Weigh to go Wednesday

It's Wednesday!  That is my weigh-in day.  I'm down another 1.5 pounds this week for a total loss of 13 pounds over 4 weeks.  Not too shabby!

Image Source

I also do measurements every 2 weeks.  So, since this is week 4, it was a measure week.  Here are the losses so far on each of the places I measure:

Neck: -.25 inches
Chest: -.25 inches
Waist (smallest part): -1.75 inches
Belly (around the belly button): -1.25 inches
Hips (biggest part): -2 inches
Arm: -.75 inches
Thigh: no change

Total Inches Lost: 6.25 inches!!

So, 13 pounds and 6.25 inches lost in 4 weeks.  All accomplished by counting calories and walking more.  Maybe it's time to really step up my workout regimen.  Imagine what I could do!  :)

How are you successes going this week?

On the bright side

In my first post a few days back I introduced myself as "a wife, mother, full-time worker, a cook, a housekeeper, a friend, a daughter and very tired."  I do have a lot of hats that I wear in any given day.  And, honestly, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some enjoyment in each of the roles that I fulfill in my life.

I am blessed to be married to the Hub, who makes me feel beautiful and sexy and wanted, even when I don't even want to look in the mirror.  I am blessed to have the opportunity to be the mama to Little Man and Little Lady who give me so much joy that sometimes I think my heart my actually burst.  I am blessed to have a great job with a company and product that I really believe in.  I'm blessed to enjoy cooking and providing that for my little family.  I'm blessed to have a home (a rental though it may be) to clean and make memories in.

I'm very blessed.  Sometimes it's really important, especially when working on weight loss, to stop and remember all the blessings.  Weight loss efforts, naturally, tend to lead to a focus on the physical, and it's really easy to get bogged down in the negative.  "I really hate my stretch marks" or "man, will these love handles ever go away?" or "Ugh.  I've lost 13 pounds but I still look the same."  But, I have so many GOOD things to focus on.  So, when I'm feeling my motivation waning or feeling a bit down on myself, I make a list of things for which I am grateful.  So, here's today's list:

1. Diet Soda.  I really love diet soda.  I know water is a much healthier choice and I try to drink a lot of it, but diet soda is an awesome way to get a "treat" without any guilt.  
2. Sleep.  Sleep is a rare occurrence in my life these days.  On the days that Little Lady sleeps well, Little Man seems to struggle.  But, last night I got two 2 1/2 hour blocks of sleep and today I, literally, feel unstoppable.  Oh, what a difference a little rest makes. 
3. Hope.  As I mentioned yesterday, I've been being eaten alive by dealing with some stress recently.  Sometimes when things aren't going according to plan (and boy, am I a planner!), it's hard to see how it's going to get better.  But, hope gives us the ability to stay positive and joyful when things seem to be their darkest.  
4. Music.  I work from home most days and I have an amplifier I plug my computer into to improve the quality of Pandora coming through my computer.  My son LOVES to sneak into my office and push the power button on an off ("red, stop!  green, go!" he'll shout).  After he turns it green he'll shout "song! dance, mama," and we'll dance together until he stops it again.  Music has the power to boost our moods and dancing with a 2 year old had the power to increase that boost!  
5. Inspirational quotes.  Okay, so this one might seem lame, but my personality is such that I really find motivational quotes to be, well, motivational.  Pinterest is a good friend to me when I'm feeling particularly sad or negative. Here's one I'd like to leave with you today in case you are feeling a little down on yourself.  Don't let negativity stay.  Go listen to this, dance like there's a 2 year old with you and tell those negative thoughts to go to hell.  

Via Pinterest

Stress. Eating.

Happy Monday!  I hope your weekend was wonderful.  Our weather left a little to be desired, unfortunately.  It was windy and chilly.  This made getting my steps in a bit more difficult than it has been, but I did pretty well.

Today I need to get something off my chest.  I haven't been doing GREAT with my food intake the last few days.  I haven't gone too overboard or anything, but I'ver really wanted to.  My relationship with food over the last 15 years or so has been somewhat tenuous.  Sometimes I'm totally in control and feeling great and, well, the rest of the time?  Not.  I'm a binger (not to be confused with a purger, I don't go there).  But, I stress eat.  I eat in secret when no one is looking and I hide the evidence.  And, for about 30 seconds while I'm cramming the brownie (or whatever) into my mouth I actually feel better.  Until I don't, and then I feel worse for having crammed the brownie and we start over again.

