Update 02-25-2010

Today I walked for 20 min at 3.3mph, completed 50 crunches, did 2 sets of arm workouts.

• Updated my progress bar. I think now that I placed this bar at the top of the page it will help to register in my mind better than when it was buried at the bottom. Before I was putting too much stress on how much exercise I had to do. Now I'm going to put the stress on how much weight I have to lose. Honestly, that chart doesn't scare me. It's a challenge I'm ready to take on.
  

• Created a WEIGHT HISTORY page. I hope that in posting my weight throughout the years, 2003-present, that it will make me more accountable for my actions. Along side of the data, I wrote a brief account of how much I gained each year and what my stressors were. Finally, I added a conclusion section listing things I've learned about handling weight issues in the future.

News That Makes You Move

TRUTH FIRST then NEWS

I'll admit that I haven't started exercising yet, despite my post saying I was going to. I feel guilty about that and I know this guilt will weigh on me and get me moving soon hopefully. I've been somewhat successful in prolonging the time between my meals, but I'm still eating more than 3 meals a day.

I HAVE HAD SOME SUCCESS THOUGH! Since my last post I've been drinking water throughout the day and am only having diet soda at dinnertime. I don't know if I feel healthier, but I have noticed a difference in the way I drink.

Well, let me start by saying that this is the first time I'm drinking water over soda since as early as I can remember. I switched to diet soda, pepsi, when I was about 17 years old. I basically have lived a dehydrated life and there have been times when blacking out was more common than not. There were a few years where I had blacked out maybe 4 or 5 times in a year. It was a mixture of heat exhaustion, dehydration, and stress. I don't know why I hated water, but I did. When I exercised on and off over the years, I would only drink the absolute minimum amount of bottled water needed to get by. This is why I'm shocked that switching to tap water, not even bottled water, doesn't feel so wrong to me. I think I might actually stick with this.

I've always chugged soda and would manage to drink about 2 bottles of soda a day. This hasn't changed, I'm chugging the tap water but I'm not having 2 bottles worth of it. For some reason I'm not quite as thirsty. When drinking soda at dinnertime, the glass takes much longer to empty. Even as I type this, I have quite a few sips left of soda from earlier in the day and it's taking me forever to get through it. I'll admit it it's a hard craving to kick, but I like this change and hope there are more to come with my new beverage of choice.

NOW FOR NEWS

Within the matter of minutes, I came across 3 health inspiring news articles to get even the likes of me motivated (tomorrow)...


DRASTIC HEALTH CHANGES CAN KEEP YOU FROM LOSING WEIGHT

According to Dr. Holly Philips from CBS news, when it comes to exercise, "we might start out too extreme, from not exercising at all to exercising too intensely." These drastic changes can be the reason why you're not losing weight. She suggests that scaling back on your efforts might yield bigger results. One small permanent change each week will help you lose 4x the weight in 4 months.

• A food diary forces you to keep honest about what you're eating.
• Eat slowly so you enjoy the meal and a result of that will be eating less throughout the day.
  
• Go to bed and hour earlier.
  
• Brush your teeth after every meal to get rid of the taste of food.
  
• Stop drinking soda.
• Walk 5 minutes extra each day.
  
• Chew gum while cooking.

VIDEO LINK: http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=139195@wcbs.dayport.com


BLOGGING THE WEIGHT AWAY

Australian born Shauna Reid, then 23, weighed 351 pounds when she started her blog, DietGirl.org. She posted full body photos, blurring out her face, and posted her weight loss journey earning herself international popularity with over 500,00 readers. She originally turned to blogging because she felt it was a forum for "anonymous group therapy."

"All my friends were skinny, so I didn't want to talk to them about how scary and lonely it is to be fat. They're lovely, but they just wouldn't understand -- they don't know what it feels like to not be able to walk down the street -- it is out of their realm of experience. I had always written my secrets in a diary, but I knew the task ahead called for more than a journal. So I would go online and tell anyone who was listening how much it hurt to be this weight -- and every blog entry started with my exact weight. Readers started to cheer me on when the number went down, and encouraged me to stay with it when the number went up. I'm blogging now about how hard it is to maintain a healthy weight."

Five Tips from Reid for Diet Blogging

1. Share your statistics
2. Get involved with the blogging community
3. Keep writing through the tough times
4. Have fun with your writing!
5. Beware of blogger butt - Don't forget to switch off the computer and get your exercise done!

ARTICLE LINK: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/26/earlyshow/health/main4753425.shtml


WAKE UP LOOKING BEAUTIFUL! Apparently washing your face before you go to sleep every night will keep your face looking young and healthy 5 years down the line.

• Take the pressure off your eyes and avoid wrinkles by sleeping on your back.
  
• Use 2 pillows to drain puffiness from your eyes.
  
• Too many carbs will make you look puffy in the morning.
  
• Use a humidifier to keep your face and hair full of moisture.
  
• Keep your hair frizz free with a Satin pillow.

VIDEO LINK: http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=139141@wcbs.dayport.com

Confession Time - 2 Week Absence

The exact moment I began this downward spiral was at my sister's super bowl party. I knew it would be a difficult day for me, but I thought it would be one day of self indulgence followed by my regiment of hitting the treadmill. The truth is I don't snap back like that. One day of failure lasts for days if not longer, of self pity, doubt, insecurities, and wallowing in depression.

The food course went as follows: snacks, appetizers, dinner, and dessert. Mind you the party started at 3pm and went until 10. In 7 hours I probably consumed two days worth of food, calorie wise. Meanwhile, when I attend any other person's party, I barely have a bite. There's something about family that comforts me into being the pig that I am. I won't even eat a chip at a friend's party because I know "once you pop, you just can't stop." Not only that, I know people are thinking no wonder why she's so fat, look at her have at it. I'd much rather the connection of my weight and food seem more like a mystery. I would rather people think, she barely ever eats, I feel bad she can't lose weight.

