Thursday Weigh-in

I am down another 1.7 pounds, which brings my current weight to 221.5! I've been doing a LOT of running around this week, so I haven't been able to post. There didn't even seem to be an opportunity to lurk on some of my favorite blogs either and today is no different. As I type this I am supposed to be getting ready for my appointment this morning...I hate being late, but I wanted to do a quick progress post.

For the rest of this week, I'll be on vacation, so I'm going to wish all of you a fabulous weekend and a happy Holiday!

I'm back September 6th and trust me, I can almost guarantee there will be a weight gain.

Toodles!

Thursday Weigh-in

I am currently at 223.2 pounds, so that means over the course of the week I lost 2.7 pounds! I was really good, but I'm pleasantly surprised at losing nearly 3 pounds!

This week, I went food shopping. I stuck to my list and stayed away from ice cream and hi fat/hi sugar snacks - my favorite snacks to eat! I cooked just about every night (when leftovers had finished) and didn't eat out at all. This is rare for me. More often than not, I'll pick up something for breakfast and/or lunch near my job. I decided to instead, bring breakfast (pack of oatmeal and a piece of fruit), lunch (soup or tuna on a wrap or some other kind of sammie with lots of veggies) and snacks (keeps me away from the vending machine!) like reduced calorie popcorn and extra pieces of fruit. It was actually easier than I thought it would be AND I saved mucho dinero, so I'm pretty pleased about that!

I did cheat with a pack of m&m's though. I went in the store for a megamillion ticket (Gawd...would I love to win $170million!) and SOMEHOW came out with a pack of m&m's - hey...I'm not perfect!

Something's Wrong With My Scale!!

The scale is the devil. Literally. This morning I get on the scale and it reads "222.2 lbs". I almost fell on the floor! Could I REALLY have lost 3.7 pounds since Thursday???!!! No way Jose! Inspite of the sane little voice that said "no way", the other side of me was excitedly saying "yeahhh baby, skinny jeans here I come!"

Fortunately or unfortunately (however you wanna look at things), the sane me, usually over rationalizes the situation to convince my alter ego that things clearly are NOT what they seem. I decided not to get back on the scale until my Thursday morning weigh in, because obviously there is SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY SCALE!

I've been good, but not that damn good!

Randomness

This weekend I did next to nothing. I went out for a bit on Saturday. It was just absolutely gorgeous out!!! I long for the days when I can sell the condo and buy a home, just so I can enjoy the sunshine in the comfort of my very own backyard.

I was back in the house by 1pm. JUST when I decide to take a damn nap...someone decides now is a good time to start a parade! Some of you might say...well how nice is that! I'm not one of those people. :- I wanted a nice leisurely nap, but that was impossible because of the horns (traffic being redirected) and crazy loud music! OMG...I almost called the police to complain about the volume. *sigh* Sometimes I just see myself growing into one of those old ladies that sits in her window and complains about every damn thing, just to complain. We had an old biddy like that in my old childhood neighborhood. Boy was she mean! I don't wanna be that, just don't bother me when I'm trying to sleep.

Since I couldn't sleep I decided to go out and watch the parade, though it was more of a street fair actually. La-dee-dah...nothing so exciting about it (though the food looked absolutely delicious - very UN nutricious!). The food looked so good, that I knew it was time for me to step AWAY from the situation and run for cover into my house where all of my trigger foods have already been discarded.

You know what I ended up doing???? Laundry! Yes ladies and gents. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I was IN doors doing laundry. What a life! At least I wasn't stuffing my face though!

On Sunday it was absolutely horrible outside...gray overcast skies and quite chilly for an August afternoon, so I curled up on the couch and watched one of my Netflix movies - Three Needles. An excellent movie, broken down into three scenarios. Each detailing how people react to having Aids and the really screwy ways they choose to deal with it and/or ignore it. One man was a p.orn movie actor and HIV positive. Wth a dying father and a mother who barely made ends meet as a waitress, he had to continue making these movies to earn money for the family or at least that was his reasoning. His way of passing the mandatory HIV tests was to extract blood from his father and somehow pass it off as his own at the doc's office. In the meantime he infected five other women...it was crazy. I wont give the movie away in case you want to rent it - it's definitely worth seeing though.

