gwal's DIARY

today's intake

up at 4am for work.

coffee with creamer 20

SNACK/BKFST:
turkey breast 117
nectarine 60

LUNCH:
soup 250
salad/drsg 45
whole wheat pretzels 60

SNACK:
shredded wheat/milk 200
coffee 20

DINNER:
lean pork chop 200
salad 80
green bean cassserole 186

SNACK:
frozen yogurt 110
coffee 20
granola 150

Total intake of calories 1518
No exercise today (impossible on call days!)

I feel pretty good about today's intake. I also did about 120oz of water, which is good because my salt intake was probably above what it should be. I'm going to try to wait until friday to weigh in. God, I hope this is working. If I really see and feel it working, I know I can stick with it for the long haul. I just have to remember how much I will love being a smaller size.
 
I awoke this am feeling slightly slimmer than my usual self, so decided to step on the scale...sure enough, I'm down 2.5 more pounds. Yay! Now I just have to keep in mind how good it felt to see that number. That will serve as my inspiration.

A very long and busy day at work prevented my frequent meals that I have been eating. I had about a 5 hour gap between my am meal and lunch. I really have to try not to do this so I don't hurt my metabolism. However, I only brought one snack with me to work, and I didn't want to buy unhealthy cafeteria food.

My calorie intake was only about 1200cal today. Not enough to maintain the metabolism I'm trying to build, so I'll be more careful tomorrow.
 
Hello again!

Hi gwal!
It looks like your food intake is good!
At our hospital, the food is great. I don't eat (go) there or work at the hospital, but I know some of the folks who run the cafeteria...It's one of the best places in town for healthy choices.
When you have a "call" day, how does that work? Do you take calls for Dr.s who are off that day in a clinic? Or do you work at the hospital for ER or something?
Crazy days sure make for crazy eating when I'm not really organized. Not a strength of mine!
Keep up your healthy eating! You are doing great!:)
Cheryl
 
today feels good.

I've had about 1400 calories, but still have another 30 oz of water to gulp down tonight. I'll get it in.

I love that clothes start to fit differently even with just 5 lbs lost. Pants are so much more comfortable when they're not quite so snug. I feel like with maybe 5 more lbs off, I'll be fitting into so much more that's already in my closet. Can't wait for that. I think at the 10lb mark, I'll buy a pair of shoes (I'm a total shoe whore...any reason for a new pair of shoes is a good reason for a new pair of shoes).
 
Hi gwal!
It looks like your food intake is good!
At our hospital, the food is great. I don't eat (go) there or work at the hospital, but I know some of the folks who run the cafeteria...It's one of the best places in town for healthy choices.
When you have a "call" day, how does that work? Do you take calls for Dr.s who are off that day in a clinic? Or do you work at the hospital for ER or something?
Crazy days sure make for crazy eating when I'm not really organized. Not a strength of mine!
Keep up your healthy eating! You are doing great!:)
Cheryl

Hey cool cat-

There are probably some healthy choices at our cafeteria, but when I get ravenously hungry, I'm not so careful. I would choose something loaded with bad carbs.

I take call for a period of 24 hours covering any calls from the nurses or family members regarding patients that I have in the hospital. We have a busy group, so I can be covering anywhere from 30 to 50 inpatients. Also, if patients come into the er and need to be admitted to the hospital, I have to take those calls...those are the ones that take awhile. It's very unpredictable, but usually busy. The other night I had a call from a patient's family at 11pm (and it was not for an emergency)! I'm thinking that I would never ask a doctor (or anyone) to return a call at that hour! That was a bad night, I had calls every hour overnight.

Luckily, today is a day off. So, I can be a bit more careful.

Keep in touch...tell me more about yourself......

Jen
 
The tally for today was about 1400 calories.

Intake:
8am-
whole wheat toast/coffee

11am-
egg white omelet/low fat cheese/hot sauce
salad/low fat honey mustard drsg

1pm-
mac and cheese (made with skim milk)

5pm-
tilapia
salad/poppyseed drsg
baked potato (small)

6:30pm-
coffee
1/2 hot cross bun
light ice cream

drank 120 oz water!

I feel good, and I pray that this is really working. I'm not craving much of anything...probably because I'm not really disallowing anything. I guess that's why I feel that this really could be a lifelong change. But it has only been a week.
 
Hey again.

Thanks for coming over to my diary.
The tip for water tracking is good. I seem to get mixed up on how much I've had, so a better system is needed!

I am a 46 yo married house mom with 2 girls, 15 & 17.
We have 2 RadioShack dealer stores for our work. I do the books at home. When the kids were small, I never sat down, but now that they are fairly independent, I sit more. I also had a herniated disc (T5, S1) that I struggled with for a year before I finally gave in and had surgery. The surgery was a total success, but I think from all the muscle spasm over such a long time I have a lot of pain in my upper back. I NEED to do exercises, but I neglect that so often!:(
Anyhow, I was skinny all my life, then I gained 50 lbs!! People don't think I'm overweight, but I hate myself in pictures. Ugh.
Time to get the weight off!!

You really eat carefully. That is so good.
Keep up the good work!:)
Cheryl
 
Lost track of calories yesterday because I went out to dinner. We went to Chili's and I ordered the guiltless chix sandwich which was okay, but I had too many chips with salsa. However, I think I was still under 1600 calories for the day. Given all the salt intake, I won't weight myself again for a couple days so I don't see all the water weight.

The great thing was that I was able to wear a pair of pants out to dinner that didn't fit me 2 weeks ago.
 
Yay!

