
20 minutes on the tread mill
Drank 64 oz of water
Had no sugar or other processed food

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Well, Hello There!

Yep, I've been a blog slacker. Slack, slack, slacker. I keep telling all of you to keep blogging, even when you're not doing well, and then I go against my own counsel. Silly Tristi!

Fact is, I haven't been doing well. I've lost a lot of strength since the car accident, and it's been hard to do my daily routines, let alone exercising, etc. But, tomorrow is a new day, and tomorrow is the day I re-introduce exercise. I'm really, really hoping that these muscles in my side are now healed enough to allow some gentle aerobics, but I won't know until I give it a try.

I've also not started the sugar-counting thing yet. I've had a ton of stress come up in the last month, and I just head straight for the sugar every time. I feel like I have no other coping mechanism, and I need to get that figured out. I'm not going to wait until I've figured it out to give it a try, though. That could take forever. :)

Okay, so, wish me luck. I'll try to check in a little more frequently, and hey, if you wanna send me reminder e-mails to exercise, too, I bet I might listen to you ... :)

Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Decision

I have seven more days on this HCG diet to hit the 42 days. I'm at 182 today, but I'm kind of okay with that--I've lost 20 pounds. I think I'm going to end a week early. Why? Especially when I might even be lower in a week? Well here is my reasoning.

I get out of school on June 4th. On June 8th we head to Yellowstone, then to Libby, MT. I feel if I've had a solid two weeks of maintenance AT HOME, then my body will have had more of a chance to adjust to more calories without gaining. Yes, I'll still be careful, but two weeks of being VERY careful on maintenance, then one week where things might not be so perfect should be better than one week of maintenance THEN going on vacation.

My husband has finally gotten on the bandwagon to weight loss. He hit 201 and that was it for him. So he has been trying to be careful, but since our meals have still had to differ so much it has been frustrating with dinner time. We have a fairly healthy menu plan for the month (had it a long time ago too), but now he is way more willing to follow it and be on it versus eating out. I'm excited for us to be on the same page, finally! He's even eaten cereal for dinner time a couple of times, when his calories have been higher during the day--I LOVE eating cereal for dinner! Not that it will happen much, but still.

Third reason? I'd really like to start doing a modicum of exercise. I've been exhausted on this diet. I haven't had any energy to do anything and I KNOW I've lost muscle mass, even though the HCG is supposed to prevent it. I can feel it in the way my clothes fit. And it wasn't so long ago that I was at this weight that I don't remember how my size 14's fit. And right now my 14's are still very snug, all of which means I've lost muscle. That's okay. I want to start building up my muscle and getting back to taekwondo.

Would I recommend the HCG diet? I'm not sure yet. I feel like I needed the extra motivation to get me to stick with my regular 1400 calorie diet. At 182 I feel like I will have it. If you feel like you need to lose weight quickly to get you motivated to stick to something then yes, probably. But if you are good at the 'slow and steady wins the race' then I wouldn't worry about it. And then let's wait to see the biggest thing--will I yo-yo? That's the biggest thing of the HCG. It works, but you have to maintain after. And I'm going to be seriously tempted this summer--I'm pretty much GONE for the month of July. I'll be in Boston, Phoenix, and New York City, and home all of about ten days for July. So yeah. There'll be some serious challenges.

I'll keep you guys posted!



Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A day in the life

Hello everyone! Man, it has been a while since I posted. I've mainly been floating along doing my thing, but I feel the pull to write today.

There is a debate on whether you should weigh yourself everyday or not. The HCG diet says you have to as part of their program and after. Mainly because you can gain and not have it show up in your hip size for a few days. Speaking from experience, I know this is true.

It's an up and down battle to maintain but the scale helps me know where I am. I gained weight (of course) on my trip to Disneyland and I've been working to get back to where I was. It can be frustrating, but I have done it.

Here are a few things that I know about myself--things that I know I can't eat without gaining. I cannot have bread on a regular basis. Bread is one of my all time favorite foods, but if I have to choose, I choose to feel good instead of eating bread. Bread makes me feel bloated. It makes me tired and sluggish, so I stay away from it.

I can't eat refined sugar. It really screws up how I feel. It is something people get addicted to and is not that hard to clean out of your system. You have to decide what you want more. A healthy body or sugar. Duh. That's an easy one for me.

