Brandy's Success Diary

I have to admit... after taking a rest.... and finally getting some food into my system- I feel a lot better. I am motivated again, and I realize the workout is great... but I need to have some sort of protein in my system before I do it. Otherwise... I'll get as sick as I did today. I might try the rest of the DVD that I didn't get to again later tonight.

This is a really important year for me, and I really want to turn it all around. I have to take control of my life- and getting fit would do just that for me. Help me take control. I have to do it anyways... because I will finally be out of school and I will need to get on my own two feet... as a productive member of society who has to figure out how to make the right choices. I can start be getting fit, and having a healthy and active lifestyle. And for the first time in a while... I don't see that being a problem. I know I can work out like I want to. I know I can do this. I also know how hard it is going to be.... but it will be worth it. In the end I will love my body, have a great confidence that radiates to other people... and it will just be such a great feeling. And just like Jillian says in the video and on TV... its not going to be easy. If you want easy... then go home. Working out is about getting results, not about feeling relaxed.

I find that I give myself pep-talks before/during/after working out. Telling myself that I did a good job, that I can improve, that this is all going to be worth it, that I have to work harder, etc etc. And it helps.

I don't like making timed-goals for myself because I never seem to reach them. But I will say that in the next 7 months (7 months and 2 weeks) I want to get down to about 160... That is about 50 pounds in 30 weeks. A completely obtainable number. And I know I can work towards that. The thing is... I know HOW to do.. I just need to actually do it. That make sense?? By the end of this year... when we are going into 2010, I want to be down to about 140 pounds. If the people on the biggest loser can do it in 16 weeks, I sure as hell can do it in 52 weeks.
 
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I think I might be the posting-queen of the day! ahaha. One person who is a huge inspiration to me is Jillian Michaels. When I listen to her speeches, read her biographies, etc etc.. I get very inspired... because lets face it- she's right. After doing a lot of research on her, I realize that her and I have a lot in common, whether it be beliefs or old habits... I feel I can relate to her. I appreciate when she means to do, and I have always loved her from the Biggest Loser being the one who really pushes... because it comes down to not only doing something for you body, but for your soul as well. I have to leave to pick up my brother soon- he is going to spend a few hours with me. And I am going to go down to Borders with the Gift Certificate I bought and I am going to "Winning By Losing" and "Making the Cut". I might also by the "Biggest Loser Success Secrets" If I see that they have it in stalk. I am looking to be motivated to the point of no return (lol), and what better way to do that than to get material on the show that motivates me the most?

Edit 9:41pm: To save myself another post, I'll simply edit this one. I went out to Borders and spent $47 (I know... a little high.) $35 was a gift card specifically to Borders, and the other $12 came from Christmas cash. I got "Biggest Loser Complete Calorie Counter", "Making the Cut" by Jillian Michaels, and "The Biggest Loser Success Secrets". I can't wait to read them!

Edit 11:41pm: I want to be an inspiration. I want to give up my ways completely, and become a new person. I look in the mirror and say "I would be so beautiful, if I only could lose weight", well... I can lose weight. And I fear failure like most people here do, and I also want to be the person that says "what is there to be afraid of?", and turns everything around. It is going to be tough, but it will all be worth it- I want to be one of those success stories. I want people to be motivated when they see me. I want that so badly. I want to feel attractive, I want to look sexy in clothes, for the first time in my ENTIRE life, I want to be proud of my body. I have never been a fan of running. I always avoided it because I was overweight as a child, and as a teenager I had self image problems so even when I was thin, I would refuse to run. In 2010 I would like to run in a half-marathon. There are so many reasons why i want this, and when I think about the cons... all I can think of is the pain of exercising... and all that pain will be worth it.
 
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Good Morning!

I stayed up last night until 1:30am reading Biggest Loser Success Stories, and watching episodes of The Biggest Loser on yideo. I am all motivated and set to keep track of my food in a food journal notebook I just made, choose healthy food options, and get plenty of exercise.

Even though I only did 13 minutes of that video yesterday... OH BOY can I feel it today!

