Heather's Healthy Beginnings

great job hun. you sure rocked it on the treadmill. I too am trying to work up to jogging for longer than i can now. my record has been 15 minutes at a speed of 4.7 but cause ive been ill lately when i get back to the gym i'll prob only be able to manage 5-10.

hope you are having a good night :)
 
Good job on getting to the gym and having such a fabulous calorie count for the day! Sounds like things are going very well for you.

Also, I totally hear you about the cleaning. I'd like to be able to keep my apartment habitable for longer than a week at a time...but it's rough, man.
 
Hello and good Friday evening everyone! My busy social life allows me the privilege of posting at 8:15 on a Friday night. Le sigh. . . .that's what happens when you get engaged, I suppose!! :rotflmao: No I actually am glad to be in tonight - I got another chore accomplished today which made me happy - I'm on a roll!! Cleaned the ferret cage which I despise. Natalie, to answer your question I have a cat as well as a ferret. They're our "kids" for now and they certainly can be a handful! I love having pets though, it's so much fun. Right now my cat (Oreo) is traipsing along my desk trying to attack various objects on it. Ozzy the ferret quite enjoyed her little adventure out of the cage today while I cleaned her. Watching her and the cat run around with each other is simply hilarious. What a pair. . . .

Snookums - thanks for the treadmill encouragement! I'm kinda letting it easy this week, and next week maybe I'll up the anty and try for 5 mins slow jog at 4.5 and 5 walk at 3.5. . . .we'll see. I really enjoy getting back to the gym though. It feels so cleansing!! Plus it starts my day off on the right note. I'm actually gonna get up at my same 5:45 am time tomorrow (because apparently I'm that much of a loser with nothing better to do) because I want to get my workout in before I drive the fiance to work and do some grocery shopping. Dear God I sound like an old lady!! Sunday will be my day of rest, though.

JW - TOTALLY hear you on the apartment becoming a disaster. I'm resolved to this one chore a day, though. I am going to start being a cleaner person if it kills me! (Which it very well might! :p) Plus I figure it helps with calorie burning as well, because light household chores always help increase your activity level.

So. . . .today was another good day. Work went well and I got to the gym again this morning. I find that it actually makes my day start BETTER to go to the gym in the morning because I can just kinda begin on that sweaty energized note and it feels good. I used to listen to podcasts of one of the morning shows in my area (I swear if you haven't tried it, check out the FREE podcasts of Preston and Steve morning show. It's worth it. I'm addicted.), but I've started utilizing my 'workout' playlist which actually really helps because then I get kinda energized to work out harder. It's great to listen to the morning show because it makes me laugh, but at 6AM I need a little more motivation than just laughter. I need something loud blaring in my ears.

Here's breakdown of today's nutrition. . . . kinda a little higher on the calorie count, but still within my range.

Calories: 1711
Carbs: 246
Fat: 28
Protein: 80
Sodium: 1638

I gotta say - eliminating the pretzels was the BEST THING I COULD HAVE DONE!!! Instead of pretzels, I ate triscuits today for my snack. Still some salty goodness, but WAYYYY lower in sodium than pretzels. I'm kinda getting tired of the same thing for lunch, but I do find that I enjoy the wrap idea I came up with last Sunday, so I'm going to do some hunting at the grocery store for a lower cal wrap and make some spicy chicken for fajitas this week. Also discovered that when I put sour cream on my wrap (lo fat) I can have the same creamy effect as putting shredded cheese with less than HALF the calories. Salsa is my best friend, too.

So it's kinda jumping the gun, as I don't want to count my weight until this coming Monday, but it looks like I've made 5lbs. I attribute this TOTALLY to the stomach virus I had last weekend, as I've only been counting calories for a few days and exercising for two. But it's still a nice platform to jump from and kick start my weight loss!

Didn't call the nutritionist today. . . .oops! Gotta make that a priority on Monday.

Happy Friday everyone. :)
 
Fajitas are lovely. A veggielicious stirfry in a wrap can also be wonderful and very healthy.

I'm glad the gym's been so good to you, and that the scale's been correspondingly kind!

Sophie
 
Good Saturday afternoon!