Today I went to the gym. I feel so good after a work out. During the workout, I curse every morsel in my fat body. Today I even had the nerve to whisper...being fat is just not friggin fair...as I sweated and grimaced in pain. The instructor today was on a mission to kill us! She made the music faster, so that every song seemed like Alvin and Chipmunks sung it. This of course made our workout faster. My body was screaminnnnnnnnnnng. I wanted to kill her and then just when I thought I might have to leave class early, forty-five minutes had passed and we were done. Thank Gee Oh Dee!

Working out is grueling, but afterward I felt like yelling...I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR...for sticking to it!

Hope you are sticking to your workout, and your diets (or cutting back as I like to say). If not...don't despair, just get back on the wagon!

Thursday Weigh - in

I haven't posted in a lonnnnnnnnng minute, but I haven't been slacking on this weight loss thang and I have not given up on this blog! This is the one place I can gripe about my weight loss goals and concerns without judgment and communicate with others who have been there and/or are going through it right now, soooooooo even though I've been slacking in my blogging duties, I have not forgotten about this place. For some strange reason, I feel accountable to those in the blogosphere who read my blog who root for me.

So without further delay, my current weight is 225.9, which is two pounds less than my weight at the last weigh-in and less than one pound away from 25% of my goal. Yay! Can't wait to get out of the 220's for good!

Honestly this week, I haven't been diligently watching what I eat (though this doesn't mean that I just ate whatever was within easy reach either because I didn't), but I really stuck with my work-out routine. In fact, this week instead of working out three days, I did four. Six pack abs here I come!

Why haven't I posted? There has been a lot of family drama (I have the most dysfunctional family members you will ever meet) and work drama (lots of people resigned over the last two weeks), so I have been busy busy busy!

At work, because so many people have left and are still in the process of leaving, I've been invited to drinks after work and going away lunches nearly every day. Some I've had to turn down, but others I couldn't get away from attending. It's not that I didn't want to attend, but always in the back of my mind is whether or not I will be able to eat without stuffing myself. And eating with my co-workers is always hard. Most of them are naturally thin and eat whatever they want, which is usually stuff that I should stay away from unless it's a cheat day. I can't say that I was on my best behavior EVERY time I ate out over the last two weeks, but I will say that more often than not, I practiced restraint. And let me tell you practicing restraint when everyone around you is having huge pieces of meat and huge sides loaded with calories AND alcoholic drinks, was extremely hard! It felt good going home or back to work with a less than full stomach though.

Today is my cheat day! I'm going out to dinner with my cousin to Red Lobster's. Those commercials for the Honey BBQ shrimp and chicken has been calling my name all week. And I can't leave without a piece of warm chocolaty goodness - the chocolate wave cake. I'm salivating as I type this. lol I will try not to stuff my face and throw in a meadley of veggies, but it will be hard!

Hope you have had a good week!

Master Cleanse Update

So on Tuesday, my co-worker started that Master Cleanse detox diet. Her regimen includes, drinking the lemon, cayenne pepper and maple syrup concoction throughout the day as well as drinking a laxative tea at night and another laxitive-like liquid in the morning.

As I mentioned, she is attempting to lose twenty pounds in fourteen days. Today she told me she is down five pounds already. At 165 pounds she lost 3% of her body weight - in just two days. Wednesday she was so weak, she couldn't work out with me. On Thursday morning, her morning ritual gave her the 'hershey squirts' so bad she was late for work. She was still weak so that day, she limited her exercise. Today she was late again because of the h.s.