Things in my life have been a bit  very stressful lately.  My hub lost his job while I was on maternity leave, so I had to go back to work a couple weeks earlier than expected.  So, I've got a 2-year old, a baby, a full-time job, a hub looking for work, bills to pay, a house to clean, a body to reshape, a severe lack of quality sleep - and I'd be lying if I didn't say that it got to be too much sometimes.  Some days I, literally, feel the desire to binge.  I want it.  It's hard to explain, because I know at the end of day I'll end up just feeling worse and more guilty about the overeating, but I really do crave it.

Luckily this weekend I didn't give in.  But, it's been hard to get the thoughts to go away.  So, even though I'm doing okay diet-wise, I don't feel very okay.  So, today My Fitness Pal is going to be my best friend as I make sure to log every little bite I eat to help me feel a little bit more like I'm paying attention and making those right choices.  I won't let all the progress I've made go to waste over a little (or a lot...) stress.

I can do it and so can you!

Weight Loss: The Basics

It has come to my attention recently, that what I felt to be the basic tenets of weight loss are actually misunderstood (or not understood at all!) by many people out there trying to lose weight.  Although many health "buzzwords" out their would have us believe there are magic weight loss secrets just waiting to be unlocked, the truth is, weight loss is ALL about calories.

Calories and BMR:

A calorie is a unit of energy.  Your body needs this energy to run properly.  You have a "minimum" number of calories needed to keep your body running when you are doing nothing at all (say, lying on the couch), this is called your basal metabolic rate.  The Mayo Clinic website had a great calculator for you to find out what your base is.  If I put in my current stats, I find that to maintain my current body weight, I need [approximately] between 1650-2300 calories per day, depending on my activity level.

So, what if I want to LOSE weight?  Well, I need to eat less calories than it takes to maintain my current weight.  Since my body will need the additional energy above and beyond what I eat, it will look to break down the reserves in my body (i.e. fat) to provide the additional energy.

A widely accepted estimate (I've been reading a lot lately about why this is misleading, but I still find it to be a good and simple way to think about weight loss) is that a pound of fat is 3500 calories.  So, to lose a pound of fat you need to find a way for your body to burn 3500 calories.  This can be done one of two ways - eat less or exercise more (or both!).  If you eat 500 calories less than your basal metabolic rate requires, over 7 days, that equals 3500 less calories, or a pound.  If you exercise and burn 500 calories, you get the same result.  If you eat more than your BMR - than you will maintain (or potentially gain) your weight.

Calories in food

I remember my mom joking with me that her sister once went on a candy bar diet.  My aunt decided, if I get 1200 calories a day, I might as well enjoy them!  While this is, theoretically true (you could lose weight eating nothing by candy bars), it's not a very smart dieting plan.

Different types of food have differing density of calories.  A gram of fat has about 9 calories while a gram of protein or carbohydrate has 7 calories.  So, you can eat more protein or carbohydrates for fewer calories and this will help you to feel more satisfied when eating.  Additionally, it takes you body longer to break down protein than fat, so you'll feel fuller, longer if you get a high protein snack versus a high fat snack.

So, if you had a candy bar for breakfast, odds are you'll be starving in an hour or two and, therefore, more likely to over eat.  If you have an egg white omelet with spinach, a piece of whole grain toast, and a half a grapefruit, you're going to feel more full and stay satisfied a whole lot longer for the same number of calories (probably less!).

Buzzwords

Be careful of diet buzzwords like fat free/low fat, whole grain, organic, or sugar free.  While, these may be healthier options, they are not always lower in calories.  So, the whole wheat pasta might sound like a better choice, but if your goal is weight loss keep in mind that a serving of whole wheat pasta has the same number of calories as regular pasta.  A healthier option, yes.  An option that is going to lead to a slimmer waistline?  Not necessarily.

Hopefully this helps you in your weight loss planning.  I am currently on a 1200 calorie-a-day diet and trying to get in 30 or more minutes of walking each day.  This puts me on target for about a 2 pound loss each week.

Goals - and how to be realistic

While a big part of my weight loss goals are oriented around confidence and feeling comfortable in my own skin, I don't think that any real success can be had without some concrete goals.  