While the super bowl party was a set back on my weight loss goals, this was just one of many misfortunes I've had. My last week of exercise was supposed to cover 15 hours of exercise, 5 to make up for a half a week's exercise missed. I started strong going 3hrs a day for 3 days straight. Then I was feeling a little sore and just overall tired. Every day that I didn't exercise I was counting down the days I had left to meet my goal. I cornered myself into the last day of the week. At this point I've given up on making up the 5 lost hours from the previous week, I just need to complete my original goal of 10. One hour of exercise and I'm done. Instead, I decided to be lazy and I accomplished absolutely nothing. I failed 2 weeks in a row.

Now it's the end of the month and it's time for me to hit the scale, hoping that my motivation will be found in a mystery number. I wanted to see at least 179, but honestly even losing 1 lb would have done something for me. I should have never gotten on that scale. I didn't lose a single pound. In fact, I gained .5. Well, I can excuse that because I know that I'm supposed to get my period any day now. So I decided to wait a week until my period was over and the number didn't change even by a tenth.

What am I doing wrong?

I mentioned to my mom that I was following the livestrong.com suggestion of 1400 calories based on my height, weight, age, activity level, and weight loss goals. She immediately told me 1400 was way too high. I guess I should have known that, but in the past I felt the calculations were right. Now I'm aware that I don't measure my food and that's probably cause for some miscalculations, but I gave a little buffer room with that in mind.

Since I've taken my 2 week hiatus, I'm completely lacking energy. I just want to sleep all day and I don't know what's wrong with me. When I tried to take a one-a-day energy pill it just made me feel weird. This has to be depression getting the best of me. Except I don't feel depressed, I just feel exhausted. Maybe the exhaustion is me burying my feelings instead of tackling them. Even in writing this I don't feel like I'm dealing with anything, just laying out the possibilities.

I'm starting to realize some errors in my ways.

I've come to the realization that the only people who can eat 5 small meals a day are people who don't enjoy food. Small meals consist of something low in calories and unenjoyable. I enjoy food thoroughly and I need to have my 3 large tasty main meals and starve myself in between.

I'm too goal oriented, and I pushed myself too hard once again. Who exercises 3 hours a day? Not even gym buffs do that. I need to take it easy and get back into a new rhythm. Now that my phases are messed up, naming them will probably be my excuse for not working out at all. Let's hope it's not though.

I'm not catholic but I'm going to use Lent as a reason to lose weight. I will stick to 3 meals a day. I will cut back on soda drastically replacing it with water. I will be on the treadmill an hour 5 days a week. I will do sit ups and stop being lazy. Someone tell me when Lent is over.

I think that covers everything I've been going through these past 2 weeks. I might end up updating this later.

Phase 2: Double Time - Week 3

Last weekend I went to an event where I was trying to get pictures and video. Since I was all the way in the back I did a lot of holding my arms high into the air to get unblocked footage. Needless to say, my arms were too sore for weights. The whole day was exhausting, standing up for 5 hours straight and carrying my 16lb on my shoulder, but my legs didn't hurt a bit. So instead of being lazy all week because my arms were in pain, I kept moving because my legs were doing just fine. Come to think of it, that's probably due to all the hard work I've put in thus far.

I did have a half week of double time to make up though. All week long I had opportunities and I let them slip right through my hands. I don't know why this happened, but I'm not happy it did. I'm determined to make up those 5hrs and this is my last week before my next weigh in. This means through hell and high water, I'm going to have to exercise 3x a day no matter what.

Luckily for me I have some motivation these next few days. There are exactly 3 days left in the Nike+ Conan vs. Leno challenge. Conan isn't that far behind, and if I really work my butt off, he could even win. While this is a team effort, I know a good portion of this is depending on me. I don't want to let Conan down! There is also burning off all the food I hate at the Superbowl Party (and my sleep schedule is upside down again, eek!), but that was the start of Week 4, so I'll leave it alone for now.

Nike + Conan vs Leno Challenge

During Week 3 I did good with counting calories. On days I exercised for 2hrs, I was always in my net calorie range of 500-1000. Sometimes I managed to be even lower too! Net calories are the calories you have after you take the total amount consumed - total amount burned.

RESULTS

Week 3: 10 1hr workouts, walking 33.83mi, @ 17'52"mi, burning 4664 cal.

ONE HOUR WORKOUT ROUTINE
20 min 3.0 mph
20 min 3.1 with
20 min 3.0 mph

Physical Appearance Update:
Even though this happened on Sunday, the start of Week 4, I still want to mention it before next week's weigh-in and post just in case it is discouraging. Normally I don't wear jeans because I haven't really had a reason to. I don't like to go out much in general and since I've been exercising 10/7 (get it 24/7, lolz), I've been in nice comfy pants. However, my sister had a party on Superbowl Sunday which forced me out of my house and into a pair of jeans.

They felt the slightest bit less tight, but the real difference came in how little of a muffin top I had in my size 13 jeans. My stomach is finally starting to shrink, even if the waist band isn't. They went from unbearably tight, esp. in my thighs, to fitting. just right. On the 13th I'll be forced into jeans again for my friends low-key Valentine's Day party, but at least I can feel comfortable not having to worry about my stomach. I'll just have to remember not to eat all the chocolate.

Holidays are days for skinny people to put on a couple of pounds while us less than skinny girls look a bit lighter in the week to follow.