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Monday, May 25, 2015

Last week's good and bad


Sunday's are my weigh-in days and yesterday I stepped on to see a one pound loss for the week.  Not great, but not bad either.  This brings my total for the year to nine pounds gone.  Going forward I plan to kick it into gear.  With my metabolism working so slowly, I know that I am in for some frustrating weigh-ins ahead.  Even still, I will keep fighting.  Hmm, I think I am counting my chickens before they hatch.  I don't need to worry about future weigh-ins, I need to concentrate on what I am doing today.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

Last week didn't go as well as I had planned.  At the same time, it wasn't all bad.  Here is how I would break it down:

The Bad:
  • Most days I did not have a plan
  • I ate Mexican food two nights, high-at and large portions
  • I consumed too much chocolate from "Candy's" desk at work
  • I did not exercise

The Good:
  • I did plan my entire snacks/meals for two days
  • I tracked every bite for two days in myfitnesspal.com(MFP) [username=losingtherolls]
  • I did not eat out this weekend
  • I found a diet coach/mentor

Did you catch that last bullet about a diet coach/mentor?  I am reading a book that deals with changing the  ways I think about eating and the choices I make.  It's a six week program dealing with cognitive therapy and has daily tasks.  One of my tasks was to find a diet mentor to support me along this journey.  I knew right away that it could not be my husband or sister.  Yes, they support me, but they are too similar to me.  I'm not sure they could give me the tough love I might need or talk me down from a cupcake (mostly because they would likely be about to consume one too).  Instead, I opted to reach out to my dad.  He lives about 340 miles away and over the years we've grown apart a little.  I only mean to say that we are not as close as we were when I was under his roof, and I miss that.  I chose him because 1) he and his wife have lost weight and maintained it for over a year, 2) he can provide tough-love  and incentive just because I won't want to disappoint him and 3) it will bring us closer together.  He is already proving to be very supportive.  I think having him for support is going to help in many ways.

In my last post, I mentioned being optimistic.  Well, I am even more so about this week.  Each night this week, I will plan the next days meals.  I will track every bite via MFP.  Also, I will start some exercise, no matter how little it may be.  Notice that I said I will do these things and not I will try.  This will be a good week.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tammy

Monday, May 18, 2015

Moving on without the ducks


It seems that I am one of those types of people that feels they must have all their ducks in a row before they can properly start their weight loss program.  For example, I'm hung up with not having a food plan in place or maybe I haven't found a diet coach/mentor yet.  Now, I am smart enough to know that this way of thinking is only holding me back and allowing me to procrastinate even longer.  Yet, I 've been stuck on the ducks. 

Tomorrow, I am giving myself permission or maybe just telling myself to move forward without all or many of the pieces of a plan in place.  Will tomorrow be perfect?  Maybe, maybe not, but it will be better than any single day I had last week.   Last week and the many weeks and months before it, I ate whatever was convenient or sounded good.  It wasn't entirely carefree eating, I had inner-struggles most of the time, but the lazy-I-don't-want-to-cook-and-I-will-do-better-tomorrow side always won out. That girl always wins.  Screeeeeech, halt, wait a darn second here, let me change that to that girl used to win.  Tomorrow she will lose.  Tomorrow, will be different.

What will be different about tomorrow?  For one thing, before I go to sleep tonight, I will have written a food plan out for tomorrow.  I wasn't able to create a plan for the entire week, so this week, I will take it one day at a time.  I'm not sure yet what my exact calorie budget will be, but I will aim for a range between 1400 and 1800 calories.  Another thing that often holds me back is that I am trying to make the perfect plan as far as restricting my calories, fat, and sugars, increasing my fiber, reducing my sodium, trying to stay away from nitrates, and so on and so forth.  It's dizzying.  Well, no more.  I am giving myself permission to start with the calorie restriction.  I need to be realistic and it is not realistic for me to change my eating 180 degrees overnight.  I'm not perfect and my eating won't be perfect either.  One day at a time, I can learn to throw out more of the bad habits, form better habits and incorporate healthier food options all along the way.

I cannot say that I am 100% confident that tomorrow will go well, but I'm feeling optimistic.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,
Tammy