Dairy. I LOVE milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheese etc... So, I seldom drink milk anymore and I don't feel clogged. It wasn't that hard to cut out. I do still eat a tiny bit of cheese. I like pepperjack sticks. I seldom buy ice cream because if I do, I WILL eat it. I have no self control there.

What do I eat? I eat a TON of food. I'm always full. I eat a lot of fruits and veggies, but veggies are hard for me. I never feel like eating veggies. They don't call to me and they don't taste that great to me. I try to get at least one big salad in a day though. I snack on blueberries, strawberries, apples, oranges and stuff like that. I try to eat plenty of protein and I am always full.

I eat hummus for a snack with those awesome whole grain corn chips from Costco. SO DANG GOOD! I hate sharing with my kids! =) They're gone too fast! I also buy sugar free jello. That's another good snack that feels like a dessert.

I do buy sugar free chocolate candy. I learned that it is the mixing of sugar with fat that makes you gain. If you just eat the fat without combining it with starch or sugar, you are okay. Put them together and just plan on gaining.

Do I feel deprived? Sometimes. Except when I'm working out and feeling great. When I check my weight, it feels good that I was able to discipline myself, only putting high quality fuel in my gas tank. THAT feels good. Better than that sugary snack that is instantly gone in two bites.

So, that is where I'm at. Also I work out every day. I never miss except for once a week. I alternate walking really fast for an hour and jogging for 20-30 min. I have to be careful because I'm dealing with keeping Achilles tendinitis at bay on my left calf. So far, so good, but it's only a slow jog I can do for now. After my walk or run, I lift weights for 15 to 20 min. Then I ALWAYS do at least 20 min of yoga. It centers me and gets me ready for my day. I'm lucky enough that I can do this with my schedule. I feel very blessed that I can take this time to focus on my body and spirit.

Anyway, this is just what I'm doing. You should know, that one of the reasons I have time for this kind of workout is because it is a super high priority for me. I let the house go, computer work go, and other things. They are pushed back so I can fill my cup. If I don't get to them . . . oh well. I have teenagers that can help! =)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Yeah, It's been a while

Okay, so it's been quite some time since I blogged about losing weight.Typically speaking I stop posting when I'm doing poorly. And yes, I was doing poorly. I got down to 194 and then stress levels went up, I stopped trying, was defeated about how slowly the weight loss was going, etc, etc. And so I started gaining it back. And gaining. So frustrating.

I decided once I was over the 200's AGAIN, that I need a swift kick to . . . well you know where. Some friends had decided to do the HCG drops and they showed me a site that seemed relatively affordable (around 80 dollars for the drops 21-day supply, a pamphlet on starting the diet, and some b-12 vitamin drops) so I decided to try HCG. I did debate about it for a while, but I'm hoping that with the weight loss getting me down far enough, then maybe I'll be motivated enough to not only maintain the weight loss, but to lose more, and to be patient with losing a half a pound to a pound on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. And not get so defeated that I stop trying.

So I started the HCG thing three weeks ago with the oral drops. I THINK the shots would probably be more effective, but they are also way more expensive (250-400 dollars). To date I've lost a little over 14 pounds. I'm at 187.6 and I'm hoping to get down to 180--the weight I was at BEFORE I started teaching and my last huge weight gain. The weight loss has helped with motivating me to stay on a very strict diet, but I WAS hoping for a little more loss than what I've had so far. But still, it's way more than what I could have lost and I'm pretty happy.

You can have discipline for 42 days or 21 days although it can be VERY, VERY hard, but there is an end in sight. There is no argument that the HCG diet WORKS. The problem is AFTER. With diets like this you often yo-yo. But I figured I did the yo-yo thing anyway, so why not go for it?

I'm also trying to get myself into the mind set that if I DO want to eat out at my favorite restaurant or eat some candy that I'd better have the calories to spend--in other words EXERCISE. Yes. I hate that word. But, I'm going to work hard on implementing some exercise after this diet is over (yeah, not going to try it on 500 calories as it is--I'm TIRED ALL THE TIME).

I'm also planning on overall better eating after this diet and the maintenance phase of this diet is over. My husband FINALLY is trying to lose weight himself and that will make things a lot easier.

So yeah. That's what's been going on so far!