2008: The Best Version of Myself

It sounds like you are losing inches, that's always great progress.

I never know what studies to believe, but I'm sure sugars definitely don't help the waistline. ;)

Have a good rest of the week - it's going by so fast!
 
I'm not sure that I ate enough yesterday but if that's the case, I only missed my target by 300 cals... which is a lot but kind of not if it only happens once in awhile. I was poking around Leigh Peele's site today reading some of her posted articles and she had up and . I like reading her posts... I really like reading all of the science behind how the body functions... which is sort of interesting since I was terrible at chemistry and rather aloof in biology; and to throw it out there I never took physics either. I finally pleased this morning to feel (and see) a small difference in my waistline. It's been pissing me off that my stomach has actually felt bigger these last couple of weeks instead of smaller... after reading some posts in Steve's journal I would say I'm working between very hard and very very hard. I know I need to jack it up to the next level but I'm still playing around with cals and I've finally gotten myself into going to the gym everyday... that's been the hardest part these past two months. Adding weights soon and I'm tinkering around with trying out that couch to 5k program, but at some point all of this will become working too hard so the running idea might just stay an idea. The other thing I'm considering is pilates... I have done it in the past and I've loved the way my body looked.

On the other hand I've been feeling emotional and frustrated about this... maybe it's a sign of fatloss like Leigh mentioned in her article... maybe I'm just a pain in the ass... the latter has a greater possibility of being true:) But I guess I'm just being hard on myself, wanting to be 60 pounds smaller tomorrow instead of in a few months... and I keep saying I hope it happens this time... like it's a wish even though I totally control my destiny on this. I'm also curious as to what my face will look like? Will I look awkward being thin? (Let's face it, some ppl just look better fat). Will I be able to maintain it? I think I'm treating myself to a margarita this week... I totally deserve one.
 
some of my favorite people are pain's in the asses :) i consider that a goodquality sometimes...

margaritas... oooh yumm

Pilates is cool - I wish i coould do it -it just seems so graceful - but alas I have the agility of a baby hippo... didn't work so well for me :)
 
I worked my ass off at that gym yesterday... and it was definitely the toughest class that instructor has taught that I've attended. My only complaint is that my last two classes with him he hasn't done any ab workouts but being as though my tummy was smaller this morning I guess I should stop my bitching :D I'm debating if I want to go to two classes tonight because I really want some Papa John's pizza for dinner but if I only go to one class I will feel like I can only eat one piece before tomorrow's weigh-in instead of two. I don't really have much to say... Jeff came over last night and made some tasty Indian dish for dinner, then we watched last week's episode of Lost and then we reenacted Kate and Sawyer when she's on good terms with him;) And the weather here is beautiful... high of 75 today and tomorrow... even this morning I just needed a light sweatshirt on my way to work.
 
Everyday I try to educate myself a little more about this whole weightloss process... things like why animal proteins may be better than plant proteins... when you should eat a high GI food and when you should eat a low GI food... why bananas are good to eat before a workout... you get my drift. So I just spent the last few hours rereading all the stickied posts that Tom put together in one thread and honestly I feel like I'm doing everything wrong. I have no idea what my maintenance calories are... I know there's the Harris Benedict equation but honestly I don't think it's that cut and dry. Before the ARC when I was just pissing around not doing anything worth squat I was eating all sorts of shit and I wasn't gaining weight and I wasn't really exercising either. Now that I'm tracking my cals and exercising 4-5 times a week not too much is really happening... so this means I need to reassess but I'm not sure what's going wrong... am I eating too little at 1900 cals or is that too much? This was the first day in weeks that my stomach had any change and to be honest I've felt like I've been undereating all week. Even the scale was back to near 195 and I know scales aren't perfect and there could be any number of reasons but Christ alive it's driving me insane. It's getting to the point where I'm just mentally overloading (because I have a stupid obsession with perfectionism and doing/finding/living the best way) and I think I'll lose my lid tomorrow if I step on that scale and it's not below 192. I worked too hard, too consciously for things to not work out this week. I watched my cals, ate good healthy meals, been to the gym everyday so far, very little junk, drinking water, getting my 8 hours of sleep and I just want to know that getting home at 8:30 everynight and turning down social events in the name of a better body and life that something is happening... I may actually use the bag to take out my frustration tonight. *pouts*
 
I know there's the Harris Benedict equation but honestly I don't think it's that cut and dry.
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its not a cut and dried formula because everyone is coming into where there are from a different place... for people who've crashed dieted, or over ate, or over exercised, or just have a slightly slower metabolism... the number is going to be different...

