Still on the Journey

It's been a really busy few weeks. The good news is, I'm still hanging in. Bob got off the boat and a week later we took a 3-day vacation. Well, you know what happens on vacation. Typically you eat all the foods you shouldn't, don't pay any attention to the calories and gain all your weight back. Such was not the case with us.

Bob and I were diligent about ordering off menus. Although we couldn't stick exactly to calorie counts like we would at home (mostly because Bob does NOT do vegies - for the most part) and because we did want little treats. It was vacation after all.

I don't know what Bob did, but I only gained 1 pound while we were gone. But somehow managed to add another one after we got back! Not sure how that happened at all.

I've not weighed in at the BL challenge for the past 2 weeks so I need to do that on Friday. I am determined to get back to at least the base line of 177 by weigh in on Friday. Then I can really push through the final four weeks.

One thing we have been doing is really looking at the nutrition information on the websites of places we used to eat out all the time. Things we thought were 'safe' are far from it! Example, I ate at KFC last week. Just dying for some fried chicken. I know.. not a good thing. But I thought I was doing okay by only ordering the 2 piece and a side. I got a chicken and thigh with green beans and didn't eat the biscuit. As it turns out, what I thought was a safety (our KFC doesn't offer the grilled options by the way) turned out relatively lethal. Not deadly, but not the safety I thought it was going to be.

1 Original Recipe leg - 120 cal.

1 Original Recipe thigh - 250 cal.

1 ser. Green Beans - 25 cal.

1/2 a small Pepsi - 90 cal.

485 isn't bad if you're going to count it as your major meal for the day but I still had dinner to do later in the day.

My tip for the day, make use of the nutrition information provided. There are books out there that carry the calorie count of all our favorite fast food places so we can be making smart choices.

Next time I get a KFC craving, I'll get an extra helping of green beans, pass on the pepsi and go for the unsweet tea instead.

Wherever you choose to eat along the way....

Enjoy the journey!

Biggest Loser Week 1 Begins

Today was the initial weigh-in of our 10-week round of the Biggest Loser challenge at our local mini-grocer. Interesting place for a weight-loss challenge, I know. But it's more of a corner quick grab when you're out of milk, cigs, beer, or need to pick up the weekly gossip.. I mean paper. We are a town of about 600 people. We take our encouragement where we can get it. Tania and Connie are super neat gals who, like many of us, want to get the weight off and think a little camaraderie - and the shot at some spending cash - is a good place to start.

I weighed in this morning at 181.4. I much preferred the 177 my scales showed. I know mine are accurate as I've tested them with the #10 hand weight. So every week I'll post both.

Week 1: 181.4/177

I think my body is sufficiently healed. So my plan for Monday is to get back on the Wii... with the program I had intended to start with before my sinus' had their own plans.

I'll be using the Wii Fit. Doing the stretching, game-type stuff to warm up, then go into the aerobics routine. In the evening I'll play more of the athletic type games like tennis and golf on Wii Sports.

My plan is that once my body is used to activity again, then I'm going to alternate the aerobics stuff with Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009. I've heard this is a really difficult workout so we shall see. I am going to reward myself with Zumba for the Wii when I've stuck with Jillian for 2 weeks. Based on rumors... wish me luck! In the mean time, I'd love to hear what you think of her workouts. Which ones have you tried. What did or didn't you like about them?

When it comes to eating, one program I've found really helpful in the past is FitDay . With FitDay you can track every aspect of your weight loss journey. You can set a Weight Goal, and the program will help you chart how many calories you can safely consume per day based on your activity level and lose pounds. There is a tab for entering your activity and the length of time you participate and it will tell you how many calories you've burned.

The food log is one of my favorite parts of FitDay. I can keep a daily food diary, create my own food list based on either pre-packaged foods or dishes fixed using my own ingredients. So I don't have to go back and recalculate every time I fix a particular favorite dish. For example, select any meat from a long list, pick your method of cooking for the portion and it will tell you how many calories you will use. It really does matter how it's cooked!

How you feel on any given day, at any particular moment will affect how you eat. FitDay provides a Mood for things such as Happiness, Clarity, Health for each day to help you keep an eye on things that might be triggering you to backslide on your journey.

And finally, a journal. A place for you to dump the garbage that can affect your over-all health, not just your weight loss journey.

The best thing about this program is it is password protected. No one need see any of the information but you.

You can use the FREE version on-line. If you'd like it a bit more handy, you might want to purchase the PC version so you don't have to be on-line or the more portable version for the iPhone. Any way you choose to use this tool, it's one of the best friends you make as you travel towards your GOAL.