I am going to try a set of goals that I made for myself, and I will see how they work this week. If they don't work, I will adjust them though. 1300 calories, 146 carbs, 97 protein, and 36 fat. I don't know if I will be able to stick to that carb limit. Seems a bit low. But I will try it for now.

:cheers2: Here's to lookin' fine in 2009! lol.
 
You can do it Babe!

Happy New Year and may your dreams come true this year.Im looking forward to a new year as well.Im thinking this might be my year to finalyl get into shape!
 
i did it. I finished Workout 1 of the 30 day shred. And it totally kicked my ass, but I did it. I finished it. I did a lot of the modifications, but I sure as fucking hell did it. I paused the DVD about 4 times or so just to give myself a pep-talk saying that I could finish this, and I would not fail. And every single time I pushed play again. My pauses were only 10-15 seconds. And what a day to do it. New Years Eve. It proves that tomorrow I will be able to do it too. I did it once... I can do it again. I am all sweaty and exhausted right now, I feel like I'm going to puke. So I am going to go sit down in a cool temp shower.
 
lol "lookin' fine in 2009". I like that:) The Biggest Loser Success Stories is a good book. I just picked up the "Us" magazine at the store that has Michelle's before and after picture from the BL. I love reading that stuff.
I also read about making a pro and con list for eating healthy verses not and taking that with you as a reminder of why you are not going to eat that plate of nachos or whatever. I thought it might be a good tool and maybe for you too:) 1300 cals sounds very reasonable.
Good luck with the weeks goals! I am so glad to hear you motivated again. New Year's is awesome for that:) Hope you have a good New Year's Eve and a happy and healthy New Year's!!!
:party:
 
mishi said:
lol "lookin' fine in 2009". I like that:) The Biggest Loser Success Stories is a good book. I just picked up the "Us" magazine at the store that has Michelle's before and after picture from the BL. I love reading that stuff.
I also read about making a pro and con list for eating healthy verses not and taking that with you as a reminder of why you are not going to eat that plate of nachos or whatever. I thought it might be a good tool and maybe for you too:) 1300 cals sounds very reasonable.
Good luck with the weeks goals! I am so glad to hear you motivated again. New Year's is awesome for that:) Hope you have a good New Year's Eve and a happy and healthy New Year's!!!
:party:
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Thanks Michelle. That is a really good idea. I think I go make a pro and con list after I finish posting! :D

I am very motivated, because I saw a number on the scale that I do not like, and I have had MANY MANY pep-talks with myself. I must sound like a freakin' lunatic! lol. Yes everyone, I DO talk to myself to work myself through things.

For me, there is no more... "tomorrow", all I have is today. And TODAY I can do it. I feel really pathetic giving myself motivational speeches... I've just had enough of my old ways. I work moderately... maybe at about 30% of what I am able to do, I get to 199lbs, and then I shoot RIGHT back up to 210ish. It disgusts me. I am completely sore after doing that DVD, but I know that tomorrow I am going to do it at 11:00am- right when Dan goes to work. I just keep telling myself that I am worth every bit of this... because I deserve to be proud of my body, and I deserve to be healthy. Enough is Enough, and I have to draw the line somewhere.

I am thinking about changing my weigh-in days to tuesdays, so I will weigh in the morning of the Biggest Loser show. Hey... why not? lol. So yesterday's weight... 211. OMG... ENOUGH. lol. Don't worry, I wont have to see that number EVER again.
 
Things are calming down for the day. I probably will not eat anything else... but I'm not closing it out. My totals for today are 1341 calories; 158 carbs; 77 protein, and 35 fat!

I am really happy with those choices. But already... I feel like 1300 calories is a bit too low for me. I think I will DO MY BEST to keep them low, and to find lower calorie alternatives, but I will keep them to a MAX of 1600 calories a day. We will see how this week works out. I am totally proud of doing the 30 day shred DVD. At least now I know what I am in for tomorrow. I cannot wait to KICK ASS this year!!! I want to work really hard for graduation. I was hoping to be about 160 by the end of May. So.... maybe??? I don't really know if thats realistic enough.