So I'm posting early today because I'm gonna be going out to the future father in-law's tonight and won't have access to a computer. It's been a busy day so far, but I got up early this morning and did my gym thang again and ran an extra minute longer than I have been. Again, tiny achievement, but I'm celebrating all my tiny achievements because they are what makes big change!! So far I've dropped the fiance off at work, grocery shopped, put away the groceries and cleaned the bathroom which I HATE. But that was my household chore for the day. Now I'm gonna relax for a bit, have some lunch and maybe play a video game or two. (Yes, I'm a girl who likes video games. :blush5:)

I think I'm gonna make my weigh day Sunday because that's the day that I don't go to the gym. When I get up to go to the gym, it's pre-coffee in which basically everything is rocket science and I usually always forget to weigh myself. So Sunday will be my official weigh-in and any other day of the week is just extra.

Also I'm starting to put little stickers on my calendar for days that I go to the gym. I hope to have the whoooole thing full of stickers by the end of the month. ;)

No calorie count for this post because I haven't even had lunch yet. :) I'm a little concerned for tonight as I'm gonna be in a place where I don't have control of what is served to me, but I'm gonna do my best and make do, and NOT STRESS ABOUT IT. I've spent too long obsessing over food, and if I go over my calories for a day, it's not gonna make or break me. Done with the distorted eating am I. Well, ok, not done with it - I'm still battling it, but I'm making a conscious effort to limit my distorted thinking and increase the positive thoughts and motivations.

Have a relaxing Saturday, everyone!
 
Back from the future father in-law's! Fun time, although I have to say there's a weird vibe in that house. I'm not usually someone who gets all uppity about the "vibe" of a place, but I definitely get nervous and tense after being there for more than 12 hours. And it has nothing to do with my future father in-law because I LOVE him. I've known my fiance and his family since we were 7 years old, there's no problem there. It's just being in that house. I dunno. I like everyone that's there, too, but I just get a strange feeling when I've been there for a while. I think there may be some issues between him and his fiancee as well, but whatever. Not my business, so let it be.

So despite the fact that I had every temptation this weekend, I did pretty darn well! There was all kinds of beer/alcohol offered, and I had my two glasses of red wine. Dinner came complete with bread basket and cheese plate which I ignored and focused on the veggie tray. I only had half of my lasagna because it was literally the biggest piece of lasagna I've ever seen, then had some extra salad. Then today when we stopped for lunch, we stopped at Applebee's and I had one of the items from their WW menu - grilled tilapia with salsa and rice. DELICIOUS. I couldn't even finish the whole thing either. I also had three of the boneless buffalo wings, but kept it at three and no more. THAT was major temptation. For some reason when I tried that fried chicken piece with the bleu cheese sauce, the "BINGE!!! BINGE!!!" sign went off in my head. Not so good. But all in all, I think I did pretty well in controlling my portions in the face of not having that much healthy to eat. Could have done better, but I hate saying no to a host (ie. when Nick [future father-in-law] said he was making french toast for breakfast). I had a tiny piece, and one of the tiny ground pork patties he made, and then had a banana and strawberries for the rest of my breakfast.

So here's the calorie total for yesterday:

Calories - 1785 (still 5 under my max as per SparkPeople's calculations)
Carbs - 219
Fat - 48
Protein - 74
Sodium - 2509

One thing I find surprising is the amount of fat in my diet. It is REALLY low! I mean, I think I've been over my low-end of the fat amount I'm supposed to have once since I started counting calories. Now who knows if this is what everyone's calorie content is supposed to be, but I tend to trust SparkPeople and what they put forth, so I have no reason to not believe them.

So far I'm at 1360 for the day today. I'm still kinda full from lunch so I think I'll have the rest of my tilapia for dinner and maybe a little bit of couscous from the other night's dinner and hopefully finish out around 1600 calories.

