Starting weight

Well, I made the plunge and weighed myself.

248

Could be worse, but WILL be better...soon.

I'm finding the 75 pounds to go! ticker at the top of the page imposing, so I'm going to change my goal to only losing 10 pounds.  And when I reach that, I'll set it for another 10 pounds and so on.  Much more manageable I think.

Starting over

I can't believe that the last time I blogged here was May.  Not much has happened since then, other then I fell off the dieting wagon!

But I have been inspired anew!  A friend of mine has started a new blog and is having similar struggles. 
With arms open wide.  I'm going to try and keep pace with her, and hopefully we can help each other.

So, today I started tracking my food/calories again.  This one is important for me, as I lose track of what I've eaten and how quickly it adds up if I don't track it. I'm back working in the office too, so this will help, as my lunch is pre-packed (I love Hilary!) and if I don't take any money with me, then I can't buy any more food! Win-Win.

The biggest thing I need to work on is exercise.  Being sick right now with a bad sinus cold, I'm not really feeling inspired to get out there and get moving.  But my commitment  for this week is to take the stairs at work up the 2 flights everyday.  At least it's a start.

So here we go..... back on the wagon and riding off into the sunset!

4 weeks and in I'm losing momentum.  I don't have the time to exercise like I would like to and life is so busy that it's easy to fall into the trap of convenience food.  I'm hoping with the long weekend and gorgeous weather that I will get out more and get moving.  Salad and BBQ season are upon us too, so I see lots of fresh veggies in my future.

Constant Vigilance!

The hardest part I find right now is that if I don't constantly think about losing weight, eating healthy and WHY I want to do all of this, that I will slip right back into old habits.  For me it really needs to be at the front of my mind 24x7.  which kinda sucks.  I'm hoping that over time it becomes much more second nature and that I don't have to obsess so completely.

I'm spending the next 2 days at off site meetings that will be catered.  Someone else making my food choices for me for breakfast, snacks and lunch.  Of course, I'll have some say in what I chose and the quantities that I eat, but it will be a lot harder then just being at home.  The other down side is that I won't be getting much exercise.  I'm leaving early so I won't be able to walk Liam to work, and I won't be able to play Wii for 20 minutes on my lunch.  Hopefully the weather is nice and I can get out for a walk after diner.  I won't be surprised if I don't lose any weight this week though.

The one thing I that I struggle with is completely cutting out a certain food.  I am much more about all things in moderation, which is why I never do well on strict diets.  In the past 2 weeks I've lost 6 pounds and I've still had a Big Mac, a chocolate bar and donuts.  The trick for me is to eat well and calorie-wise 90% of the time, knowing that I can splurge that other 10%.

End of week 2 and I lost another 3 pounds!!! 

I really didn't expect to lose any weight this week.  I've had a bad cold all week so I've done very little exercise and we ended up eating out at the golden arches twice this week because of back to back scheduled activities.  Though I did chose salads instead of Big Macs!  And I caved on Saturday and had 2!! donuts.  I guess being food conscious the rest of the week really paid off.

Pop, soda, fizzy drinks.  They are nice to have but by no means a necessity.   We don't have pop in the house very often but when we do we only ever buy Coke or Sprite.  With trying to diet I have been avoiding all pop as they are useless empty  calories.  But while I was having lunch out this week I really wanted something other then water to drink so I picked up a Coke Zero.  And surprisingly it wasn't bad.  It didn't have the metallic aspartame taste that turns me off of most diet pops.  So we'll pick up a few cans today and have them on hand as a no calorie tasty treat for the week.

Water, water everywhere.

They (whoever "they" is" ) say that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day.  The good thing is that I love water.  When I worked at the office I easily drank 8-12 glasses of water a day.  But since working from home it's unusual if I even have 1-2. 

Some if it is because the office was very much drier then our home is.  And some of it was convenience.  I sat next to the water cooler.  I know... the horror of working from home!  I have to get up and walk 10-12 steps to get to the kitchen to get myself a drink of water. 

So starting tomorrow, I am going to try and get back into the habit of drinking water throughout the day.  It's a great dieting trick too. Fill your stomach with water before you eat and you will feel full that much faster.

Week 1 is over and..... I lost 3 pounds!!!  Yeah me!

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  Sure, there were times when I was hungry, but I never felt that I had denied myself anything.

I don't think I'll keep up the pace of 3 pounds a week as that is not healthy, and I'm sure some of this loss is just initial water weight.  But if I can keep it up and keep losing, even slowly, I'll be happy.

This picture is one that I'm using for inspiration.  This is my Grandma and I.  She is not a small lady, but I am obviously more then double her size!

The problem I have seems to be the opposite of many women.  My body image problem is that I don't see myself the way I look in that picture.  No, I dont' see a skinny, little sprite of thing either, but I don't see myself as big as I really am.  So I'm going to keep this picture nearby as a reminder of what I don't want to see!

I'm having a hard time with being patient.  I know that weight loss is a slow (and hopefully steady) proccess, and that I shouldn't weigh myself more then once a week, but waiting during this first week for any signs of success is hard!  I want to see that number change on my ticker at the top of the page, even if it's only by 1.  And I'm confident that it will at the end of the week when I weigh-in again, but MAN!  it's hard to not just hop on the scale right now.

One of my motivations to lose weight is so that I can get fit and be more active, specifically to be able to better play with Liam. 

But I'm in a bit of a catch-22. 

In order to lose weight I need to be more active, but in order to be more active I need to lose weight!

So I'm starting off slowly.  When I'm walking somewhere I try to pick up the speed a bit.  Yesterday at work I took the stairs up 2 flights instead of the elevator.  Liam and I went to the park and I played tag with him for a bit. 

It doesn't seem like much, but I'm finding that every day (even though it's only been 4 days!) that I feel a wee bit more energetic and willing to more. 

Hunger Headaches.  Ugh. 

Yesterday was a hard day with low blood sugar, bad headaches and a really bad case of the GRUMPS to go with it all.  I seem to do fine all day long with not being hungry or irritable (at least no worse than my normal irritable self) but by 4:00 I'm fading fast.  I need to find a small snack that will get me through to dinner time.

Today I had a mini tart with my tea and I didn't have any hunger pangs or  a headache at all before dinner.  I'm still on goal with my calorie count for the day so I'm feeling pretty good being 3 days in!

So I didn't actually weigh myself yesterday, so  I figured I would today.  which resulted in the need to lose 79 pounds, not 74.  sigh.  But I do have to walk to and from the office today and I'm going to try to do it at a brisk clip to make it count even more!

Okay, the time has come.  I M.U.S.T. LOSE WEIGHT.  I can't play with Liam the way I want to, I don't like how I feel and I certainly don't like the way I look.

So enough is enough!  The Easter Chocolate is gone, spring is in the air and fresh veggies are at their best.  I've set myself a goal of losing 1 pound a week with wait for it........ 75 pounds to lose!


EEEK!

I've never been good with sticking with things, so I make no promises here other then I will try my best.  I am not a joiner, so Weight Watchers, TOPS and other groups are out and I think it's foolish to have to pay someone for pre-made food (after all, I do live with Hilary, chef extraordinaire! ) But I will try to cut back on the snacks and increase my activity. 

All words of encouragement are greatly appreciated, just don't send cake to celebrate my success!