Exercise and End of Week 1

Exercise has always been a chore for me, not that I don’t like having fun, riding bikes, going out for a walk in the evening with my boyfriend, but I don’t like scheduled exercise, I have to do this, this many reps, this many times a week. I loose interest, I don’t know why, I want to be more fit.

I started school today  and have made the commitment to walk to campus that’s just under 2 miles away. It took me 40 minutes to walk it this morning, not my best record, but keep in mind I haven’t walked any significant amount in at least 2 years. 40 is a start I’d like to try and get it down to 25 or so.

Today is also the end of week 1! The only goal I didn’t reach was the no cheese goal, I’m sure that will be my hardest goal to reach and yes, I know that I’ll keep being unhappy with myself the next day.

So tomorrow begins Week 2, so what does that mean? It means I need to keep writing down the times I eat and food I’m eating, maybe start trying to measure it out (portion control isn’t a bad thing) and I add gummy candy to my list of candy I can’t eat. To be honest, I didn’t have any candy this week.

I also want to throw in an exercise goal. It’s really simplistic, kind of pathetic, but it’s a start.

Goal #3: Exercise!
Week 1 (Sept 1- Sept 7)- Weights 5 reps 3x/ Cardio 10 min
Week 2 (Sept 8- Sept 14)- Weights 10 reps 3x/ Cardio 15 min
Week 3 (Sept 15- Sept 21)- Weights 15 reps 3x/ Cardio 20 min
Week 4 (Sept 22- Sept 28)- Weights 20 reps 3x/ Cardio 25 min

I would really like the cardio to be in addition to the walk to do to school twice a week.

Hope everyone’s having a great day!

Name Calling

Being overweight, I’m always self conscious about how I look and how others perceive me and I try to be fun, bubbly and outgoing so that they can focus on me and not how round I am. However, any sort of self esteem I’ve managed to build up to help myself seems to be gone at the moment. Why? During a big blowout with my housemate about this and that, he just turns, looks me in the eye and says “You’re a pig!”

My jaw dropped and I fought back some tears, determined not to let this get to me, but at that moment the wind was out of my sails. I ate little for dinner and I haven’t ate much today. I”m working hard to not let this get to me because after the initial depression/shock, I don’t want to turn to food as a comfort, and I don’t want to give that guy any satisfaction or power over me! I will win this on my own terms, and not succumb to petty name calling.

Weekly Weigh In 1

As part of my attempt at weight loss, I’ve decided to weigh myself once a week to help track progress or lack thereof.  To be honest, before this weigh in, it had been at least two months since I last weighted myself. I know I’m obese, I don’t need to be reminded of it constantly. However, I do need to know if what I’m doing is working, or failing me in the long run so I can adjust accordingly. I’ve decided Saturdays are my weigh in days, since it’s right after my long week of trying. I did weigh myself yesterday, I just didn’t get on here to post it.

Here are my embarassing stat:

Weight: 98.7 kg or 217.14 lbs
Fat %: 40.2
Water %: 42.3

My scale gives me the fat and water percentages, I don’t really know how accurate they are.  Next week, I’d like to measure my arms, waist, thighs so I can track that progress too.

Why I’m overweight

After reviewing this article, I find myself agreeing with some of the situations and realizing that easy changes can make my dieting a little simpler.

#1- I really don’t know what to do about this one, I don’t pick the largest plate in my house, but I use all my plates, with no real preference for one over the other.

#2- I don’t think I do this one, I like to be in booths that can’t see much except for the company I’m with.

#3- I can see me doing this, but I eat with chopsticks quite frequently as well if the meal calls for it, or if I’m offered some. I’ve gone to Asian restaurants where there are no chopsticks to be seen, just black plastic forks.

#4- Yes, this is me and I don’t know if I can change. I see leaving food behind as being wasteful, sure you can have it the next day, but if you throw it out… I don’t know. I have a very hard time with the concept of “wasting” food.

#5- I inhale my food on a mealy basis. I seriously have blinked about 20 minutes after a meal going, “Did I eat, or not?” This is the one I have to work on the most. Not going into counting each bite and making sure I chew 15 times, but slowing down, savoring the flavor of what I’m eating and making sure I not only thoroughly enjoy it, but that I remember eating it.

