Weight Loss Simulation

Ok ok ok...I am still tracking all of the food I eat along with all of my exercise. I am always doing SOME kind of exercise every day after work. In fact, tonight I am doing my 3x weekly run/walk. On Sunday I was able to run the circuit in 23.5 minutes which is 30 seconds faster than my previous run. I'm hoping I can beat that tonight since my legs are much less sore than they were on Sunday.

Posting my daily intakes can get boring so instead, today I'm posting my weight loss simulation. Everyone's been posting them recently and you can do your own at this site here: http://www.modelmydiet.com/

Anyway, here's what mine looks like...I tried to make the model look as much like me as I possibly could, they don't allow for much customization.

I actually wish I looked that good in a bikini right now....the simulation is clearly not totally accurate. I have a LOT more rolls down in my mid section...but it's still nice to see what I COULD look like at 130 lbs.

Is it motivating enough? We'll see....

Saturday

Saturday went by super fast but it was good. I started the morning by going to a Wellness Walk for the Salt Lake County Corporate Games. I took my husband and we basically just walked for about 20 minutes - we were there to get participation points really :P

Came home...did some stuff around the house, took a nap and then did my ChaLean Burn #3 workout!

I absolutely LOVE doing the ChaLean strength workouts because she doesn't do tons of reps and each video is about 35 minutes long.

It kicked my butt though. I'm pretty sore today but I'm still going to do my nightly run/walk session.

Here was my diet yesterday...I probably ate way under my calories because I didn't account for any of the exercise I did at all...so I basically just stuck to the 1350 goal, even though I did go over just a bit.

Friday Meals

My goal for Friday was to document my meals for the day. I did good, up until dinner. We went over to our friend's house to watch the Olympics Opening Ceremony and we had a potato bar. I must say I did say on track but I didn't capture any pictures.

I didn't do any exercise on Friday - other than walk 10 minutes between buildings at work - because I was recovering from the past two days of intense workouts. I stayed within my calorie allotment though. I did eat 2.5 cookies that my friend made last night and I didn't plug them into my totals.

But here is my most common breakfast meal - spinach and cheese omelette with toast. I never knew how to make omlettes until I just started practicing...now I LOVE them!

Ingredients:
1 egg - scrambled
green onions - cut as many as you like
spinach - pulled into small pieces
colby & monterey jack cheese (I'm going to switch to fat free cheese next week)

Heat the pan and  pour the egg in....then add the spinach and green onion to one side....the bulk of the cheese goes on the other side, but I also like to sprinkle some on the veg side too.

Let it sit for a few moments....the eggs will start to get puffy.

Once the eggs are firm enough...you can pull one side and just flip it onto the other. You can only do this once the eggs are cooked through, otherwise it will run all over.  Cook on both sides until you reach your desire. I like my omelettes with a bit of brown on both sides. I also cut mine in half while cooking to make sure the middle is fully cooked.

 Final product: 1 slice of 12-grain toast with spreadable butter and my omelette. It's my go-to breakfast!

And here was my lunch for Friday: Salad!

You can see all of the ingredients for it up above.

I was SO proud of myself on Friday because I was tempted with a Noon meeting with a bunch of people trying to persuade me to eat the Papa John's pizza they brought in. I stood my ground because I knew I had my lunch waiting for me at my desk. I'm so proud of myself for that :)

One thing I keep telling myself is that even though the number might not move on the scale, I know I'm creating healthy habits for myself no matter what!

Ok...two days in a row

....stickin to the plan and makin some progress!

The scale did not budge this morning...but I'm trying to keep this quote in my head this week:

Basically....I shouldn't really expect to see any results on the scale for at least a little while.

Anyway...today's daily intake is:

I think I had really good day actually. Very healthy in my opinion, save for the 3 squares of dark chocolate, but even that's pretty good for you!

I totally meant to take pictures of each of my meals but I spaced. I'm going to try and do that tomorrow. If I don't have the breakfast I listed above each morning, then it's cereal with some Silk. But most days I try to have a spinach and cheese omelette with a piece of toast.

So tomorrow I'll post pics of my meals.

As for exercise today...right now it's 7 pm and I'm waiting for my dinner to settle a bit AND for the 100 degree heat outside to cool off a bit before I go outside and mow both the front and back yards. I plugged in 30 minutes of "mowing the lawn" into MyFitnessPal. I also slated 16 minutes of jogging (slow pace) and 9 minutes of walking (3.5 mph) for a total of 25 minutes. That's what I was able to accomplish on Tuesday night, we'll see if I achieve the same tonight. But those two things got me to the 528 calories burned mark for today.

See ya tomorrow!

Daily Intake

My calorie goal is still 1350 calories per day, but that's based on me just sitting on my ass doing nothing all day. For the time being, I'm hoping I'll be able to lose weight if I "eat back" the calories I burned during my workouts. I know there's loads of controversy from various people about whether that works or not. For now, I'm going to see if my choice works and if it doesn't, then I'll focus on sticking to my 1350 calorie goal and NOT eat anything back after working out.

