Happy Halloween!

Today begins the start of the holiday season. First comes the bags and bags of candy. With three kids trick or treating there will be plenty of candy for weeks to come and candy is definitely my weakness. My solution? Put all the good stuff outside in a vehicle. Far enough away that I have to burn calories to get to it.

Next comes Thanksgiving with the high calorie meals and leftovers. Shortly after the Christmas season with parties, cookies and candies galore.

The eating is not the only problem of holidays. A lot of it is not being able to exercise because we are too busy visiting or with company. After getting out of a routine it is difficult to get back in it. My solution? Do it anyway!!! I may not like doing videos with company here but I can get on the treadmill or play outside. With company around I have more people to watch the baby and I need to take advantage of that.

My gameplan today is to do double time on exercising, cardio and strength today. I already messed up eating banana bread for breakfast (warning very high calorie!). Now I have 1150 calories left for lunch, dinner and candy. I usually have at least 1500. I know I will ant candy so I need to plan for that and burn extra calories.

I was feeling down this morning because my weight loss slowed down so I looked at my journal. I have lost 1 pound since last Wednesday, but my calorie deficit since then is 3600, so 1 pound. It is my own fault because the program is still working. I can not expect to lose a pound every other day, or I will get disappointed and quit. Lesson learned! Keep trucking on and slowly but surely it will come off.

Weekend

The weekend was a success and a failure. I was not able to stay away from Mountain Dew. I had some late nights and early mornings and ended up drinking two. The good news is that I kept my activity up and burned a lot of calories and also did not overeat on junk food. I was down about 1 pound this morning to 204.2.

Now I must get myself back on my exercise routine. This has been difficult in the past after taking more than one day off. I will do it this time!!

In other news, my in-laws house burnt down on Saturday. Crazy to see how fast everything can be gone. I'm not sure how this is going to affect our lives yet, but time will tell. Everyone was fine and even the dog got out, but they lost just about everything.

I used the weekend to try out a new Pinterest recipe called crack bread I have been wanting to try, but didn't want to make at home and eat too much. This was perfect I got to try a few bites and give the rest away. I probably shouldn't post this here, but this is what I made:



Yes, that is bacon and cheese in bread. Not only that it is drizzled with a stick of butter mixed with ranch dressing. Can't get much worse than that! It was delicious but to me it wasn't good enough to justify the calories. I would rather spend those calories on a dessert!

Sluggish

Right now I am dripping in sweat because I just finished my workout, but I am feeling very sluggish. I didn't give it my all and I didn't even start until 4pm because I wanted a nap instead. This is unusual. Ever since I have started I have had consistent energy and didn't feel the need to nap.

Am I burning out?

Or am I eating crappy food?

I think it is #2. I have had a lot of extra calories to eat and I have been filling them with junk food like ice cream and nutty bars. This needs to stop!

I have my first hurtle this weekend. I am going downstate to visit family and will not be able to exercise. I am hoping that I will be more active throughout the day and will still meet my goal. Another problem is the local store has awesome pizza and that is usually what we eat all weekend. If it's not pizza it's their homemade hotdogs. I also don't get much sleep and end up drinking Mountain Dew for energy.

My goal:
Eat healthy this weekend to keep energy up instead of junky food and Mountain Dew.

Will update Monday.

I am consistently losing about half a pound a day. My deficit is only 1000-1200 calories a day. I am completely surprised by the food I am eating and the weight loss. I highly recommend the Body Bugg to everyone. I have dieted for years and never put calories burned with calories ate. I knew that is how it worked but without the Body Bugg you can't get a good estimate of how many calories you burn a day so that you can eat properly.

My average burn is about 2800 calories a day. To do this I either exercise for an hour or be steadily doing something all day like shopping or cleaning. It is not hard to reach that. I also figure I am burning 450 calories a day breastfeeding, but I may be off on that. With that I am eating about 2200 calories a day. Which is quite a bit of food!

Breakfast- English muffin with eggs, cheese and ham and a Life choice meal replacement bar.
Lunch- Wrap with ham, cheese, light ranch, lettuce and tomato with grapes or ff pringles
Dinner-  Whatever I cook for the family that contains about 600-700 calories.
Snacks- I have about 500 calories throughout the day for snack. I eat crackers and laughing cow cheese, pudding packs, string cheese, fruit, cookies, ice cream just about anything I am craving.