Hey,
Excellent job for fitting into smaller pants! I'm going to try some old jeans today...
Do you get a chance to exercise, or are you on your feet enough to stay fit?
My PT gave me some great gentle exercises that really help my upper back that has a tendency to spasm. My problem is kicking myself in the butt to actually DO them!:p
Have a great week!!
Cheryl

Oh...I looked back and see on your diary that you do lots of different exercises! What are pilates like?
 
Last edited:
Hi Cheryl-

Yes, I do exercise, but I've found that I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be. I have an elliptical trainer that I use a couple times a week and we have a good set up with free weights too (my husband uses the stuff more than I do). I have a pilates dvd that is great for stretching, but I never feel like I got a great workout. My sister wants me to sign up for a pilates class with her twice a week, which I'll probably do. I cannot wait for the weather to break here so that I can get outside for walks. My daughter still loves for me to take her for walks in her stroller. But, schools were actually closed yesterday due to windchills of minus 20 degrees, so no walks for awhile!

Jen
 
Hi, thought I would stop in. Name is Steve, obviously. :)

How did you go about choosing your caloric intake?
 
Hi Steve-

Welcome to my diary. I determined that I wanted to lose about 2lbs per week (on average). At my current weight, I would be able to maintain by eating about 2700 calories per day. By decreasing that by 1700, I have decreased my weekly intake by 7000 calories (exactly what it takes to lose 2lbs of fat). I usually set a goal of documenting 1400-1500 calories with a 200-300 calorie "cushion" for my inaccuracy in measuring/nibbling/bad days.

I might actually bump my intake up a bit as I become more dedicated to my workouts.

Keep in touch,
Jen
 
Just had a great workout on the elliptical, 5 miles. I did 6 minutes at a steady pace, then 3 minutes of explosive/increased speed/increased resistance (x 4 cycles). I was sweating my ass off, but felt good. I was still sore from an hour of advanced pilates yesterday, so I'm happy to have gotten through it.

I'm becoming more committed to the working out, even though I still don't love it.

Just under 4 weeks til my 35th birthday. I'd love to celebrate it by being 10 lbs lighter.
 
Haven't weighed myself in a couple days, but I've been pretty good with my calorie targets and my workouts. I find that weighing myself hurts me. If I have a bad weigh-in, I'm convinced nothing is working and I get discouraged. If I have a good weigh-in, I become less strict with myself. I think this is why I've been losing the same ten pounds for the past 10 years.
 
so damn proud of myself....

After only 3 hours of sleep last night, I could have chosen to turn in early and skip the workout, but instead, I did five 6-minute miles on the elliptical and I feel great.

Someone once told me that if you've planned a workout, and you really don't feel like doing it, do the first 10 minutes. If after the first 10 minutes, you still don't feel like doing it, it's okay to stop. But the majority of the time, the endorphins will have started to kick in and you'll want to finish. It's so true!
 
That's great!

I'm so totally impressed with your determination!
I haven't posted for awhile. I'm like you are about getting on the scale. I'm either elated or depressed by the number. I know I should maybe weigh in once a week, but I'm kind of compulsive about it every morning.

I hope you have a good day.
Cheryl
 
Hey Cheryl-
I am definitely an every-day weigher by nature too. But I am trying hard to break that habit. I'm trying to remember that it's less about the number and more about body composition. I guess I don't care how much the scale number changes as long as the number on my clothing tags change...boy I'd love to see single digits there!

I am so sore today. I went running yesterday for the first time in a long time because the weather here in Buffalo was actually pretty nice (almost 60 degrees)...which isn't all that bad when you take into account that it will snow again this weekend.

My dietary discipline was a bit off today, but I'm not going to get too upset about it. I could sell off the whole day and drown my guilt in chocolate, but instead, I'm not going to eat for the rest of the night. I'm learning to take things hour by hour rather than day by day.

jen
 
so damn proud of myself....

After only 3 hours of sleep last night, I could have chosen to turn in early and skip the workout, but instead, I did five 6-minute miles on the elliptical and I feel great.

Someone once told me that if you've planned a workout, and you really don't feel like doing it, do the first 10 minutes. If after the first 10 minutes, you still don't feel like doing it, it's okay to stop. But the majority of the time, the endorphins will have started to kick in and you'll want to finish. It's so true!

I love this idea! I will have to try it since there are definitely some days where I have all the intentions of really doing a GREAT work out, then get home from work & just reallly don't feel like doing much.

Good luck with your loss... sounds like you are on the right track & really understand how it all works.

I completely understand about the joy of seeing the small changes on the scale.. that pound lost can be enough to keep me going on track for the next few days!
 
pride

I had a million reasons not to work out today. I'm still sore from Monday's workout...I'm on call today (posing the threat of interruption)...I've been up since 4am and I'm tired...my sister invited me to go out to dinner...the list goes on.

Instead, I decided to do it anyway. I told myself I would do 20 minutes of cardio, but I exceeded my own ecpectations of myself and I did 5 miles in 30 minutes on the elliptical, burned over 200 calories, and now I have a million reasons to be happy with myself....
1. I didn't disappoint myself like so many times in the past
2. I got to blast my music and sing right out loud (no one else is home right now)
3. I got past some hunger
4. I got the blood flowing to my sore muscles...now they're warm and comfortable
5. I'm not tired anymore
6. I'm going to go to bed tonight thinking positive thoughts about my efforts to lose weight instead of the usual dwelling on the negative stuff.
7. the list goes on.......

Yay, me!!!!!!!
 
You rock!

How great to have success over the draggy feeling that keeps us from exercising sometimes!

Keep on keeping on!:)
Cheryl
 
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