Here are today's totals:

Please note the donut in my snack list. Yes, I had that thing at 11 am - I couldn't resist because I am weak and someone brought them into work!!!  It wasn't until the afternoon that I had my fitness motivation. Although I could argue that I got into the fitness kick last night after I did my amazing run. I even packed myself a very healthy salad this morning for lunch. Salads are a lot more calories than people really realize. Seriously! Even though all of the stuff I've got in mine is healthy - like the almonds and avocados, those things still have loads of calories.

Anyway...the apple I ate for "dinner" I really ate at 4 pm as my afternoon snack but I usually don't eat that late so I just shoved it into dinner.

Did you notice how many calories I burned today? I can guarantee you I burned way more than that because the only option I could add in was "low-impact aerobics" - I hate trying to calculate how many calories were burned from DVD workouts. It's too difficult. Anyway, this is the workout I did today. It was rough and I was sweating all over the place, but it was fun and quick paced.

Goals

So I just realized today that every time I've set some goals, I wasn't doing it properly.  You're supposed to set some sort of time measurement on goals and not leave them open ended. I've always set realistic goals, like "lose 5 lbs"...but I never specified WHEN I wanted to lose it. So here is my attempt as setting some timely and realistic goals - let's see how I progress:

Goal 1
Lose 5 lbs or reach 210 lbs - Achieve by August 31st

Goal 2
Lose 5 lbs or reach 205 lbs - Achieve by September 30th

Goal 3
Lose 5 lbs or reach 200 lbs - Achieve by October 31st! HALLOWEEN!!

This is my first set of goals. Basically, my 31st birthday is November 10th and I want to ENSURE that I reach that 200 mark by that date because I haven't been close to 200 lbs in at least 5 years. I hovered around the 205 lb mark last year doing Weight Watchers, but that was about it.

Here are my goals for the remainder of the year:

Goal 4
Lose 5 lbs or reach 195 lbs - Achieve by November 30th

Goal 5
Lose 5 lbs or reach 190 lbs - Achieve by December 31st


Holy crap - this is so realistic! I could lose 25 pounds by the end of the year! That is just amazing to me and really motivates me because I know losing 5 lbs per months is do-able and it's probably likely I'll surpass that goal! But I'm trying to remain realistic here!

And here are the rest of my goals to finally reach my ideal weight of 130 lbs!

Goal 6
Lose 5 lbs or reach 185 lbs - Achieve by January 31st

Goal 7
Lose 5 lbs or reach 180 lbs - Achieve by February 28th

Goal 8
Lose 5 lbs or reach 175 lbs - Achieve by March 31st

Goal 9
Lose 5 lbs or reach 170 lbs - Achieve by April 30th

Goal 10
Lose 5 lbs or reach 165 lbs - Achieve by May 31st

50 lbs lost mark!!!!

Goal 11
Lose 5 lbs or reach 160 lbs - Achieve June 30th

Goal 12
Lose 5 lbs or reach 155 lbs - Achieve July 31st

Goal 13
Lose 5 lbs or reach 150 lbs - Achieve August 31st

Goal 14
Lose 5 lbs or reach 145 lbs - Achieve September 30th

Goal 15
Lose 5 lbs  or reach 140 lbs - Achieve October 31st

75 lbs lost mark!!! HOLY CRAP!!!

Goal 16
Lose 5 lbs or reach 135 lbs - Achieve November 30th

Goal 17
Lose 5 lbs or reach 130 lbs - Achieve December 31st!

That would be a total loss of 85 POUNDS!! WTF?!?! I can do that in just under a year and a half! When I see these smaller goals broken out over this period of time, it seems SO much less overwhelming. I think I have what it takes to just achieve a 5 lb weight loss per month right?!?!

I got this!

A different kind of progress

So the scale hasn't moved yet. In fact, I weighed myself this morning at 217.8 - so technically I'm up from the last time I posted. BUT....I still feel like I've made some progress.

Last week my heart rate monitor watch came in - I got it through Groupon and it was only $10!! And it's from BoxFlex - how sweet is that?  Anyway, it's a normal watch with a heart rate monitor included...so I was able to actually TIME my run/walk and measure my heart rate.

Last night I did my typical 1.5 mile circuit and to my amazement, I actually ran 16 minutes out of the total 25. That's like 64%!! I was pretty amazed with myself at that feat. And when you think about it...I was actually running 64% of the TIME - I probably ran a larger percentage of the actual distance. So I think my goal of completing the entire 1.5 mile circuit by Labor Day is completely achievable.

Today I also signed up for my first 5k!! AHHHHHHHHH - it's on August 11th too - AHHHHHHHHHHHH. What am I thinking? I know I won't be able to run the entire thing...but I will certainly give it a try. To make things even better, it's held in my favorite Utah town, Midway! I just LOVE it up there. Here's a link to the 5k site: http://sheruns.com/

I'm kind of excited because I have something to look forward to over the next two weeks.