#6- I haven’t been to a buffet in a long time, and I hate them, I always feel like I don’t eat enough and if I do, I always over do it. I am pretty sure I’m like this, a little bit of everything, instead of just what I want.

#7- Breakfast is my enemy. It’s been that way since high school. Until recently, like this last week recently, eating breakfast made me nauseous. I also hate eating breakfast because I’m starving by 1o am where I can go usually until 1pm before I have to eat.

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So I’m doing strong on my two goals, so I would hope that I am. I’ll be adding some more stuff next week, and I start school next Tuesday as well, throwing one more thing into the mix will sure be interesting, but I’m sure it’ll all turn out alright.

Cheese

Cheese is my last dairy item to kick. It’s been my hardest too. Why? Well the reason is simple, it’s very delicious. I don’t handle dairy products well and I have been able to kick everything milk related except for cheese. I’ve tried Daiya cheese, which is vegetable based and I really like it, however, it only comes in 2 flavors. A lot of non dairy cheese only comes in 2 flavors, and that makes me sad because I have have lots of flavors in real cheese, but the next day doesn’t seem to be worth it.

So this week I will try to eat no cheese what so ever. It’ll be hard… but I’ll keep track on here.

So, how am I doing on my second day of Goals #1 and #2? So far, so good. I’m keeping track of what I eat and what time, also about when I’m feeling the urge to nosh and whether or not I’m hungry while I’m feeling this urge, bored or just a habit of eating whenever.

As for the no chocolate candy: it’s going equally as well. I’m still debating on whether or not hot chocolate falls in this category or not. Perhaps if I added some chocolate green super foods it would be better? I don’t know yet.

Goal #2

I’ve started (yes, today!) keeping track of what I’m eating and when, and how I’m feeling during the day generally.  I’m not too sure if I’m going to post that stuff on here or not. I really have a hard time sitting down and logging into things and keeping food journals online, my notebook however, I can take anywhere with me and make little notes when I can.

This does lead me to my second goal: counting calories. I used to be able to do it without a second thought many years ago, but I stopped and couldn’t have cared to start up again. Now I’m trying to force myself to care. This goal set will have some rewards (not food related) tied to it. I haven’t determined the reward yet for myself though.

Goal 2: Calorie Counting.
Week 1– write down food eaten and times
Week 2– same as above: I’m giving myself 14 days to get this down before I delve into some serious counting.
Week 3– write down food eaten, time and Kcals
Week 4– write down food eaten, time, Kcals, fat and carbs

New Project, Goals

I know I’ve been gone for a very long time, sorry about the absence, but apathy got to me in a very big way. So I’ve decided to go about it in a different way: make a weekly goal for myself and work on it and add to it the following week. Sure, it’s nothing new but I don’t think I’ve tried it before. I was actually inspired to do this because of a bet I made myself about not buying soda from a store for a month, not only did I beat it with flying colors, I don’t feel the need to drink soda anymore.  It’s not to say I had no soda at all last month, but I didn’t have any while I was at work, and the time I did have it, I was eating out with my boyfriend and we share our drink.

So what’s my first goal? Eliminate candy from my diet. Should be a no brainer, candy is terrible for you and nothing but empty calories. Plus, I really need to kick my sugar habit. So here is my monthly goal starting from today, Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Candy Elimination: Each week is added to the restriction of the week before.
Week 1 (Aug 25- Aug 31)– No Chocolate: This one should be easy, I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate to begin with, but even I have those cravings for some of this stuff, my biggest killer, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Week 2 (Sept 1- Sept 7) – No Gummies: Probably my favorite type of candy. I’ve become really fond of Sour Patch Watermelon slices. So this will be my toughest week.

Week 3 (Sept 8- Sept 14)– No Hard Candy: Slowly working my way through the types of candy. No hard candy will eliminate any fall backs I may have to suckers and rock candy.

Week 4 (Sept 15- Sept 21)–  Anything Else: Just in case there was a type of candy I forgotten, this will be the week that it goes.

Not only do I have some more 4 week goals in mind, (I have at least 2 more written down and I know I can think of tons more) but I’m hoping the slow pace of adding certain things and keeping at it for a week before adding a new challenge will give me the boost I need to get my food life back.

I also want to get back into the habit of writing down what I eat and what time I eat it at. I still have yet to do this for a full week at a time and I’m sure learning my eating patterns would be wonderful for my diet.