I wont lie, immediately I was jealous and in a strange way angry with her. I couldn't help but think, how much I would love to drop 3% of my body weight in a mere two days. Hell I would even settle for the five pounds she lost! Because I felt like we are supposed to support each other as we fight the same fight. And because she is my work out buddy and the one person at work I can TRULY gripe to about this lifetime committment to eat better for our long term goal, I felt like she was such a CHEATING HYPOCRITE!

I didn't let her know though. I smiled and let her know to be careful about anything that flushes your fluids from your system so excessively and congratulated her on the five pounds. My behavior might be seen as hypocritical too, but I have learned that some people just need to learn on their own.

There is no way that a diet of eating absolutely no food and flushing your system will help you stop stuffing your face - eventually you have to eat. It wont teach you how to eat right and it certainly wont help you manage your weight for the rest of your life.

Slow and steady does win the race. I have to keep telling myself that...and it sounds corny, but it's so true.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Weekly Weight Check-in

I'm down another .7 pounds - I'LL TAKE IT!! The grand total is 17.4 pounds. (yaaaaaay!), so I now weigh 227.9...just fifty million trillion pounds to go! lol, that's what it feels like sometimes. *sigh* :-)

I've been sticking to my work out routine of cardio and weights, three to four 45-minute sessions weekly. When I first started I couldn't do a single push up - not the real ones anyway. I could get away with about ten of the 'girl pushups', but yesterday I decided to try the manly REAL pushups and shocked the hell outta myself by doing 3. (Woooooooo whoooooooo, I am on my mothaflippin way! - lol)


I tell you it motivated me to continue challenging myself throughout the rest of the workout. Sometimes...well most of the time when I get tired during a workout or just can't do what the instructor is doing (ex. regular pushups, spiderman pushups, a million squats at a time, etc.), that's my cue to get a quick water break and get out of doing that particular exercise (shame on me - I know!), but yesterday I decided to fight the pain and the 'burn' and I was able to do EVERYTHING! (Well almost. lol - hey, I'm still a work in progress)

I've seen a few folks post before and after pics (WISH I had taken pics when I first started!), so below is a few pics of me in my undies looking extra flabby this morning if I do say so myself. My goal for NEXT summer is to actually fit into a bikini COMFORTABLY. I say "COMFORTABLY" because I have seen folks at my current size who wear bikini's. For some this is no big deal, but I don't want to be 200+ and squeezing into a bikini - but I will wear bikini underwear as you can see below! lol

At the very least I expect the 'double D twins' to get smaller (Oh how I would love to see my old 36B's again) and some stomache shrinkage by the end of THIS summer. Right now my belly button looks like you could literally HIDE an object inside it - very cavernous nous nous nous! And of course I would love LOVE LOVE to see at least one of those 'love handle's gone. Couldn't show ya my legs (didn't wanna show my distinguishing tatoo) or my face (I'm shy!).


In spite of my jokes about my body, I am ecstatic to be almost 20 pounds lighter, ecstatic to see/feel the changes in my body and ecstatic to be on the right path to a healthier me!

Rut-Roh!

So tomorrow is my weigh-in day. I didn't weigh myself the past couple of days. I've been a baaaaaaaad girl. I bought a box of granola bars on Monday afternoon and ate all ten of those bars in less than two days. Ugh!

I thought I could get away with buying snacks ( like those 90 calorie granola bars, and a pint of low fat vanilla bean ice cream) and that I was strong enough to stretch them across the entire week, but that was NOT the case. I bought them on Monday and finished everything off last night, so obbbbbbviously I'm not as disciplined as I would have hoped!

I have learned that I'm still not strong enough to keep my trigger foods in the house. Me and ice cream should never be left alone. I can eat ice cream, each and every day. In fact eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner would suit me just fine. I'm not going to deprive myself of ice cream completely, but instead of buying an entire pint (and bringing it home), I'm going to limit myself to a scoop or two for dessert at a restaurant (once in a blue moon). The granola bars are not allowed back in the house either...until they learn how to behave and stay in the box! lol

Hopefully, I can work out enough today to still have good results tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Pics and weigh-in figures coming tomorrow!