Can't believe it's back to work tomorrow. Le sigh. This weekend went by really quickly!! But, that means I can get back to the gym. Feel like it's been FOREVER since I was there!
 
heathercb04 said:
Back from the future father in-law's! Fun time, although I have to say there's a weird vibe in that house. I'm not usually someone who gets all uppity about the "vibe" of a place, but I definitely get nervous and tense after being there for more than 12 hours. And it has nothing to do with my future father in-law because I LOVE him. I've known my fiance and his family since we were 7 years old, there's no problem there. It's just being in that house. I dunno. I like everyone that's there, too, but I just get a strange feeling when I've been there for a while. I think there may be some issues between him and his fiancee as well, but whatever. Not my business, so let it be.

So despite the fact that I had every temptation this weekend, I did pretty darn well! There was all kinds of beer/alcohol offered, and I had my two glasses of red wine. Dinner came complete with bread basket and cheese plate which I ignored and focused on the veggie tray. I only had half of my lasagna because it was literally the biggest piece of lasagna I've ever seen, then had some extra salad. Then today when we stopped for lunch, we stopped at Applebee's and I had one of the items from their WW menu - grilled tilapia with salsa and rice. DELICIOUS. I couldn't even finish the whole thing either. I also had three of the boneless buffalo wings, but kept it at three and no more. THAT was major temptation. For some reason when I tried that fried chicken piece with the bleu cheese sauce, the "BINGE!!! BINGE!!!" sign went off in my head. Not so good. But all in all, I think I did pretty well in controlling my portions in the face of not having that much healthy to eat. Could have done better, but I hate saying no to a host (ie. when Nick [future father-in-law] said he was making french toast for breakfast). I had a tiny piece, and one of the tiny ground pork patties he made, and then had a banana and strawberries for the rest of my breakfast.

So here's the calorie total for yesterday:

Calories - 1785 (still 5 under my max as per SparkPeople's calculations)
Carbs - 219
Fat - 48
Protein - 74
Sodium - 2509

One thing I find surprising is the amount of fat in my diet. It is REALLY low! I mean, I think I've been over my low-end of the fat amount I'm supposed to have once since I started counting calories. Now who knows if this is what everyone's calorie content is supposed to be, but I tend to trust SparkPeople and what they put forth, so I have no reason to not believe them.

So far I'm at 1360 for the day today. I'm still kinda full from lunch so I think I'll have the rest of my tilapia for dinner and maybe a little bit of couscous from the other night's dinner and hopefully finish out around 1600 calories.

Can't believe it's back to work tomorrow. Le sigh. This weekend went by really quickly!! But, that means I can get back to the gym. Feel like it's been FOREVER since I was there!
Click to expand...

Pretty good with the Calories Heather!! Is the weekend already over! ugh. Well my mom and step father are off tomorrow, so one of these days I am going hiking in the woods... it will be lovely lol

So two glasses of red wine is good! You did awesome with all that temptation... :)

Awesome!!

Keep going girly!! :party:

always
natalie jo
 
Hey all!

So I have some confessions to make. First is I went wayyy over my calories yesterday. Second is the main reason I went over them is the fiance and I decided it would be a fun night to get a wee bit tipsy and drank beer together. Then of course once I had a few in me, I decide I'm hungry and it's a great time for slices of cheddar cheese on triscuits! Lovely. But hangover headache and all I went to the gym this morning and forced myself to bust it on the treadmill, so at least there's that. Info from yesterday:

Calories: 2198 (oh lord why?!?!)
Carbs: 179
Fat: 68
Protein: 97
Sodium: 2208

All in all, luckily for me it wasn't a TERRIBLE day. The rest of my values aren't too too bad, although my fat was way way higher than normal. That stupid beer, though. I need to just stop drinking the crap, but I LOVE IT. Seriously, I love beer. I'm a beer snob, we always buy new fancy micro brew stuff and I love trying new beer. Maybe I can convince the boy to just buy sixers for himself, and then if I want to join in, I'll get some red wine for myself. I dunno. It just sits in the fridge all tempting and delicious. I don't even like other alcohol that much - if I just stopped drinking beer, I'd probably not drink at all. Bah. Or maybe let myself have some once or twice a month, and just ask the boy to not buy extra for me anymore. That's what I'll do.

Well today was much better. Values for today:

Calories: 1553
Carbs: 215
Fat: 36
Protein: 75
Sodium: 1356

I think the sodium is wrong because I cooked a recipe tonight (which was absolutely AMAZING, by the way) that didn't have the sodium value for it and it included pasta and turkey sausage. So I'm pretty sure you can probably add 700-1000 extra, but it's ok.