Enjoy your Journey!

Happy New Year!

Okay, I know we're three weeks into 2012, but trust me I had a really good reason for not getting in here before now. New Years Eve I got hit with a serious sinus infection. I did virtually nothing but veg and sleep for almost 12 days! Without going into details, suffice it to say I was miserable. Thankfully hubby had come home 3 days before and we'd taken care of Christmas. New Years Eve... not so much celebrating. The Nyquil and I were in bed by 9 p.m. LOL Hubby rang in 2012 without me.

In case you're curious as to how hubby did on our challenge... he lost 15 pounds in 3 weeks. I am so proud of him. To keep him on track, I've been keeping an eye on calories. He is a stickler for staying within his calorie range throughout the day, allowing room for his low-cal fudge bar or 1/2 C of no sugar added ice cream for his late evening snack.

And yes.. he is measuring everything! I've tried for years to teach him the visual measuring system I've talked about on here with no success. Now he's using the measuring cups and spoons as well as the food scale. Did I mention I'm proud of him? LOL He lost another 6 pounds the 3 weeks he's home. That's good. The initial 15 was his body adjusting to the new way of eating. Now he's on the even keel of 2 pounds a week.

Thanks to being sick, I relied a little too much on my Mello Yello to keep the throat cleared of junk while I was sick. I didn't gain nor lose a single pound while he was gone. On the up side - I've lost 2 pounds since Monday. I'm watching my calories to keep me on track, too. It will help as over the next three weeks I begin to plan meals ahead of time for when he comes home again. We can look at the list and put a meal together rather than having to figure everything up first.

One of the programs I used to use and am going back to is Fit Day.com.

And that's my topic for tomorrow.

Enjoy the Journey

Approaching the Holiday Feast

Okay... not me, but the majority of you are going to have multiple opportunities to enjoy your favorite foods over the next few days. Ham, turkey, prime rib or maybe even a tradurken. Not sure if that's spelled correctly, but it's a duck stuffed in a chicken then a chicken stuffed in a turkey... meat-lover's dream! Then you add potatoes, gravy, stuffing green bean casserole (not as healthy as it sounds), breads, pies, cookies... well, you know what's ahead.

Since beginning the road to a healthier way of eating, I'm not even in the mood to do my holiday baking this year. In past years I've spent one entire day baking upwards of 70-100 dozen cookies to share with friends and businesses. So far this year I've made one batch of chocolate chip that although edible, are not as good as they should be. I also made snowballs (my granddaughter's favorite), gingerbread men (made with splenda and my daughter's favorite) and no-bake cookies (my future SIL's favorite). Those all got shipped to TN. I have my shortbread sandwich cookie and the uber-rich sugar cookie doughs chilling in the fridge. And I've even bought the box of rice krispies for 1-cup cookies. And I just can't get in the mood to bake any of them. I'm thinking of making one sheet of each of the sugar cookies then freezing the rest of the dough for this spring when the granddaughter comes to visit. They'll make just as adorable Easter Egg shaped cookies as they will stars and bells.

Now, I can't say I've been a good little girl all the time. More aware? Yes. But I'm also human and know I've eaten things here and there not on my plan. I've also not been on the Wii in almost two weeks. Not because I didn't want to. I LOVE it! But we brought all the Christmas decorations tubs back from storage and they've been taking up the work-out space in the living room. Hopefully I can finish getting them emptied tomorrow and they can get out of the way.

Oh yeah.. and I've not done well on our local BL group. I lost a total of 1.4 pounds over 7 weeks. I yoyo'd. To add to that, hubby offered up a challenge. Whichever one of us loses the most weight in the 3 weeks he's gone, gets a $100 shopping trip. Hmmm I still have a week to go. Wonder how well I'll do. I know he's been doing the Slim Fast 1-2-3 plan. So I'm thinking that $100 is his. I hope so... because after all his hard work this trip out, if he doesn't lose any weight, I fear he'll just give up and he needs to lose the weight or further damage the hip he already has issues with. I'd sacrifice the $100 for that.

I'm taking the next week off. But I'll be back to wish you a Happy New year and maybe stay on track.

Merry Christmas! and Enjoy the Journey

Catching up and a New toy!

Yep... Santa came early to our house.

While we were in TN at our daughter's, my husband got the Xbox bug. He didn't actually try it out, but he liked the option of playing games while NOT being parked on the couch. Unlike the PS or Direct TV game channel, you actually have to get off your duff and get ::: gasp ::: exercise while playing a game.