I'm Frustrated Today

So I need to go shopping and I'm not happy about it. I just feel like it's such a waste of money, when I (hopefully) wont be able to fit these clothes in another month. There are still clothes in my closet that I can't fit (one size too small), but the clothes I currently fit (somewhat) are looking so loose it's getting sloppy. I might be fat and overweight, but I'm very curvy and my curves are not showing because my clothes are making me look fatter dumpy!!!

Losing weight is so frustrating. I've had almost all of my slacks for work, tailored to have the waist taken in. Though I'm a big girl, I don't have a big waist. Having the waist tailored isn't cheap...twenty-five bucks a pop adds up. For a bit more, I could buy a new pair of pants, but they would still have to be tailored to accommodate my height anyway, so that's even more money.

You ever think about why you really want to lose weight? Of course I want to lose weight so I can feel good (read: healthier) and LOOK good (read:'normal'), but I also want to lose weight just so I wont have to constantly have my clothes altered (himmed and the waist cinched in)!!! Seriously! I'm five - four...I would like to buy a pair of pants that I can wear immediately after purchasing, instead of waiting half the week until they come out of the cleaners. I suppose I could learn to alter them myself, but who am I kidding, that is NOT happening!!!!

Anyway, my weigh in is Thursday morning. I've been doing pretty well with my work-out routine. I'm still going to the gym a minimum of three times during the week. My eating habits still leave a lot to be desired. They aren't bad, but they could be better. I actually think I'm not eating frequently enough, which can slow the body down.

I'll keep ya posted!

Week in Review

Here are a few crafty and helpful little sites, I discovered last week in my blog travels.

Tickerfactory.com is a great website to track your weightloss and your BMI count. As soon as I found the site, I started using it (as you can see from above). It's extremely user friendly and there are all sorts of creative tracker templates to choose from. There is even a chart that tracks your weight history, so you're able to see each and every entry from the first day to the current day. But weight (misspelled intentionally)...there's more (lol), you can also use the 'ticker' to track exercise and fitness, savings, debt reduction, pregnancy milestones and a host of other things, so check it out if you have some free time.

Caloriecontrol.org can calculate how many calories you burn doing the simplest of things. You choose the activity (which can be anything from brushing your teeth, to ironing or walking), add how much time activity will take and include your current weight. Then voila, the number of calories you have burned (or will burn) is calculated.

Fat Loss Secrets You Can Use. I thought this was a great article/blog post. It's kind of on the long side, but if you're serious about losing weight, try to check it out. Most of the tips, I've heard before (and so have you most likely), but some of the tips were new to me like the idea of eating healthy fats. I honestly thought the term to be an oxymoron that all fats were BAD fats, but then I googled it and realized such a thing does exist and healthy fats are just that - healthy for you! Being around like minded people also stuck out for me. Particularly since earlier this week I read about this new study that indicates obesity is 'socially contagious'. There are a lot of interesting tips, so give it a read when you have time.

To Whom Much Is Given...This has to be the most hilariously funny blog post I have read in a very long time. In our weightloss journeys, we are all drinking water, drinking water and drinking some more water!! This post is about what happens when you have to urgently go to the bathroom, but think you have a feeeeeeeeew extra minutes to finish off a memo.

Master Cleanse

Over the years I have tried my share of diets. I've tried liquid diets, no carb, no fatty food diets, meatless diets, no eating after 5pm diets, etc. You name it and I have probably tried it. I've been battling the bulge for a long time now, and what I have learned is that dieting is not for me.

Cutting back...that's what I call it. It's about portion control and knowing when to say when. I don't deny myself a treat if I really want it, but now I don't over do it like I used to. Now I really think about it before I just plop it in my mouth. I try to thoroughly enjoy it, so that I'm satisfied and not necessarily left wanting more. This is something I will most likely have to do for the rest of my life.