It really is a touch and feel process - and you really have to be alittle experimental

With every fiber of my being, i beleive it's best to start with a high a level of calories as possible and if you need to adjust downward then you do - but if you start at too low a point - it's really really hard to go lower.. and you have to give it some time to work.

THis thread -not to throw more info at you
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/weight-loss-media/19246-10-diet-myths-real-simple-magazine.html

(posted by ME :) I've never said anyhtig worthy of words of wisdom...

has the following
First find your activity level on the table below. Multiply your weight by the number indicated. (You may fall between two categories. If that’s the case, adjust the number by adding a point or so.) The result is the number of calories you need to maintain your weight. Let’s say you weigh 135 pounds and do light exercise one to three days a week. Multiply 135 by 13.5 to get, approximately, 1,800 calories. If you want to drop some pounds, try cutting out 250 calories a day, says Lee. In a year, if you make no other changes, you could be 26 pounds lighter. Exercise more and you could lose more, too.

And Your Number Is…
You Exercise: Almost never
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 12

You Exercise: Lightly, one to three days a week
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 13.5

You Exercise: Moderately, three to five days a week
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 15.5

You Exercise: Vigorously, six to seven days a week
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 17

You Exercise: Vigorously, daily, and you have a physical job
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 19
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So using 190 as your current weight and 15 as your activity level that's about 2800 or so to maintain - drop 500 calories a day and your starting point might be abouog 2300 - but you're gonna need to wiggle a bit in there..
 
Mal- thank you as always:)

What I don't understand about charts like that is I'm never sure what category I fall under since I'm not couch potatoing it, and I get that I"m not being vigorous daily by any means. But I guess my confusion is that most of the day I am sedentary... for about 9 hours a day I sit on my arse. But then there is also the fact that I walk at least 50 minutes a day with my commute... I walk at a good pace... not brisk because I hate getting to the office sweaty but a good respectable pace... then I spend five days in a kickboxing class... I guess that's more of a recent development than going twice a week like before. Okay, now after writing that and then rereading it I'm going to edit even before I've posted to say that I will give myself enough credit that I have been working at a moderate pace... I just always feel so nervous about overestimating but on average I'm putting in ten hours of physical fitness a week in.. I deserve the credit for it.

But I need to express my dismay with the scale. I worked soooo hard this week to barely see a change... so maybe the cals are too low, but when I had two days of cals lower than usual those are the days I had some changes in my body the next day... the scale and measuring tape both said so. But I can't eat less than I am now because these KB classes are intense.

Which brings me to my next point... I'm not sure how high your heart rate can go... I mean there is MHR but that's a target it's not the actual maximum for every person before their heart quits. Anyway last night at the gym I randomly decided to take my heart rate after a two minute round of punching the bag and then five laps... heartbeat was pretty quick so I took a five second sample... the clock has a seconds' hand... in five seconds i counted 19 beats... which means that if for the entire minute that sample stayed the same that comes out to 228 bpm. If I didn't miss count then I hope that's not hurting my heart to beat that fast. And personally I felt fine... I could feel my heart beating but I wasn't really out breath... maybe if i'd had to talk to someone I would have struggled for some air but I was standing there breathing like it ain't no thang... then about a minute later when I'd had some recovery time (we usually get two minute or 30 second recovery breaks), I took it again and it came out to 10 beats for a five second sample... so a minute later my heart had recovered to 120. And for further information I took my resting heart rate a few minutes ago and it was 56bpm... I've always a had a nice lower resting heart rate and when I take it first thing in the morning it hovers between 50-54.