When I stop breastfeeding I will have to stop my snacks or increase my activity. I could also decrease my dinner or make it healthier to cut calories.

I burn about 500 calories doing either Zumba or Turbo Jam Cardio Party 3. If that's not enough I jump on the treadmill and burn 100 calories in 15 minutes. Crazy but I burn as many calories breastfeeding in a day as one intense hour of exercise!

Vacation

What could be more motivating than a beach vacation? A wedding or class reunion? The last time I lost over 20 lbs was for my wedding in 2008. Today I am booking a family vacation in the Florida Keys at the beginning of December. I am also now freaking out about how much weight I can lose before then. I want to do this slow and healthy but I also want to look cute on vacation.

If I can steadily lose 2-2.5 pounds a week I can be down to 188 lbs. That will have to be good enough. I wish I could lose more but it wouldn't be healthy. I at least have the motivation to get toned and lose weight every week.

I won't be purchasing a bikini this year, but maybe next year! Better get to my exercising today.

Egg Muffin

I have been teaching myself to eat healthier breakfasts. I have never liked cereal in the morning so I am always trying to find other breakfast foods. I like bagels and cream cheese but those are fattening and don't last long. Also not a big fan of oatmeal but maybe someday I will find a way to like it, I know how healthy it is.

I was resorting to just eating freezer breakfast sandwiches, which are small for how many calories are in them, but they were easy and quick.

Today I made an Egg Muffin that was really quite good and took just as long as microwaving a frozen sandwich.

Breakfast Egg Muffin

Toast an english muffin while cooking 1/4 cup egg substitute. 

Place fat free american cheese on muffin, then egg. 

Heat ham slice in egg pan and place on sandwich. 

That's it! It was just as good as frozen, plus bigger and more filling! This has about 234 calories.

GOOD NEWS!
My calorie deficit so far is 5728 and I was down another pound today! 206.4. This is the first time seeing that number in a very long time. I'm creeping toward the 190's.

I actually lost weight after going out to eat, that is amazing for me.

Eating out on a Diet

Another non scale victory! We went out to eat today and I ate fewer calories today then the rest of the week! That is huge for me. I usually use going out as an excuse to eat whatever and return to my diet the next day, but I don't want to ruin all my hard work, so I went online before we left and picked out what I would eat in order to stay within calories. I was surprised by how many calories are in dishes that I would have eaten before.

We went to Applebee's and I ordered the garlic sirloin with herb potatoes and some nasty mushroom and spinach thing that I did not eat, but did try. I also had enough for a bowl of french onion soup. My favorite! So I did feel like I splurged when I really didn't.

The problem with this plan is that I was not flexible. I only picked out a dish at Applebee's so that was the only place we could go. I will have to learn more choices at different places, because we do tend to eat out a lot on the spur of the moment.

I had a little problem though. I have always loved desserts and rarely order them because I am stuffed by that time. I also don't  think I have ever seen my husband order a dessert even when I do, he just doesn't like desserts. For some reason he decides we should get a dessert this time. Why??? As soon as I get serious about dieting I feel like he sabotages it with throwing my cravings in front of me. We had a small argument and I told him that I would go sit in the car if he insisted on it. I just do not feel strong enough to sit and watch everyone else eating my favorite desserts in front of me.

We went grocery shopping after dinner and again he wants to stock up on snack food aka junk food. I asked him to please not buy anything chocolate because I can't resist it. He really wanted mint oreo's, but I explained while he is fine eating 3 or 4 a night I will sit and eat half the box in a day. I just need more time to be strong enough to resist them. He doesn't understand. He ended up not buying the oreo's but did buy a case of Mountain Dew, another huge downfall for me. Whenever I get crabby or feel down I know that a Mountain Dew will completely change my mood, so I go for one. I forget how horrible I feel after the effects leave even days later when my headache kicks in.

Here is my motivation for the day:

Success!

This week I have successfully stuck with having a deficit of at least 500 calories a day even through my sons birthday party. I actually had a deficit of 1500 that day because I burned so many just cleaning the house and I had cake!

I have been keeping a spreadsheet of calories burned and ate to see if this is really working. Today the spreadsheet says I have burned an extra 4026 calories in the last 4 days and guess what?!? I am down about 1-1.5 lbs this morning. It really could not work any better than that. This is complete proof to me that 3500 calories= 1 lb and all I have to do is create a deficit. It seems so simple to me now.