Anyway, I started thinking about dieting because a friend of mine has decided to try the Master Cleanse. It's billed as this hollistic way to clean out your system, so that backed up waste in your body (waste that normally does not flush out with a normal bowel movement) is thoroughly removed. However, from what I have read, most people use this as a quick way to drop some serious pounds. I also read that even Beyonce used this to quickly drop weight for her role in Dreamgirls. If you notice now though...she has put back on every pound, though she still looks great!

My friend is determined to try that lemon, cayenne, maple syrup concoction, so that she can drop TWENTY pounds in two weeks. She's curently 160 pounds, so she's trying to drop...what is that...nearly 15% of her body weight in two weeks? All I can do is shake my head. Honestly though...I will be completely jealous if she drops twenty pounds in two weeks...I wish I could do that! But at the same time the whole thing just worries me...that can not be healthy.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Weigh in Day...

Today's reported weight is 228.6, so I am down 2.5 pounds from last week...yeaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

At first I was pissed. I wanted to see a full five pounds. Shoooooooot, I have been killing myself people, but I do realize because I'm working out four times a week some of that fat is turning into muscle (which of course weighs more). So I guess (though I could be wrong), I'm taking off weight, but I'm putting on muscle so the scale isn't going to reflect the difference accurately...am I making sense???

I'm dying to go shopping, but I refuse to waste money when I know I am not even close to where I want to be. Plus, I have PLENTY of outfits from the skinnier side of the closet, that I STILL can't fit! I tried on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in about 2 to 3 years. They still look brand new. Well I could actually get them on yesterday!!!! Yay again! Now of course they were incredibly skin tight. I wouldn't even think about wearing them outside my bedroom. I'm just ecstatic that I could actually get them up my legs, over my hips AND was able to button them without the button popping off to boomerang off the mirror and take my eye out.

Yesterday I ran into a co-worker I haven't seen in a while and the first thing she did was mention how much slimmer my face looked.

Keep the compliments coming!

Howdy!

So this morning I weighed in at 231.1 pounds. Now most folks would be like...well damn...that's a heavy mofo!!! Especially since I'm only five foot four, but a sista like me, who used to weigh in at 245.3 just two months ago...is a happy ass mofo!

So how did I do it? Ummm, well I stopped stuffing my face and my belly to the point of being sick. Seriously. I also started working out a lot. Actually I try to have my fat ass in the gym at least 3 times a week, though it usually ends up being about 4 times out of the week. The almost daily torture includes, hitting the treadmill once a week for two miles and taking a lot of different excercise classes to keep the workout new and interesting. Some days after class I just want to fall the eff out and die in peace, but after I shower then I feel like I'm the HBIC again!!!

Though i'm down just 14.2 pounds it feels like so much more. My clothes either finally fit or they're so loose they don't fit at all. I've had to have the waist line of all my pants cinched in and I will probably need to do this again relatively soon. I really don't want to go on a shopping spree just yet. I'm waiting to hit my 25 pound milestone.

I also started taking these fat blocking pills called Alli. Honestly a lot of the time i forget to take them, but the cool thing about the Alli plan is that you can go to their website to communicate with people going through your same situation, so you have an idea of what works for some and what hasn't worked for others. There seems to be a lot of skepticism about these pills, but they do work. Whenever you eat anything heavy in fat, you SEE it when you use the bathroom (I'll just leave that to your imagination). lol I can tell you, overdosing on high fatty foods when taking these pills will leave you in the bathroom with the hersey squirts, so I stay away from the high fatty foods now. Alli online also teaches you about counting fat grams and finding healthier choices. Now sometimes the healthier choices are not exactly what i would like to eat, but there are a lot of healthy choices that i do prefer. More on that at a later date.

Anyway this is my first day blogging for better weightloss. I'm 14 pounds down and have fifty million more to go - yeah baby!!!