AND. . . .ANNOUNCEMENT!!! I have OFFICIALLY lost 5lbs :party:

Again, not huge achievement, but what the heck. It's 5lbs closer to a wedding dress under size 20!!! Gotta update my ticker now, which is super exciting.

Joined two challenges on the forum - the summer solstice and the march 7lb challenge. Excited about that, because challenges always help give me the little extra oomph I need. Things are looking good. :) Except yesterday, but that's ok.

I thought I had lost the nutritionist's number but found it after I got home today (of course after 5) so I'll be SURE and call her tomorrow.

Friend of mine might visit this weekend who has been on a gym kick too, so maybe we can be gym buddies for the weekend. :) I'm so lame.

Anyway hope everyone had a good Monday!!
 
Goodmorning everyone!

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday - not sure why I forgot. BUT here's yesterday's values:

Calories: 1711
Carbs: 220
Fat: 32
Protein: 71
Sodium: 1448

Again, sodium is probably wrong because I ate leftovers of my pasta and turkey sausage creation.

I've decided to start and try to incorporate weight lifting into my workout routine. I'm gonna do it maybe three times a week. This means less on the cardio end, but that's ok as I know weight training is just as important. I unfortunately don't have an hour and a half to spend at the gym in the morning unless I want to get up at 5am! So starting next week maybe Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I'll do it. I think I'm gonna still use the treadmill for maybe 10 minutes or so, then spend one day on legs and one day on arms, then on Saturday I'm gonna spend a longer period of time at the gym since I have the time, and do a full cardio set and then some light legs and arms. Gotta start incorporating ab work as well. Don't know when I'll fit that in, but I'll figure it out.

Scale this morning said 209!!! But I'm not counting it until Sunday which is weigh day.

Called the nutritionist yesterday and got a call back - unfortunately she doesn't accept insurance and is INSANELY EXPENSIVE. Like I'm talking $110-180 an HOUR!!! Sooo. . . .she gave me some options though which is really good. My insurance company apparently got together a list of nutritionists that they work with and you can get six free sessions. So I'm pretty psyched about this. Gotta look into that after work today. I'm kinda dissapointed only because this nutritionist I spoke with specializes in people who have distorted eating issues, which I think could help me a lot. So maybe I'll be able to find someone similar through my insurance company. Insurance sucks. Oh well! I'll figure something out. Even if I can't get someone who specializes, I'm still talking about it with my therapist, so that will help.

OK well I oughta get my day started. Stayed home this morning - the joys of being a home care nurse is that I can choose when I go into the office, and can do work from home as well. So this morning I've been doing some computer stuff and making phone calls. Gotta go to the doctor's for a stupid rash on my hands that just keeps coming back, then I'll finish up my day.

Happy Wednesday all!
 
I didnt' know you were a nurse! I'm in school for my LPN, going for my RN after that.

Good job on your unofficial weight loss!!!

Thats a crazy price for a nutritionalist!! I can't believe she gets much business. Good luck with getting a new one ! Hope it works out well for you :D
 
Hey, excellent resolution with the strength training. I hope you see some good results! It sounds like you're seeing them already, though--six pounds is fantastic. Isn't it silly how hard it is to wait for weigh-in day to decide how much you've "officially" lost?

Sophie
 
'Evening all :waving:

Newbride, thanks so much for swinging by!! Indeed I am a nurse, so if you ever have nursey questions don't hesitate to ask!! It's a great profession, I'm coming up on my 4th anniversary as an RN. Good for you for getting into it!! Good luck with classes and such too, nursing school can be a pain.

JW - it's totally frustrating to not count today's weight on my ticker! But I know from experience that weighing yourself every day just doesn't cut it. . . .my weight would fluctuate so much it was crazy. Then again, it was when I was in essence starving myself, so that really messes you up with water weight, etc. SO now I'm hoping for a slower, more consistent loss!!