If I'm being honest, my new lifestyle (I'm really trying to avoid the word "diet" because it sounds temporary) began 3 weeks ago.  In that time I've already lost 10.5 pounds and 4 1/2 inches.  That's GREAT progress.  But, those first few weeks are usually the easiest.  Your body sheds a bunch of water weight and you shock it into submission.  So, now is when it gets tough.  Big 5 pound a week losses stop and slower (more realistic) weight loss begins.  

My goal from my present weight is to lose 42 pounds.  I'm only 4 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight (woot!), but have another 38 after that to get to my final goal weight.  If I'm being totally honest, my goal is a little ambitious, so I'd actually be really happy losing between 32-42 pounds (which would put me between 145-155 pounds and probably between a size 6-8).  We will just have to see as I get closer how realistic that lower number will be for me.  

Having said that, here's my advice to you when setting a weight loss goal.  Be ambitious!  But, be realistic.  Body types are different out there and I think each of us have different "set points" where our bodies are happy.  On one of my previous weight loss journeys I got too ambitious and that was the ultimate cause of my failure.  

Learn from my mistake:

I'm not a super tall gal, but I am taller than your average woman at 5'6".  I'm also curvy - I've got hips and a bum.  As such, I carry a little more weight than you'd think - I'll never weigh 125 pounds, at least not if I'm eating food.  And, to be honest, I carry that weight pretty well (I probably weigh a lot more than most people think).  So, I wanted to weigh 130 pounds.  The BMI told me that was a healthy weight and magazines led me to believe that a normal weight for a woman is between, like, 110-125 (it's not, by the way).  

Anyway, I worked out every day and ate 1100 calories every day for 8 months and you know what?  I lost 42 pounds.  I weighed in at 135 and looked fantastic.  But, you know what happened?  I didn't lose more weight.  I kept going to the gym, I kept eating next-to-nothing and I kept weighing 135.  So, and here's the stupid part, I felt like I had FAILED.  I stepped on the scale every day (another weight loss no-no that we'll get to in another post of "weight loss no-nos") and never lost - for months.  

And then it happened, I gave up.  I [quite subconsciously] decided that if I wasn't going to lose any weight, then I was wasting my time trying so darn hard.  I decreased my gym frequency and let myself indulge here and there.  My weight went up a pound or two and I felt like a bigger failure - and so the cycle continued until I'd gained every pound back.  

All this nonsense because I'd set my goal randomly and treated it like a magic number.  If I had said, "hey 135 looks great on me and I feel great," I bet I could have maintained near that number.  But, because I decided I wasn't worth the effort if I didn't hit that magic number, I did fail.  

So, while my new goal isn't so ambitious (and after 2 kids, I'm not even going to pretend like I have the time to work out every day or the emotional fortitude to stick to an 1100 calorie diet) this time around, it's also a range to keep me from feel like I've somehow failed when I've come so far.  

What's your goal?

My Inner Zebra

Well, hello.  Welcome.  Let me begin with an introduction.  An introduction to me and my journey. I'm a wife, mother, full-time worker, a cook, a housekeeper, a friend, a daughter, and very tired.

I'm a 28-year old mom to 2 wonderful little kiddos.  I have a 2.5 year old boy who I'll be calling "Little Man" on the blog.  I also have a 3 month old daughter, who I'll call "Little Lady."  I love these kids (and their dad) more than there are words.  So, I'm going to start by giving my body a little pat on the back - it did an exceptional job growing and birthing those two little miracles.  But, it's retained some (okay, a lot) of weight from those journeys and it's time to get it under control.

I'm no stranger to weight loss.  I was explaining to the hub, that since my senior year of high school I have gained and lost at least 20 pounds 5 times.  I know how to lose weight, but this time around I also need to gain something: the confidence and strength to keep it off. I'm so tired of the yo-yo and I want to be healthy and vibrant for my kids - so the trend stops here.  I've got about 45 pounds to lose, one pound at a time.

Okay, I know what you are thinking - what's with the Zebra?  I remember going to the zoo with my mom one year and we were discussing our favorite animals.  Her response caught me off guard when she said, "I like the Zebra.  I mean look at the way they wear horizontal stripes across their bums! Such confidence."

Since that day, the Zebra has been a symbol of confidence to me.  At the end of this journey I'm not going to look like a supermodel - but that's okay.  I'm going to be me, just an improved me.  And, baby, I'm going to flaunt it.  So, join me on this journey of weight loss, self discovery, parenthood, and learning to love my stripes.