My Journey: Positive Outlook For 2013

Well, ended up not having the pastrami sub. My mom asked at the last minute if I wanted to have some chinese food with her so I accepted. I ate way to much. I thought I felt bloated earlier, ugh!! I can pretty much guarantee the number on that scale will change tomorrow, but probably in the upwards direction. Oh well, I've been doing so good with food. I'm not going to beat myself up. I'll be doing tae bo tomorrow and the treadmill over the weekend. :)
 
A treat once in awhile isn't going to hurt- as long as you keep on the right track most of the time, you'll get to where you need to be in the long run.
 
Thanks Amy, that's my way of thinking. I'm not going to completely deprive myself of my favorites. I just need to use better self control when I do get them. I knew I had way to much last night.

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Well, as I thought, the scale finally changed this morning, but it went up. I'm no longer 211.4lb, I'm at 212.4lb. I'm not too worried though. I expected this. Will be back on track with exercising tonight. :)
 
MandyH said:
I'm not too worried though. I expected this. Will be back on track with exercising tonight. :)
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Good job, Mandy! We win the the war by winning enough individual battles. Just keep grinding away at this. By the way, in your shoes, after a chinese food battle, I would hydrate, hydrate and then hydrate to remove the salt from my system.
 
Don, I've been trying to drink (4) 16.9oz bottles of water a day. Yesterday I had more than that and I've already started on my 2nd today. I feel like I'm spending more time in the bathroom than at my desk today. It's definitely working. LOL

I plan on really pushing myself tonight doing Taebo. There are some moves where they go really fast and I can usually only do 1 - 1.5 sets before giving up and jogging. Tonight my goal is to do the WHOLE thing. It's gonna burn, but I'm going for it. :)
 
Thanks Camilla! I'm doing my best to keep upbeat about this whole situation. My weight, being diagnosed with RA, etc... everything! I'm angry with myself for letting things go as far as I did, but there's certainly time to correct a few things and get to a better, healthier life. That's my ultimate goal. :)

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I did my tae bo tonight. I really pushed myself to try to keep up with them when they do their fast cardio moves. I did pretty darn good if I do say so myself. According to my watch, I burned 866 calories. There are still a few moves that I just can't seem to get. I have to be one of the most uncoordinated people on this planet. I'm still trying and I'm determined to get it eventually. Everytime I do it I can pick up a few things that I didn't notice the last time. Overall, I'm very please with my "work" so far.

I've been staying very hydrated today. So far I've had (4) 16.9oz bottles and I just opened the 5th. I've spent a good deal of time in the ladies room today as a result so hopefully I'm getting rid of a good deal of that sodium from last night's dinner. This weekend's meal plan is much healthier. Getting back on track now. :)
 
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Done today's workout on the treadmill. Unfortunately, my left ankle was acting up so I had to take it easier than normal. I walked at the 3mph for 50 minutes without an incline for about 40 minutes. My watch still says I burned 566 calories though so I'm pleased. We'll see how my ankle feels tomorrow. Not sure if I'll do anything other than rest it.
 
WOOHOOO!!!!

Persistence pays off!! Great job staying focused, Mandy! Your attitude pulled you through this slowdown.
 
Yay! Congrats on the loss!! I admire that you didn't let one slip up throw you off! It is actually really motivational for me and just what I needed to see right about now.

Have a fantastic rest of your day!

~Camila~
 
Thanks Don! After being a pesimist for so many years, I'm starting to feel really good about myself and where I'm heading. I need to stay focused to get to where I want to be. :)

Camila said:
Yay! Congrats on the loss!! I admire that you didn't let one slip up throw you off! It is actually really motivational for me and just what I needed to see right about now.

Have a fantastic rest of your day!

~Camila~
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Awww... thanks! I'm glad it's helping you out. :)

For me, the way I'm looking at it is that I was at 250lb a couple of years ago. Without really trying to lose weight (initially it was just giving up soda that kick started my weight loss) it started to come off. I'm proud and happy to have lost approximatel 40lb along the way, BUT I do know that I have many more pounds to lose. I have a long road ahead of me and I know it's not going to be smooth sailing. I'm expecting road bumps along the way, but I plan to keep on going. I can't give up now. :)

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Now I'm off.... skipping the treadmill today. I'm opting for more Taebo! :)
 
MandyH said:
Thanks Don! After being a pesimist for so many years, I'm starting to feel really good about myself and where I'm heading. I need to stay focused to get to where I want to be. :)

I'm expecting road bumps along the way, but I plan to keep on going. I can't give up now. :)
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As I've said, I believe you and I are similar in some ways.... the way we think, in particular. I am trying to teach myself to take satisfaction and generously praise myself for one thing... doing the best that I can on any given day. The battle we are engaged in is NOT with the scale, but with our former selves... the bad choices, the excesses, and the YEARS of built in habits we have to break.

I am NOT on a diet (although I have yet to find a better single word to describe what I am doing) and this is NOT a temporary detour from my old life until I lose weight, and then I can go back to doing what I was doing before. I am trying very hard to remember this is the start of my new life. Whether the scales show it or not, I am doing the right thing every single day by trying and so are you, Mandy.

I truly mean it when I say (and have said) that your attitude and approach to this is inspirational. Keep it up.
 
Don, it does sound like we're a lot alike. It's just so easy to fall into "that" way of life. You get beaten down and you just lose the interest to try to fight back. At least, that's how it was for me. Food became my comfort when nobody else was around, but no more! I also don't consider what I'm doing to be a diet, but I've never really tried to describe as one word. I just decided enoug was enough and that it was time to take care of myself better. Making better food choices, better exercise choices, better life choices, etc. Making my life and health better is what this is all about. I have zero desire to go back to the way things were, especially after seeing the progress I'm making. I'm determined to get where I want to be and I think you are too. We'll both get there. Not today or tomorrow, but we'll get there when it's our time to get there. :)

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So, yesterday when I went shopping I spotted a different Tae bo DVD. I grabbed it and tried it last night. OMG... it killed me! LOL I thought I was doing really good until I looked at my hrm watch which showed that I only burned 635 calories (my older DVD I'm usually over 800). Part of the decline was due to having to learn the new moves. Some of the moves were the same as the first DVD, but the majority were all new.