We're FINALLY beer-free in the apartment. I bought a bottle of red wine for myself in the case that I ever want to have a drink or two with the boytoy. But other than that, I'm staying away from the stuff. I dunno, I'm overly paranoid about my alcohol intake anyway because alcoholism runs rampant in my family (and I just had to deal with my dad nearly drinking himself to death). So every time I drink, I'm paranoid, even though that usually translates into about 3 times a week at 1-2 drinks per time. I guess maybe I could just stop altogether. . . .which I've thought about. I dunno. That's another discussion for another day and not really pertaining to my weight loss journey.

Anyway, told the fiance about my limited beer plan which he said made him sad, hahaha. But it was just adding unbelievable amounts of calories onto my daily intake and I'd rather fill those calories with something yummy and good for me. We then talked briefly because he gets all paranoid when I say I want to lose weight - his sister was anorexic to the point where she had to be institutionalized. Therefore, he gets really nervous when he hears me say it and consistently tells me how pretty he thinks I am and how I don't need to lose weight to be beautiful. He's great. :) But I reinforced that I'm talking about it with the therapist and I'm working hard to make it a positive change for my health rather than an obsessive battle with the scale. Think that helped his fears a little bit.

Sooooo. . . . .here's today's totals.

Calories: 1412
Carbs: 188
Fat: 30
Protein: 79
Sodium: 1483

Got lazy today and didn't do one of my daily chores. I should get back into that. I was doing so well!! The apartment looks all pretty and clean. :) The dishes are always done now, though, which I pat myself on the back for. And I am consistently cooking meals for us at night so we don't order out. I should take a look again at my goal list and figure out another goal I can work on. I've really got the cooking thing down. I'm going to the store almost every weekend to do major/minor shopping and I'm trying to find recipes that are good for us that I can cook. Getting some good stuff from SparkPeople (I know I sound like an ad for that site, but it's seriously the most awesome resource out there for calorie and nutrition tracking and lo-fat recipes) and tonight I made "Beefy Noodles". Yummy! I've made pasta based dishes for the last two times I've cooked, though. Next time I think I'm going to make "Chicken and Couscous Skillet". Yumyumyum.

Hope everyone has a good night!
 
So just a really quick note, but I had to say that I was going through my goals that seemed so overwhelming when I wrote them back in mid-February. . . .and I have ACCOMPLISHED a lot of them!!! I'm getting up to go to the gym in the morning. I'm eating 5-6 times a day. I'm making my lunch every day. I'm cooking dinner at home every night. I'm gymming 6 out of 7 days a week.

That's AMAZING. To think how insurmountable those simple things seemed when I wrote them just three weeks ago, and I was able to incorporate them into my daily routine!

New goal: MAINTAIN old goals. Hahaha. That's the trick, isn't it? Well, that's why I putz around on the forum for an hour a day!! Remind myself why I'm doing this. :)
 
Heather, that's so awesome to feel like your plan is really working and doable and like it isn't nearly as hard as you thought it would be! I think we started this at around the same time, and I'm feeling similarly. I still get scared sometimes--I think, "Will I never be able to eat 'normally' again?" But then when I think about it, it wasn't my "normal" eating that was getting me in trouble, it was my binging. And as long as I have good, healthy snacks around me, I'm just as happy to put those in my mouth instead. Sure, at times I'll have splurge meals, but not too often. The habits I'm afraid of losing aren't the ones that made me happy, they're the ones that didn't--the compulsiveness and eating even of food I didn't particularly like. It's just my emotions that are still not quite in gear, but they're going to be, I swear it.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I completely understand how you feel. We're doing amazing things!
 
It's almost Friday!!!

What a week. . . .I love my job but sometimes I'm just ready for the weekend. I have to have tough conversations with my patients sometimes, and today was definitely one of those days. Le sigh. I think in nursing you either are physically exhausted at the end of your day or mentally exhausted. Well, that's not true, but sometimes it feels that way. In the hospital it was physically exhausting. In home hospice it's mentally exhausting.

So tonight is gonna be a short entry because I'm drowning my sorrows in TV. It's Lost night!! I wish I could find a Lost buddy to watch the show with because I just got into it this season and I looooove it!!!