One good thing about this week is that my left bat wing is a bit softer, more jiggly so I hope that means I'm losing some batty fat:)

Also, I pantsed Jeff this morning while he was standing in front of his closet in his boxers trying to pick out an outfit for the day.... I literally fell to the ground I was laughing so hard... the look on his face was priceless and even better was the fact that I knew he was trying not to laugh too. This means that I will probably get tickled until I nearly pee myself later but it's worth it:)
 
Long article short
Bottom line: Vary your intensities, work as hard as you comfortably can, and—most importantly—stick to your cardio workouts for the rest of your life. You’ll get fit, lose fat and help keep it off.
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Inches are actually better progress than scale loss. It's just that we don't give it enough credit.

:biggrinjester: I see you are a practical joker! Hope you wear your depends tonight. :p
 
THanks Mal for the article. I guess as long as I feel ok then I shouldn't worry about it. My body will show me some signs if it's not happy... if anything I'll probably pass out (not the greatest) before anything major happens if that's an issue. And since it's not beating that fast for the entire 60 minutes I think a few high minute spurts are fine.

Sweatpea- he got his revenge and pants me...:(

The scale gave me the big ole middle finger this morning. I'm ready to chuck that thing out the window. This week I'm trying to be consistent with my calories and macs because last week I certainly wasn't and that doesn't really help any when you're trying to be productive :D However I did eat like shit over the weekend. I was so mad at the scale that i figured if it was going to say what it said, I was going to make it talk the talk... not very wise or mature. I'm over it. Had my pity party and ate what I wanted. I think the trick was on me though because eating crappy = feeling crappy. I enjoyed it so little that I don't even want those foods again except for the mini vanilla cupcakes I enjoyed. I'm hitting the gym tonight and unfortunately I think I will be dining on some lean cuisine and orange slices (the real thing, not candy). I'm just feeling tired, the weather here is grey and dreary after such an intensely beautiful week, and I need to do more cleaning in my apartment so I can complain to my landlord about some things that need to be fixed.

A quick update of what I've eaten today...

Breakfast-
Scrambled eggs with sprinkle of cheddar
1 cup blueberries mixed with...
6ox plain nonfat yogurt

Snack
1 box raisins

Lunch
99% fat free turkey meatballs
1/2cup homemade tomato sauce
1 pineapple fruit cup
4oz 2% lowfat cottage cheese

Snack/Preworkout Meal
1/2 medium banana
1 slice whole wheat double fiber bread w/
2tbs natural pb

After workout
1/2 med banana

Dinner-
Lean cuisine (don't lecture me... I don't do it often!)
2 oranges
1 mini cupcake (to keep me sane)

I'm also sure that I'm probably going to have to add more food but I'll deal with that later.
 
The gym last night was intense. After the first fifteen minutes I just wanted it to be over... I usually make it 20 minutes before that happens ;) I'm looking forward to tonight and another class. The scale was in a bit better mood this morning and it's about time. I wanted to chuck it in the trash all last week.

So with actually balancing my foods... creating an amount of calories, portioning them out into macros, etc, I sort of almost hate my diet. I'm just maxed out on eating the proteins I eat... I'm sick of chicken, turkey, eggs. I don't really eat beef ; fish and I are tricky partners; pork is wildly expensive. Plus unless I'm going to exercise my wallet thin at Whole Foods, this is the worst city ever for getting decent fish/seafood. Then there's the whole eating blueberries and plain yogurt. I'm trying with every ounce of myself to like frozen fruit and plain yogurt. This morning I put both in the food processor to blend them, and the conclusions I came to are 1) I need to put a sweetner or sugar in that mix tomorrow or I will never be able to eat it again. 2) Previously frozen blueberries have the texture of wet, chewy cardboard after they've been ground up. And the reason I'm eating a cup of blueberries is because of Leigh Peele's article on the best foods to eat, and she said that blueberries contain nuclear amounts of antioxidants. My last problem is getting in my fats and I am not about to drink olive oil straight from the bottle. I do have avacados to make some guac this week but when they're on sale for $1.35 each (!), i can't afford to be chowing down on them everyday.