There were two things I really liked about this new DVD.

One, Billy Blanks said multiple times to go at your pace basically and if you need to stop and take a break then do it, but make sure to come back to finish when you can. In my older DVD he doesn't say that during the workout. As a newbie to tae bo, it was reassuring to have him saying that. It's kind of intimidating seeing the people on the DVD whipping through those moves while I kind of stagger along, but I know they've been at it for much longer than me so of course they'll be better.

The other thing is that he has a lot more moves in this new DVD focusing on your arms. My arms are pretty flabby so I do need to firm them up. This DVD will certainly help with that. :)

I got on the scale this morning and to my surprise, I'm up!! I weighed in at 212.4lb. I had some frozen turkey slices in gravy last night with mashed potatoes so I think the soduim intake may have been pretty elevated. I have to remember to watch sodium as well as calories! I'm sure I'll be back down again in no time so I'm fine with it. :)

I'm undecided so far if I'm going to do the treadmill or tae bo. Will see how I feel later. I am however going to try keeping a meticulous record of my calorie in take this week, and probably next week too. I really want to see how many calories I'm consuming, being as exact as I possibly can.

Anyway, sorry for such a lengthy update. I hope you all have a great Monday! :)
 
Ugh. Today started out on a such a great note! I was eating well up until this afternoon.

Here's the good part of what I ate...

8am: straberries & a little bit of cool whip (over est calories to be 115)
8:45am: strawberries & cream oatmeal (130 calories)
10:30am: granny smith apple (80 calories)
11:15: 1/2 cup cottage cheese (80 calories)
1pm: garden salad (romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber w/peel, green peppers, grilled chicken strips, 1 tbsp sliced almonds, italian robusto dressing - est calories 300)

... and then I slipped ...

cayenne pretzels (est calories 350)
attempted a whole wheat turkey sandwich w/swiss cheese - didn't like the bread so I had the turkey and cheese plain (est calories 200)

... and then I really fell ...
bag of Skittles (calories 250) I REALLY need to stay out of our breakroom at work! That vending machine taunts me!

Total calorie count thus far... 1505!!

For dinner I'll be having a spicy chicken sandwich which will run me approximately another 500 calories. I will NOT be snacking tonight. Even though my overall calorie count for today is still in the reasonable range of 2005 it's still well over what I want.

Sigh... oh well, tomorrow's another day right? Will just have to work extra hard tonight doing some tae bo!
 
I really pushed myself doing tae bo tonight. I'm so proud of myself. I finally nailed one of the moves that I've had a really hard time doing. I found it's easier for me on the complicated moves to say what I'm doing instead of counting. Usually they count to 8, but tonight I tried a different route. Instead of counting I kept saying, "knee, knee, kick, punch, punch, etc". It really helped me to get it right doing the cardio part of it. In the end I was soaked with sweat and my hrm watch says 902 calories. Not a bad night! :)
 
Good job on the exercise! Like usual, you follow an OK day with food a good workout. That's a winning behavior, Mandy. Looking at your food for the day, I didn't think it was TERRIBLE. The worst parts that I saw (from my own perspective) would probably be the sodium (pretzels and processed lunch meats) and just the volume of food being a bit high. the sugar in the candies isn't great, but I would pay a bigger price for the wheat and the salt, myself.

In any case, keep up the great efforts!



(...and stay away from the vending machine....) ;)
 
Hey Mandy - I have just read your entire diary!! You are doing pretty good! :)
I have to agree with Don - your food was not nearly as bad as you think! plus your exercise routine kicks a$$ :D
Keep it up girl!!

PS/ My husband had 4-5 cans of soda before a day - now: zero - sees lots of health benefits. For one his constant headaches are gone! & he lost about 10 lbs!
 
Don, the morning part of my meal plan was planned. It's when I had those darn pretzels that I just wanted to eat everything else in sight. Thankfully I only had two bites of the wheat bread so that won't be too damaging. Today I didn't bring any pretzels to work so I'm safe. I also didn't bring any cash so I can't get another bag of Skittles unless I ask to borrow money from someone which isn't going to happen for a stupid bag of candy! LOL

Justina, thanks for reading! Giving up soda was something I thought I'd never be able to do. I was seriously addicted to it. Just the thought of giving it up was enough for me to not even try unti l decided to do it for my health. Just doing that alone I lost probably the first 15-20lb alone with little exercise (other than walking my dogs - at their pace). I could really feel a change in my health rather quickly. I too had headaches and muscle/joint pain (which I later found out was arthritis) and everything got better quickly. The last soda I had was probably a little bit after Christmas at the mall. Didn't taste right. My taste buds changed over to water I guess. :)

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Well, I wasn't to impressed with the scale this morning. It said 213.4lb. :( I'm thinking it's probably a combination of water weight and the fact that I'm starting to put muscle on. I know I'm not putting fat back on, at least not that much! I can tell my body is changing. Mainly my thighs. I looked last night and it really hit me that they're shrinking. Still have quite a ways to go, but it's going to be a work in progress I know. I wish my stomach would start shrinking a little bit quicker though! I did finally take some measurements last night. I'd been meaning too, but just never did before now. Hopefully when I measure again tomorrow I'll have some smaller numbers. :)
More Tae bo is planned tonight. Going to try to master the other moves I'm struggling with. :)
 
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