Anyways... I let the last day of 2008 go out with a BANG, and the New year of 2009 will be nothing but success.
 
Happy New Years!

I had a nice breakfast to start off my day. 2 egg whites, 1/4 c. bell peppers, .5tsp minced garlic all together with 5 saltine crackers and 1 cup of Orange Pineapple Apple juice on the side!

I think the Saltine crackers will suffice during my bread cravings. I love them, and they are only 60 calories, and 1.5 fat for 5 crackers... which is pretty good to me, because I will feel like I'm eating more. For a high protein snack I love peanut butter and saltine sandwiches, so I think I will have Dan get some low-fat peanut butter at the store after he gets out of work-- if they have such a thing.

Dan is eating healthy and exercising with me this year... but we are not following the same plan for food, nor are we exercising together all the time. He has his thing, and I have mine. We have just agreed that we both need to live a healthier lifestyle.

Talk about CRITICISM! I have made 1 meal in front of people, and I have been teased 3 different times about being healthy. Dan said its annoying that I measure out everything about my food. Dan's mom said "OH, did you start your diet today? You can't even have a muffin? Are you looking for chicken or something? You can't just eat Chicken all the time" - all in a completely sarcastic and mean voice. And Dan's father just laughed at me because I asked if we had any fruit in the house. Laughing at the fact that I'm eating healthy I suppose. But Dan's parents are VERY overweight, and don't care to do anything about it. Quite annoying really. It makes me pissed off, but I'm trying not to let it bother me. Because I will be the one adding years to my life because I'm healthy, and I am doing this because I want a body to be proud of. Not for anyone else, but just for me.

My plans for the day-
Do the 30 day shred
Take my shower
Clean for 20 minutes
Do my hair and makeup
Go to my mom's house to play games with my mom and brother
Maybe talk my brother into a walk with me to get some added exercise
Come home and relax for the night.

Edit 11:49 am- I feel fantastic. I completed day 2 of the 30 day shred, still on Level 1. But I could've gone through the entire session without a break... but paused it twice.. for 5 seconds each to just get a sip of water. Such an improvement from yesterday on the way I feel. It felt good to push myself! I was proud doing it. I am going to do some crunches later tonight however, because I do not think I pushed myself enough during the ab exercise. I am so happy because that felt AWESOME. I guess I was scared of how hard she was going to push me yesterday and the day before. I didn't think I'd be able to do it. But today I KNEW what I was in for, and I knew if I did it once I can do it again. :)
 
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Yay Brandy!! Happy New Year! Good job on the Shred!! :D It sounds tough!
I am sorry you got flak from Dan and family! It does seem like people just can't handle it when others are working on eating well. Both my friend and I got a lot of crap. I got it from my husband to be back when I was really into measuring and inputing my food and my friend is on a low carb diet and she would get no end of crap of people saying how unhealthy it is and why can't she just have a bagel... just this once. sigh. Stay strong. You are doing this for you and as they adjust to your routine they will give it up. I know how much negative talk like that affects someone though so just brush it off. You will be lookin' good and eventually they will ask you your secrets;) lol when it's been staring them in the face for months. Both you and I know that measuring food is a sure fire way to lose weight because you are more accountable for what you eat! Keep up the great work!!!!!
lol because I am me I have one small suggestion..... saltines are pretty high in sodium and I think even fat for little crackers. A slice of low cal wheat bread gives you nutrients for a breakfast and maybe save saltines and peanut butter (yum!!) for a snack? Just so you get some good stuff in at the beginning of the day. I am not sure if you are nixing out bread but I know some of the low cal wheat breads have only 45 calories a slice! The stuff I eat is wheat bread at 90 cals a slice and they are pretty big slices to me!
Here's to a New Year that you make your goals and let NO ONE get into your way!!!
 