Forget that screwy points system that makes it seem like magic. Counting calories really is that simple. Even though many of my calories were cake or cookies this week and not a lot of fruits and vegetables I still am losing weight!

Honestly I have also been sweating my butt off for at least an hour a day to make sure I reach my calorie goal, but it is making me feel so much better. When I walk into the store or school I can feel my new muscles giving me extra power and a little bounce in my step. I tried on my jeans I want to fit in and they are still very tight but I can feel my body changing and I know I will fit in them soon.

Another positive I have noticed is that I have steady energy all day. I admit I am lazy in the morning and slow to start, but throughout the day and right up until I fall asleep, I have this steady energy. No highs and lows like I used to have.

I am feeling a little burnt out today and don't want to exercise but these changes I notice are pushing me to do it anyway. I feel like I have devoted a lot of time to food and exercise and I just want to do some crafting, but I must remind myself that my body is the important project right now!




I DID START! 6 MONTHS FROM NOW I WILL FEEL AND LOOK AWESOME!

P.S. 6 months from now is April, so by next summer I will actually look good in shorts. 50 lbs in 6 months achievable?  I THINK SO!

I turn 28 in 7 months and I want to feel young and fit, not old and fat!

Weight Watchers Points Plus

Does not work for me!

I mentioned yesterday that I have been gaining and losing the same pound over and over, so I did a little research on the Points Plus plan and found out that this is happening to a LOT of people. It seems the new system allows too many points compared to the old one. I really liked the old system, I lost weight consistently and it kept me motivated. I was excited to start WW again. On the old system I lost 4 lbs the first week then 1-2 every week after as long as I stuck to points even when I ate a little too much I still lost. Now I haven't seen any results. Maybe one pound in 5 weeks. Very frustrating!

So I found a new and FREE app on my ipad called MyFitnessPal. It is a calorie counter so it will work with my BodyBugg. What is really cool about it besides that it is free is that you can scan barcodes from food instead of imputing everything. I think this would be easier on a phone but is still doable with the ipad. You can also create recipes like WW. That is important to me because I cook for a family of 6 and need to be able to know what a portion is. I do not want to have to cook a separate meal for myself.

I am still playing with the program, but I think this plan is going to work better for me this time. The BodyBugg I wear everyday tells me how many calories I burn in a day, so it makes sense to count the calories I eat not points.

My goal is still to eat 2000 calories, burn 2650 and breastfeed for 400. For a deficit of about 1000 calories a day. I have been able to reach my goal of 2650 everyday except one since I started and most days I go 200-300 over my target, so I may have to increase my intake a little so my body will get what it needs.

What concerns me is that the BodyBugg is only 90% accurate. That means if I actually only burn 90% of 2650 or 2385 calories then I am actually overeating 300 calories. This still means a weight loss of 1.8 pounds a week though. Going over my target a little everyday should get me closer to 2 lbs a week.

I can't wait to see how week 1 goes! The scale already said 207.5 today!

A little motivation for the day:

Retaining Water from Exercise

I get very discouraged when I do not see any weight loss especially after staying within my food points and giving my all exercising. Today I weighed in at the same as last week. I feel like I have been gaining and losing the same pound over and over for 5 weeks now! I am just not budging from the area of 210.

I am trying to pinpoint the problem so that I don't get discouraged this time. Yesterday morning I weighed (yes I weigh in everyday) at 208.4 and then I did some weight lifting in the Chalene Extreme burn series and today weighed in at 211 at 7am and 209.5 at 10am. I am working on this but I currently get up at 7am and get my 2nd grader off to school then go back to bed.

This is my first week doing weightlifting. I woke up pretty sore today and my research this morning says that sore muscles=water retention. As much as 2-4lbs! It also appears that this weight gain can stick for about 2 weeks before showing a decrease.

Everyone knows exercise is important to weight loss and looking good, but it is discouraging that I can lose weight faster without it.

I have been closely monitoring my measurements though and I have lost 1.5" in my waist in the last 5 days and .5" in my stomach area. So this is improvement! This is enough to keep me going and motivated and hopefully the scale will creep downward next week instead of staying steady. I am so eager to break 200 lbs!

Here are some websites that encouraged me to keep exercising even though I am retaining water and not losing weight.