Totals for today:

Calories: 1396 (holy crap!!)
Carbs: 181
Fat: 33
Protein: 65
Sodium: 1446

I jogged for 10 minutes on the treadmill today!!! Granted, not all at once but I did a five minute jog then a five minute walk then another five minute jog. Sad to think I used to be able to jog for like 15 minutes straight, but I'll get there again.

ANnnnnnd. . . .the scale is sticking solid at 209! So I'm hopeful by weigh-in Sunday, I'll be down to 208 and I can put some more on my ticker :-D

I also think I should probably change my weight on SparkPeople every 5lbs, just because I don't know at what point they consider changing your values around. Wanna keep on track!

OH! The boy apparently wants to start coming to the gym with me in the morning. While I am hopeful that this will be the case, I'm not banking on it as he hates the gym and he hates getting up early. We'll see. Looks like I'm becoming a good influence, though. :)

Hope everyone has a good night!
 
Hi Heather, I'm new and I just learned that we are team mates in the "Summer Solstice Challenge" I can't wait for next weeks weigh in, we are going to kick butt! As for running on the treadmill, even if you only do 1 min run and 4 min jog, that's great cause it will turn around in no time and you will be running 15 min straight again. Good luck Talk to you soon! Go Blue
:cheers2:
 
Happy Saturday, everyone!

Skipped out on the forum last night. . . .don't know why I forgot, but I will say that by the time I wanted to pop on, I discovered that my laptop had died. Screen contrast is completely messed up. It's so dark that it almost looks like it's off. After talking to several tech savvy friends, it was determined that it was either the backlight for my screen or the "inducer". After trying to fix it for a while, I decided that I would probably just end up needing a new computer anyway so I searched online with the fiance and he built me a super cool looking new desktop which we bought right then and there. Scary, spending $1400 that I didn't expect to spend. Ugh. But. . . .soon I'll be typing away from a new shiny computer! Luckily we were able to hook up the monitor from the fiance's computer and I can transfer all of my files from my hard drive to my external HD then I'll transfer that back to the new computer when I get it. Stupid POS laptop!!

SO. . . .on the fitness front, I've successfully completed two weeks at the gym 6 out of 7 days! I'm now consistently at 208.5, but I'll hold off till Sunday for weigh day. Bought some veggies at the grocery store today so I'm gonna make some veggie stir fry for lunch. YUM.

Stats from yesterday:

Calories: 1681
Carbs: 213
Fat: 35
Protein: 68
Sodium: 1793

At the gym this morning I started doing some weight training and ab work for the first time. I like lifting, actually. I enjoy running on the treadmill, but it certainly does get boring. Weight lifting satisfies the small ADHD part of me, and keeps me occupied with different stuff. So I'm thinking I'll start doing this 2-3 times a week, and see how it goes. I'm starting to have some semblance of endurance as well! I can now jog for a good 2 1/2 minutes out of my 5 minute intervals without staring at the counter wishing it would move faster. The speed I'm going at is starting to feel a bit slow as well. I'm hesitant to move it up until I build up my endurance a little bit more, but maybe in a week's time I'll be up to 4.6 or 4.7!

So with the rest of the day I have to pay some bills, do laundry and maybe get a haircut. What an exciting Saturday. . . .Although tonight is girls night with some friends, so that should be a good time. Just gotta watch the alcohol intake. Don't want to kill my calories for a stupid drink!
 
Elda thanks so much for swinging by!! I am POSITIVE we are going to kick some butt in the Summer Solstice challenge! This definitely helps my motivation as I don't wanna be the one to get booted! :p

Gotta run for now, but I'll be sure to swing by your way this afternoon after I finish some chores :) Thanks for the positive encouragement on the running! It's slow, but my endurance is slowly building.

Have a great weekend!
 
Hey, congratulations on your excellent gym-going record! And I hope your weigh-in tomorrow is right where you want it to be. I too find a weird satisfaction in the strength stuff because it's like...I don't know, dance lessons or something. Like trying to perfect a move and, as you say, your brain is really engaged in getting that done. I'm having a rest day today and feeling a bit pouty, but I'll probably do some yoga, and that will be good.

Oh, yeah, and clean my own darned kitchen. *does not want*

Sophie
 
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