I've also been reading a lot of fitness/health blogs this week and I'm finding I'm wanting to stay on track more often than not. Sure I have my weak moments but I think if I really focus on my fitness level first, the diet changes will come naturally over time. I haven't even had fast food in over 2 weeks....so that's a start :P

Motivation

I saw these on one of my favorite blogs: Thinspiration Pictures

I can't access the blog at work (it's prohibited due to the nature of the images apparently)...so if I need a pick-me-up in the middle of the day, I can at least come to my own blog and read these awesome quotes!

- I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.

- Nothing changes if nothing changes.

- You got up this morning with determination and you are going to bed with satisfaction.

- I'm not there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday.

- You can't change the past but you can change the future.

- Don’t let todays moment forsake tomorrows dream.

- Be the girl who turned her cant's into cans, and her dreams into plans.

- The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow.

- Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!

- Even if you lose it little by little, it will still add up to a big result in the end.

- Fridge pickers wear big knickers.

- If you keep going you WILL see results, if you quit you won't.

- Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better.

- You've come too far in life to take orders from a cookie!

- The question isn’t who’s going to let me, the question is who’s going to stop me.

- Success is the sum of small efforts.

- If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.

- I’d rather skinny dip than chunky dunk!

- If you eat what you've always eaten, you'll weigh what you’ve always weighed.

- Not eating light makes your clothes tight.

- Success won't just come to you - it has to be met at least half way.

- Hard work is a two way street. You get back exactly what you put in.
- Don't give up what you want most for something you want in the moment.

- The secret of success is the consistency to pursue.

- When it comes to losing weight, those who can, do; those that can't make excuses.

- Everyday is a new chance to change your life.

- Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

 

And here's a picture I loved from that site too!

 

 

The Reason

....so I have this cycle. I do great and remain motivated on my weight loss journey until I hit the "Two Week Wait". For people who've ever tried to conceive a baby, you know what the two week wait is. Basically, it's the 2 weeks (roughly) after ovulation where you're waiting to see if Aunt Flow will arrive, and if she doesn't, you're in luck cause you just might be preggo!!

And my cycle goes like this. First few weeks before ovulation I'm stoked and rockin it with the weight loss journey. Then the TWW hits and I start losing my mind. I start wanting to eat any and everything!

Well this past cycle...I believe I actually was pregnant and suffered a "chemical pregnancy", meaning the egg never actually implanted into the uterus. If it did implant, it got flushed away with everything else when Aunt Flow arrived.

I experienced a DEEP depression all of last week following the arrival of Aunt Flow. Something beyond anything I'v ever experienced. Friday night I slept for 12 hours straight and then had a 3 hour nap on Saturday afternoon. It was not pleasant....but I do believe the hormones are out of my system and I'm feeling motivated and back on track!

I've vowed to stop the TTC pressure this month and seriously just focus on my health - that's the best thing I can do in preparation for a baby isn't it?

So I'm starting this week at 216.4 pounds. I don't really care how many pounds I lose this week, I just want to make progress. My first real goal is to get to the 200 lb mark again. I haven't been there in probably 5 years or so. I'm planning to do some sort of exercise every day this week that I can. Thursday I'm going to see Wicked and we're having dinner with friends as a double date that night. And then Friday-Sunday we're heading to St. George (southern Utah) with some friends to house hunt (we may move there, that's another story)....so I'm not sure how much exercise I can get in Thursday-Sunday. But, what I can do is eat as cleanly as possible!

Tonight I did some house cleaning and then did my 25-minute The Firm Express workout - I just love that one! It always keeps me interested and I don't get bored.

Tuesday I plan to mow the front and back yard and then do my 25-minute run/walk.

Wednesday will be another workout video accompanied by some stretching.

And here's what I ate for the day....just so you can see I'm on track!!

Life

I've done it again. I've allowed myself to drop my goals again in favor of focusing on other things. I do this all the time. I'm not proud of it.

Since March, when I got married, my husband and I have been trying to conceive a child. I'm only 4 months in now but I'm entirely frustrated. It's an extreme emotional roller coaster for me. I've gone all out. I could list out everything I've been doing to improve my chances....but alas....I'm trying too hard to be God apparently. It doesn't feel like the miracle it's supposed to be.

Suffice it to say....I'm done focusing all my energy on trying to get pregnant. I've vowed to stop taking my temperature every morning, monitoring all of my bodily functions (sorry TMI) and planning the "baby dance" with my husband. It's not right.

It's hard to focus on any other goals in life when all I want more than anything else in this world is to have a baby. But I have to let it go.

I have to find the joy in the things that do make me happy.

I have been keeping up on "some" exercise. I'm still running at least once a week - sometimes twice. I just need to put all my energy and thoughts into getting as healthy as I can.

And I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. I found some inspirational quotes today that are helping me feel better about my situation.

The journey of losing weight is 98% mental and 2% physical.