Livestrong
Average people weighing in on water retention
Retain water after exercise

Overall the best way to fix this water retention is to drink more water! I have decided to create a checklist and put it next to the sink so that I can check off each time I refill. I have not been keeping track just felt like I was drinking enough.

Some people have found that buying one huge water bottle and marking lines on it with times of the day next to them to make sure you are drinking enough throughout the day. However I prefer fresh cold water from the tap so I just need a checklist.
Idea and picture from Fitness and Frozen Grapes

I did it!

I pushed through, completed my exercise and I honestly feel better. I'm ready to clean up the house now. I'm so glad I didn't take a nap. Plus exercise gets rid of my appetite, so I haven't ate either. Wahoo for a dieting victory!

Another victory, I burned over 400 calories doing Cardio Party 3. About 10 calories a minute instead of the sedentary 1.3 I would have gotten taking a nap.

I've lost a little motivation today. I'm tired and worn out. When I'm tired, I'm crabby. When I'm crabby I eat more junk. More junk food leads to being more tired and not wanting to exercise.

The kids are driving me crazy! My 3 and 5 year old have been sick all week and the infant has reached a colicky phase. Between the whining and crying I'm ready to flip out. This is NOT helping my diet.

I want to take a nap but I slept until 10:30 already today. Why am I needing so much sleep? I think I'm going to bed just to get away from the nagging. The weather has been cold and rainy so the kids have been stuck inside.

This too shall pass!

I may be down and hating life right now but I know this will pass and I will regret it if I fall off the wagon because of a few bad days. So I'm going to pick myself back up and Just Do It Already!

After baby falls asleep I'm putting in Turbo Jam Cardio Party and no more eating until dinner!

Good news scale said 208.6 today. I think I was retaining water from the 5 meat stuffed pizza I ate and it is finally changing.

Exercise Plan

Month 1- Burn Circuit

Chalene Extreme and Turbo Jam Hybrid

Monday- Burn 1 and Ab Jam or Burner
Tuesday- Cardio Party 1, 2 or 3
Wednesday- Burn 2 and Ab Jam
Thursday- Cardio Party 1, 2 or 3
Friday- Burn 3 and Ab Jam
Saturday- Burn Intervals and Treadmill
Sunday- Rest day and Treadmill

According to Body Bugg:
Burn 2650 calories a day
Burn 400 calories breastfeeding
Eat 2000 calories or 46 pts.

Deficit of 1000 calories a day and 2 lbs a week.

I am NOT a Beachbody coach, as so many are nowadays, but if you are interested I will give you my honest opinion of different programs. I am not paid by anyone so I can give honest unbiased opinions. I currently recommend getting a BodyBugg and trying Turbo Jam because they are motivating and fun!

Here it goes!

I am starting my weight loss journey! I have the motivation, but not just that I have the drive, the want, the need to be skinny and fit. I AM READY!

I am the type of person to read as much as I can about weight loss and try all the gimmicks to stay motivated. Keep a journal is also a good motivational tool. A journal online for others to read is even better!

So here we go. I gave birth on August 20th 2012. When I went in the hospital I weighed 234 lbs! (My husband does not even know that). After the weight of the pregnancy was gone I was left with 210 lbs. I immediately started dieting and even signed up for Weight Watchers while still in the hospital. I have been following it pretty well since birth but I am on a renewed vigilance.

Last week a received a wonderful gadget called the Body Bugg which I will do a review of later. For now I will just say that it has helped push me to burn enough calories everyday.

I also began exercising more hardcore since I just got my clear from the Dr. a week ago. I am a HUGE fan of Chalene Johnson and have 3 of her programs: Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire and Chalene Extreme. I am currently combining schedules of Turbo Fire and Chalene Extreme. I am thinking of switching Turbo Fire for Turbo Jam because I like it better but that is because it is easier, so I may just push myself harder. I just don't want to give up because I push myself too far.

I also have a little hidden secret to help with my weight loss... I am breastfeeding. So I get to eat an extra 300 or 400 calories a day and still lose weight. Wahoo!

I have lost weight after other pregnancies but never 80 lbs and I haven't weighed less than 140 lbs since before puberty. I see women doing it and I want to do it too! I know I can!

Stats:
Height: 5'4"
Start Weight: 210 lbs
Goal Weight: 130 lbs
Lose 80 lbs!!!!