Now that I'm done whining a funny little story...

Me: ::: walking to the gym:::
Bum: "Lady, do you have $2.57?"
Me: "Nope, I have no money!"
Bum: "You got anything close to that much?"
Me: "Nope, no money."
Bum: "Why you gotta be so beautiful. If I was 25 years younger and had a million dollars I'd be up on your grill woman!!"
Me: "That would be something, wouldn't it?"
 
I think that's what my biggest problem was, I'd get sick of the healthy stuff way to fast and just got back to eating my junk, but as much as I hate the term, you just gotta find a balance.

I'm shocked at your lack of eating beef though, I think it's my favorite meat in the world!
 
LowFatMilk said:
I'm shocked at your lack of eating beef though, I think it's my favorite meat in the world!
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God do I love a good cheeseburger and occasionally a nice medium steak, but on the whole I find that unless I'm eating beef out at a restaurant (read: loaded with fat), then I don't really eat it. Actually come to think of it I just started liking cheeseburgers in the past two or three years.. I never ate them before that. But lately I've been jonesing a good steak... it's been a few months since I've had one.

Mal- I'm not quite sure what "up on my grill" means either... I'm pretty sure that it means he wanted to give it to me from behind...
 
The weather here is gorgeous today. The last two days it's been rather grey and yesterday I thought would be like Monday... cold and a little rainy but it definitely hit 73 degrees and I was wearing a wool sweater:ack2: Also I added some sugar to my morning yogurt and berries which definitely made it more edible. It's not tart so it's not that gross anymore... which is good. I'm glad that my yogurt no longer has HFC in it. Last night I diverged from healthy and had a two inch brownie and a half sandwich for dinner. I was just so warm from wearing that sweater that the last thing I wanted for dinner was something hot... and I needed chocolate before I killed someone. Also last night on the train on my way to Jeff's, two girls walked in with food from the Varsity (read: shitty food... not even good bad for you food) and the one girl had hot wings which I had over the weekend, although not from the Varsity, and the smell made me want to :puke: Granted not all craptastic foods make me feel nauseated but after eating shitty over the weekend and feeling shitty as a result, I'm starting to become disgusted by super fatty, high caloric, HFC foods... although I'm still holding out hope that there will be one Krispy Kreme donut in my future. There's a KK shop across the street from my gym and I haven't gone in there once since I started working out. But then my coworker who has lost a ton on WW told me that she treated herself to one two weekends ago and now I can't stop thinking about a vanilla creme filled donut.

I'm starting to see subtle changes in my body. The outward side of my legs looks nice and smooth, my skin is softer, the bags under my eyes are gone, and last night I put on a piece of lingerie that I haven't worn in a few months and it's the best it's ever fit. My arms are getting stronger and the whole upper chest/shoulders/clavical area is becoming leaner and firmer. So even if the scale is being a pisser and the tape measure isn't being much nicer than the scale, at least there's a bit of body transformation happening. I keep walking around singing little tunes, whistling and humming which is always a surefire sign that I am surpremely happy:D:hurray:
 
So $2.57?? I wonder why such an odd amount ... probably so he could buy some beer. ;)

Scales suck. LOL
 
brunettegoddess said:
Now that I'm done whining a funny little story...

Me: ::: walking to the gym:::
Bum: "Lady, do you have $2.57?"
Me: "Nope, I have no money!"
Bum: "You got anything close to that much?"
Me: "Nope, no money."
Bum: "Why you gotta be so beautiful. If I was 25 years younger and had a million dollars I'd be up on your grill woman!!"
Me: "That would be something, wouldn't it?"
Click to expand...

Hahaha! I once had a bum ask me if I had a lighter for his cigarette. I told him that I was sorry I didn't. He told me to sit on his face. However, I don't think he meant it in the complimentary way that you got. Obviously you got a better bum (take that as you will).

Here's a definition for . Look how many people gave #2 the thumbs down...prudes. That definition is way more interesting...I think I'll add it to my vocabulary...
 
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