mishi said:
Yay Brandy!! Happy New Year! Good job on the Shred!! :D It sounds tough!
I am sorry you got flak from Dan and family! It does seem like people just can't handle it when others are working on eating well. Both my friend and I got a lot of crap. I got it from my husband to be back when I was really into measuring and inputing my food and my friend is on a low carb diet and she would get no end of crap of people saying how unhealthy it is and why can't she just have a bagel... just this once. sigh. Stay strong. You are doing this for you and as they adjust to your routine they will give it up. I know how much negative talk like that affects someone though so just brush it off. You will be lookin' good and eventually they will ask you your secrets;) lol when it's been staring them in the face for months. Both you and I know that measuring food is a sure fire way to lose weight because you are more accountable for what you eat! Keep up the great work!!!!!
lol because I am me I have one small suggestion..... saltines are pretty high in sodium and I think even fat for little crackers. A slice of low cal wheat bread gives you nutrients for a breakfast and maybe save saltines and peanut butter (yum!!) for a snack? Just so you get some good stuff in at the beginning of the day. I am not sure if you are nixing out bread but I know some of the low cal wheat breads have only 45 calories a slice! The stuff I eat is wheat bread at 90 cals a slice and they are pretty big slices to me!
Here's to a New Year that you make your goals and let NO ONE get into your way!!!
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Hey Michelle! I was really pissed about getting crap for eating healthy. But for the first time since starting on this forum... on this JOURNEY of mine... I realized that I don't give a shit because I'm doing this for myself, not for them... so what the hell do I care? I should really try to find that low cal wheat bread... I LOVE wheat bread. I know what you are saying about the saltines... I went to the store and got a fat free saltine... which have 200 sodium per serving.. which I'm not sure about- but I think its still kind of high. I will save those for snacks, and for sides with sandwiches to curve my chip cravings. I really appreciate your advice and comments, they make me happy every time I see you stop by! :D And I know I am doing the right thing by measuring stuff out, so I pretty much talked to Dan afterwards and said... DEAL with it.

Pretty soon I will be lookin great and they won't... so :p
 
My day has gone great so far!! The eggs I had for breakfast held me over so I was not hungry until about 4:30pm... so I went grocery shopping and picked up some low calorie, low fat food items for when I was having cravings.... or just for when I need more options. I got fat free saltine crackers that are still 60 calories, but they are 0 fat. I got some reduced fat Peanut Butter- but its not THAT much better. It is 190 calories, and 11 grams of fat for 2 tbsp. It won't be too bad for days like today for me when I have very very little calories and fat. I can have a few pb cracker sandwiches. I also bought Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches that are 140 calories each, and only 1.5 grams of fat. I bought fat free chocolate pudding... 80 calories, 0 fat....and some fat free American Cheese... only 30 CALORIES, with NO fat, 3 grams of CARBS, and 4 protein per slice. AMAZING. It doesn't taste the same as regular cheese, but its a difference that I don't really mind... and will be good for me because I don't think I could give up my grilled cheese sandwiches. (I always use a calorie free pan spray instead of butter of course).

I had a grilled cheese sandwich tonight... but I decided to use white bread because that was all we had in the house, and I knew I could spare the calories. Hopefully we will get some wheat bread in the house tomorrow.

The family is cooking fettaccine alfredo with lobster for dinner. I want to stay away from the pasta, alfredo sauce, and I don't like lobster all that much... so I'm glad I made that grillled cheese when I did! lol. I should eat something again tonight because my calories are so low, so I am going to have a snack a bit later of PB and crackers.

I found this cute recipe for bananas and PB, that instead of making a sandwich or something you take an over-ripe banana and cut it in half lengthwise, spread the PB in between, put it back together, and then cut it into bite-sized slices. That sounds pretty good to me, and I don't even like banana's. haha.

I am going to watch TV for a little bit, and maybe later tonight I will add some step aerobics to my day.
 
