Coming back

Almost everyone who has dieted or tried to live a healthier lifestyle, backslides now and again. At the end of July after some stomach issues and a few setbacks, I decided I needed to take a "break". Yes, I know..big mistake thinking I could just take a break from being healthy! Now I didn't gain back a lot. I gained back a total of 6 lbs, HOWEVER, I noticed a big difference overall. I felt myself getting down in the dumps more and felt guilty every time I did indulge in a particular food. So I was off Jenny Craig for a total of 8 weeks. I completely lost all interest in volumizing my foods with veggies and instead indulged in the occasional stop off at the drive through of McDonalds. I wish I could say I had some sort of epiphany, however it wasn't like that.  I had been looking for a treadmill for a while and when the opportunity presented itself I finally bit the bullet and spent the money on a great Nordic Track! I began working out in 2 sessions, once in mid morning and another hour in the latter part of the afternoon. Within a week I was feeling better and ready to commit myself back to Jenny Craig. I called last week and my food arrived on Tuesday of this week and Wednesday (yesterday) was my NEW start date.  

I want to say it's great and I'm doing great, but I'm not. I am HUNGRY again. I know I have to get used to this again, it passed the first two weeks last time i went on JC, so I'm trying to hang in there.  As mentioned previously over the last months, I have NES and yes, that has kicked in to full gear. I have gotten up 3 nights in a row, several times, I might add and ate my Jenny Snacks. Not such a bad thing right? WRONG.. I didn't eat just one. In 3 nights, I ate 6 of them. NOTE TO SELF FOR NEXT WEEK.. NO ORDERING JENNY CRAIG SNACKS. That's it.. I can't have them in the house, I can't order them, my consultant is just going to have to get over that fact. :)   

So I'm sure people want to know what will be different this time, I honestly can't answer that yet. I have not given myself up to this new commitment 100%, BUT, I AM GOING TO TRY.  I'm going to start with a simple daily goal of using my treadmill for at least 1 hour a day.  That will be my goal for now. I'm going to try and do this on a day-by-day basis and see where I am in a few days or next week.  I'm also going to add MORE veggies to my Jenny Craig meals. I'm going shopping today and I promise myself to ONLY buy healthy veggies to go with my meals.

For anyone else who seems to fall into a rut, it's normal, your normal, and it will pass. Just forgive yourself and decide to re-start, NO it's never easy getting back into this, I'm not going to tell you it is. When I went off Jenny and told myself I needed a break, I was only thinking of a week or two, however it turned into 2 months and everyday I would say, I will start tomorrow. Only tomorrow didn't come until just recently.  I can do this. 

My armband is on and I'm going to finish out this week just focusing on getting my activity level to where it was before or better. On Monday I will begin logging my food. I'm still keeping to the Jenny Craig menu and checking things off as I eat throughout the day. I'm also marking down my water intake as that's another thing I hope to improve.  

 To myself:  Welcome Back! 

4th of July ---BUST

Well, I'm not going to sit here and make a bunch of excuses. I received a new consultant last week and this week she did not put my food order in this week. Now, I know that's NOT an excuse, but, had I had time to prepare I could have had some meals ready and planned. I really did plan to stay on course, but it was not easy. Many of our local stores were closed but I did eat some of my meals I had left over. The problem came with the extra hot dog, sausage sandwich, and birthday cake! I also got that really bad thinking.. you know where you say, oh well, I blew it now, might as well wait until the weekend was over. And that's what I ended up doing. I did get up on the scale this morning and I gained a pound. NOT as bad as I thought, but I'm certainly not happy. 

One thing I have found, is that it is SOOOO hard to get back on track. I noticed when I first started, for the first two weeks, I was always hungry! I think that is because it does take time for your body to adjust to the lower calories. I also think it's important to stay busy and spend less time in front of the TV or the computer. My biggest obstacle is that I work from home and own my own business, so stepping away from the computer is not always an option at all.  I really would like to get some idea's on what to do for those late night's when only sitting at the TV is an option aside from going to bed.  I've decided tonight to set aside some time and do some reading as that was what helped me a lot in the very beginning of this weight loss journey.

Today I am going to the Gym for the first time in over 2 weeks. I'm going to create a schedule on paper and see if I can stick to it. 

For anyone else who is having a tough time and is at the very end of their journey, I would love to hear what you have done to stay on course and what things you do to stay focused on the final stretch?   

I'm going to make a small goal to lose 5-7 lbs by my trip home to see my family on July 21st. I will try and do a day-by-day count down until that goal.

No More Excuses!

I can make up a few more excuses as to why I can't get back up on the horse. It's only been LUCK alone that I have lost the 2 lbs I gained two weeks ago and an additional 2 lbs.. I have not been to the gym in approximately 17 days.  I have a serious blood infection from a cat bite but even with that there's NO good excuse for not getting my butt in gear. Now it's 4th of July weekend and I'm not going to receive my order until Tuesday. I am faced with the choice of preparing for the weekend with great care and commitment or do I start fresh on Tuesday giving myself an excuse or reason to not behave myself this weekend?  I really want to opt for behaving and making smart choices. To do that I will need to spend tonight mapping out my plan. Stay tuned.