So Thursday night we hit the pre-Black Friday sale at our local Walmart for an XBox bundle - only to find out the 'tickets' for them were handed out long before the sale was to start. The next day we went to a SuperCenter in a nearby town. We didn't anticipate any systems left but thought we'd look anyway.

What we came home with was the Wii and Wii Fit Plus, along with Wii Sports pack, Jillean Michaels (Me), Tiger Woods golf and Dangerous Hunts 2011 (Bob). I'm really enjoying the Fit and Sports. I do the Wii Fit plus for an hour in the morning and then play some of the sports games in the evening. My fav on the Fit Plus is the Step workout. But I use some of the balance games as my warm-up, then do the Step workout for aerobics, the some of the other aerobics as a cool down. I'm also enjoying the boxing.. something I didn't think I'd like at all. However, this morning I managed to pop my left knew - the one I'd injured summer of 2010. So my legs are cramping a lot right now. It will be a 'take it easy' kind of day and no tennis/ bowling tonight, I'm sure.

I am down to 179 according to my scales. I managed to gain 2 pounds while we were in Nashville. Ate what I should most of the time, just not regular. I really need to focus on that end more when I travel, which I hope to do more of in 2012.

What's your favorite way to exercise?

BL Week 2

Wow! I just don't know where the time goes. Remember being a kid and thinking an event would never come? Things like Birthday's and Christmas? Well, that's kind of where I am right now.

We have company coming in on Friday. I've been trying desperately to get the house presentable and beyond so I can get Christmas decorations up after Thanksgiving. Company leaves on Sunday and we leave for three days in Nashville. Our oldest grandtoddler turns 4 on Tuesday. She's called me every 3rd day for the past month wanting to know 2 things - Can she come to my house and is grandpa going to bring her baby doll (what she asked for her birthday). I can't believe it's almost that time and I still have so much I want to do in the house.

Add that I'm trying to write 50,000 words of a new novel in 30 days that just doesn't want to come together. Yeah... just a little stress.

Thankfully I'm not a 'stress' eater. Just the opposite. I get busy and forget to eat. Not eating regularly can be just as damaging to a weight loss plan. But I'm trying.

As of last Friday's weigh-in I'd lost 1 pound. I'd be happy with being down 1 pound a week. I managed to gain back that pound last weekend while I was in Springfield. I think it was the soda thing in the hotel because I didn't have my iced tea. But I've since lost it. So only 1 pound to go in the next 2 days. Hmmm

Are you a stress eater? What triggers your over eating/ or lack of eating? Let's chat!

Enjoy the journey!

Inspiration

Everyone gets their inspiration for things from different sources. The same applies to our push to finally shed the pounds.

Aside from the fact I know that it is the healthy thing to do. I want to be around a long time to enjoy my two young granddaughters. Adrian will turn four in a few days and Abigail was born on October 13th. By the grace of the God and Goddess, they have a long life ahead of them and I want to be around to enjoy every step of the way.

As I've talked about in an earlier post, there's a bit of vanity involved. Whether she'll admit it or not, there is a part of every woman that wants to know she can still catch a guy's attention. Happily married to my best friend of 28 years, I still wouldn't mind a honk, wolf whistle or 'decent' comment when I walk buy.

While enjoying an Artists Day in Paducah KY last month, I started my day with an early morning walk through the art district, just enjoying the quiet of the morning and getting a plan of what I wanted to see once stores and galleries opened up. As I walked down Artists Alley, I walked by a guy sitting on a bench reading the morning paper and enjoying a cup of coffee. Nearly half a block past him, I heard a comment float on the crisp air behind me... 'nice butt'. I turned to see who had spoken. We were the only two on the street. He raised his cup of coffee in a salute and smiled. I returned the smile then continued on my way. I spent the rest of the day with a lighter step and a new confidence. I knew my battle with weight loss was starting to pay off. Let me tell you, nothing can motivate you more than a POSITIVE comment.

With the Main Street Grocery Biggest Loser, the cash prize doesn't hurt the motivation either. I mean, seriously, who can't use a little extra cash right now?

Then there's Jay Wornick. Jay began losing weight on a New Years Resolution bet from his wife January 2011. As you'll see in the story, he's lost almost 200 pounds in 10 months. The prize was the loser would have the winner's name tatooted on their stomach. Okay, not exactly my inspiration but as I said, everyone has something different that motivates them.

So my question for today... What will motivate you to finally make the move to be a healthier you?

Whatever it is, remember to...

Enjoy the Journey!