I got about 10 to 11 hours of sleep last night! I got bored, and then next thing I knew I was asleep at 8:30pm!!! Well, I woke up around 7:30 this morning to Dan's father calling us because he needed a ride to drop off his truck to the repair shop. That repair shop is right next to the doughnut shop we know and love, so I wake up saying. "Dan, lets get doughnuts when we are out!", and before I could finish the sentence I said... "Never mind." lol. So I'm glad I stopped myself. I did however stop at Dunkin Donuts and we got a medium iced coffee with non fat milk and sweet and low, so only 34 calories... better than getting cream like I usually do. Didn't taste bad either! When I got home I still wanted some sort of food substance for breakfast so I tried a cinnamon sugar pita bread. But I made it healthy. It doesn't taste AS GOOD, but I still like it. I didn't use butter, but instead used a pan spray... and I mixed the cinnamon with sweet and low instead of sugar. And yeah.. the cannola oil spray changed the taste, but only a bit. For a 122 calorie breakfast... with a 34 calorie drink... I will deal with the taste. haha.

I have a meal plan (roughly) for the rest of the day, and snack options in case I get hungry in between. I'm ready for another great day like I had yesterday. And I am TOTALLY looking forward to my work out dvd!

And I am proud to say that Dan is doing quite well himself! He has been having some of the low-fat/calorie snacks that I bought, and chewing gum when he gets munchy at night. And for breakfast he has made sure to have eggs so it keeps him full longer. And he even got the same coffee as me this morning!
 
Ha Ha... Dunkin's coffee is non negotiable for me...

It's the one thing that you're gonna have to pry my fingers away from... I get the iced coffee, and I will take it with milk, not cream, but I just can't get around to going with skim...

sounds awesome that Dan is all into it too. You have a built in partner on this. I think sometimes that my wife an dI are sort of each other's enablers at time... :(

Luckily, being new years resolution time and all, I'm hoping that I can use this as a little bit of a launch forward again.
 
Hey good job on not getting doughnuts! I know if I were to suggest something Johnny would be like OK! Hehe, we both are going to start with our eating this week. I'm trying to get him to cut down on his slurpees though. He has to a degree, but not enough, lol. I told him maybe try for once a week! LOL

About the coffee thing, I randomly get latte's so when I do now I get it with skim milk. And lately I've been getting the gingersnap latte skim milk no whipped cream, so it's better than it would have been, but still shouldn't be getting it :p lol And not in the largest size at that!

It's good that you have a meal plan though, that always helps.
 
Hey Karl! thanks for stopping in. I really understand the enabler thing! ahah. Dan did it to me today! But in a not so poor way. I wanted to eat my tuna sandwich, and he talked me into having an icecream sandwich as well... luckily, it was a skinny cow icecream sandwich... only 140 calories, 1.5 grams of fat. Thank goodness.

I already have my dinner ready, which I will eat at 7pm... and with that I will have 1,179 calories. Since I already ate my "dessert" that i was planning on having later tonight when i got munchy... I am going to make some sugar free jello, which is only 10 calories for 1/2 cup... I can have that when I get munchy without feeling at all guilty.

I am going to do the 30 day shred at 4:30pm when Dan goes to work tonight, and then plan my day for tomorrow.
 
I tried the 30 day shred yesterday and I am sore! My body isn't used to exercise anymore :p LOL... I think the DVD is well made though compared to some I've seen.
 
Risty said:
Hey good job on not getting doughnuts! I know if I were to suggest something Johnny would be like OK! Hehe, we both are going to start with our eating this week. I'm trying to get him to cut down on his slurpees though. He has to a degree, but not enough, lol. I told him maybe try for once a week! LOL

About the coffee thing, I randomly get latte's so when I do now I get it with skim milk. And lately I've been getting the gingersnap latte skim milk no whipped cream, so it's better than it would have been, but still shouldn't be getting it :p lol And not in the largest size at that!

It's good that you have a meal plan though, that always helps.
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Gingersnap latte? That sounds amazing! I don't make an exact meal plan for myself, but rather I make a list of all the foods I CAN eat that sound good, and I pick from a list when i go to eat something. I have a list of options so I don't have to stick to one thing if my cravings change.

I was quite surprised my iced coffee tasted good with the skim milk! I have just always gotten it with cream because I started drinking coffee with my boyfriend, and he got it that way... I tried his and liked it... so I just always had it the same way. lol.
 
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