I'm Still here

I apologize for not writing much lately. Physically I am fine! Mentally, is quite another story..  I have been very wrapped up in watching the Casey Anthony Trial. I know, I know, but I was a criminal justice major at one time and one of my dreams was to become an attorney. I actually wanted to be a criminal defense attorney, I remember wanting to do that since I was convinced I could get OJ acquitted AND I believed he was guilty, so I knew that was a special recipe for a good criminal defense attorney. Enough of that, my life took a turn and I am here and right where I am supposed to be. I have just gotten caught up with this trial and I am finding myself working around the trial. In the last 3 weeks I have gained 2 pounds and then lost them again.  I am going to get back on track starting this weekend, NO excuses. I've also missed many of my friends on the JC Forum which I plan to go back and visit for a swift kick in the rear end to get back MOVING here!  There is one thing I'm really happy about. I MUST be losing inches because I am wearing shorts that have not fit me in years. I brought down a bag of summer clothes from years ago that I have not thrown away. Particularly there is a really nice bathing suit and although I think I'm going to wait just a little while to put it on, I don't believe it's going to be long at all.. perhaps 4th of July weekend!!

So I just wanted to update everyone to let them know I am still among the "dieters" and despite the current obsession with this trial, I am still eating and taking care of myself.   Oh and just in case anyone asks me if I think Casey is innocent, HELL no. She is guilty in my opinion, however the state has failed to prove the major elements in this case:   THE Murder itself, the How, When and Where this poor little girl died.  My thoughts is that there is someone or others involved somehow and all should be held accountable.

I will try and post more in the next day or so  :)

New food plate replaces the food pyramid!

I have a few different feelings about this, my first impression was that yet again the government seems to think we are not very bright people, really a plate, it's sort of like those foreign cars where they have those little pictures to tell you what everything is in there.. example.. a little horn on the steering wheel to let you know it's a "HORN".  Really now?  So the new government plate is shown here at the right, and you can visit choosemyplate.gov for more information and resources. There are some pretty good recipes here as well: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/downloads/MyPlate/Recipes.pdf    Overall i do think the new plate and resources on the website will be a great added tool for younger kids to learn about healthy eating habit's early on and hopefully obesity rates will go down. 

Rough few days, but hopefully back on the saddle!

I had a very rough few days, what started out as a small case of indigestion grew to something more and doctors suggest a possible ulcer. I'm not going to dwell on this because I have a new medication (Nexium) and an anti-biotic to squash the bacterial infection in the stomach.  The other bad news is that I did gain 2 lbs. The logic to that is pretty simple. When I have an attack like that it produces a feeling of hunger, whether real or not is not relevant when you are hunched over in pain. Eating something with some carbs seems to instantly soothe it. A piece of bread one day made a huge difference, another day it was some Ritz Crackers.  So with all those carb cheats It's not a stretch to know that's what happened on the scale. So today was first day in almost a week that I have woke up with no pain and only some minor discomfort. My doctor is confident the JC food is NOT the culprit and told me just to give it until Monday or Tuesday to let my stomach settle a little more. I was given a menu to follow for the next few days which will help and the nurse said it was perfectly healthy. I am allowed to go back to the exercise routine but only if I don't have any pain or discomfort, I'm hoping by the end of the day today I will be able to get to the gym.

I guess there are always going to be things thrown at me to derail my efforts. I'm not going to beat myself up about the 2 lbs, and frankly I would do the same thing over or anything to rid myself of the kind of pain I was feeling, it was awful!   Also sad that I have to trade in some of my foods like my morning pineapple I am going to have to switch to something a bit less acid.   I will replace it with some melon.

On another UP BEAT note.. it's officially summer here, yesterday was very sticky hot and this week is supposed to stay warm. I will just have to remember all the complaining I did about the snow storms this past winter! One of my new goals is to lose another 10 lbs by the July 4th weekend. That gives me a little less than 4 weeks which I think is very doable!  I will keep you posted!

I look forward to doing more blogging this week and getting back on track :)

6 Words you don't want to hear when you are trying to lose weight...

You know the 6 words I'm talking about... "Oh, you can have just one!"  Yes, that's what I have heard a few times this past holiday weekend.  Well what is the correct response to that? In the past I would actually believe that "Just one wouldn't hurt''. But it wasn't until just a few months ago that I realized, my problem was that I couldn't have JUST one. This is what made Weight Watchers a complete failure to me. I would purchase their snacks (which in their credit are DELICIOUS) and the box would say 1 point.. YIPEEE!!! I can have 4 of em, because I have 4 points left for the day. And I actually bought into that! Weight Watchers gave me permission (via points) to over indulge!

I am sure there are many people who can have just one without blowing their plan to hell.. I'm just not one of them and that is one of the things I have to work on. I am starting to wonder if I will ever be able to have "just one" ............  PORTION CONTROL.  That's my task and what I have to learn for long term health!  

I think one of the reasons I never realized what addiction to food was all about for me was because I was always a good weight all my life. I just happened to move to an area where there was hardly anything to do, I didn't know anyone and I didn't get out much at all. Those factors along with my age worked against me to bring me to this place I had never been before and forced me to take a look at the eating habits I didn't just develop with the weight I gained, but the eating habits I have had all my life and just got LUCKY they didn't hurt me early on!  So even when I only weighed 110 lbs, I was not taking care of myself, my metabolism was protecting my weight, but psychologically I was learning bad habits!  I also developed NES at a young age, but it really was never a "problem" until the last few years along with the weight.. (so I thought). 

I might be just 13 lbs away from my goal, but I have a lot of work to do in order to correct all of these habit's I have formed over the last 40+ years. It's going to be a long journey but I am committed to learning LONG term health and fitness for myself and my family.