My Summer Weight-loss Diary

Thanks for the compliments, guys!!
I promise, the muffin is there.... haha. xD
That was first thing in the morning, after all. It gets worse after I eat and drink!

I guess maybe I am leaner than I may give myself credit for sometimes, but that's probably because half the women in my family and a lot of my friends are Asian and very, very short and tiny, and I used to be (thin, not short!), so now I feel quite large in comparison!
And I don't know my precise body fat %, because all I have is a digital scale that measure it, and I assume it's not quite accurate. But I do know that about four years ago, it said I was 12-13%, and now it's more around 22-24%, so I know I can shoot for a lower number, regardless of how accurate it actually is.

Thanks for the info on the nuts!!
I know they're high in calories. That's actually why I eat them! (Other than the fact that they're tasty, of course.)
I have a hard time eating enough calories most days, and especially get hardly any fat, so nuts are a great way to do that.
I just need to be a little bit more particular about it, I think.
Maybe I'll look around to see if I can find info on how many calories per single almond/peanut/cashew, etc, then count them out ahead of time or something.

edittttt: Did a bit of research, and it seems that, on average, one peanut has 6 calories, one almond has 7, one cashew 9, and one macadamia nut 16. Hummm.
 
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WHERES YOUR TUMMY ?! ahaha, you already look fantastic!!
I too love nuts and seeds like crazy!!! We always have a bowl of mixed nuts on the table, and I used to eat them cause i thought well... they're healthy so might as well! It was weird though, cause even if I exercised and stuff I wasnt losing any weight. But then I took note of the calories, and I stopped eating nuts altogether, and I dropped a bit of weight! BUT THEIR SO DELICIOUS!!!! Ugh, I hate moderation... Why cant we just eat eat and eat?!!

Anyways all of this nonsense to sayyyy.... you go girl! I'm sure by just doing what you're doing you'll be able to reach your goal in no time!
 
Your body is soooo lean! You look great already! I don't see a muffin top but having those old capris are great motivation! I only kept 2 pairs of my old jeans which I really regret because I got rid of sooo many bottoms that I would fit into now. It's nice to be able to fit back into old clothes. Even nicer when they start to get a little baggy! Keep up the good work, you look amazing!!
 
Hana, you look fantastic. Like others I don't see muffin either.

RE: nuts, I usually only have almonds, and fitday measures each kernel- 1oz is 22 kernals and it is 164 cal. I am sure they have the same for walnuts, cashews and other nuts. You should check it out.

You are doing so well. Have a wonderful weekend!!
 
You guuuuuyyys, I promise, the pictures are misleading! My stomach looks horrible and sticks out of those capris, really truly. And if my body is lean already, it's not thanks to anything I've done- my eating habits in the past has been so crap. xD But thanks so much for the compliments, anyway! I really do appreciate it. <3


amsterdam said:
I too love nuts and seeds like crazy!!! We always have a bowl of mixed nuts on the table, and I used to eat them cause i thought well... they're healthy so might as well! It was weird though, cause even if I exercised and stuff I wasnt losing any weight. But then I took note of the calories, and I stopped eating nuts altogether, and I dropped a bit of weight! BUT THEIR SO DELICIOUS!!!! Ugh, I hate moderation... Why cant we just eat eat and eat?!!
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lol, I hear you!! I don't think I'd be able to stop eating them altogether...nuts in the evening as a snack has been a habit for so long! You are stronger than I am. xD

skkroll said:
Your body is soooo lean! You look great already! I don't see a muffin top but having those old capris are great motivation! I only kept 2 pairs of my old jeans which I really regret because I got rid of sooo many bottoms that I would fit into now. It's nice to be able to fit back into old clothes. Even nicer when they start to get a little baggy! Keep up the good work, you look amazing!!
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Thanks! Yeah, I look forward to seeing them get looser over time, both to fit into them comfortably enough to wear and to keep track of progress!

juni said:
Hana, you look fantastic. Like others I don't see muffin either.

RE: nuts, I usually only have almonds, and fitday measures each kernel- 1oz is 22 kernals and it is 164 cal. I am sure they have the same for walnuts, cashews and other nuts. You should check it out.

You are doing so well. Have a wonderful weekend!!
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I will check that out, thanks!!

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So, re: the nut issue, I went ahead and divided up my tin of mixed nuts into what I estimated to be roughly 100 calories portions, so that I can easily keep track. Although I won't say I wasn't disappointed by how small those portions turned out to be... lol

But despite taking that step and having an AWESOME workout- ran 5k in intervals, did a total upper body strength workout, and then ellipticized for 20 more minutes- I ended up binging in the evening. >< Had 4 apples and 2 sandwiches extra, so about 800 calories over, putting my total at around 1800-2000. I'm trying to look at that like, it's still a bit below what I'd calculate as my maintenance at my current weight, so it should still result in the smallest of deficits, even if I feel overly stuffed a bit this morning still.

Anyway, going to try and balance things out a bit today, eat close to the bottom of my calorie range as possible and do a bit extra cardio. Got to weigh in in 2 days, after all, and I don't want it artificially high because of overdoing it again!

On a side note- there are 2 Y's near my house, and I'd never been to the one a bit further away until this summer, but it turns out they have a really nice locker room! So that was fun, taking a shower there yesterday. xD
 
I wish when I binged it was on apples and sandwiches instead of chips and tarts! Really I think you are doing great and I wouldn't call yesterday's eating a binge - just a higher calorie day but you busted it at the gym so really I think it evened out! You are a huge motivation here so keep up the excellent work!
 
chubbygirl said:
I wish when I binged it was on apples and sandwiches instead of chips and tarts! Really I think you are doing great and I wouldn't call yesterday's eating a binge - just a higher calorie day but you busted it at the gym so really I think it evened out! You are a huge motivation here so keep up the excellent work!
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Thank you so much for that!! Makes me feel really good and very encouraged. :)
I do count myself lucky that I grew up in a family that LOVES vegetables and just never really had junk food, so I honestly don't tend to crave it or think it eat it most of the time!
You're right- it really wasn't all that bad. Thanks again!

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Updating in the evening again for once.

Today was very different... I woke up feeling okay, had coffee and everything, but once I got to the gym, my stomach started hurting, halfway stomach-ache-like and halfway cramps-like, especially when I went at higher intensity. So I ended up working out less than usual and a bit easier, no weights. And the stomach ache continued throughout the morning, so I ended up just sipping as much juice as I could between feeling too bad to consume anything.

Luckily, I felt better by the time I got off work in the evening and had a can of tuna and a bunch of broccoli for dinner, and I'll probably have my regular snack, as well. So looking at around only 1000 calories...

Is that okay, I wonder? I'm partly glad that overeating yesterday as much as I did really did make me feel bad enough to not eat as much today, but at the same time, I really hope not having very much doesn't make me overly hungry and prone to slip up tomorrow!

I'm also just exhausted. Since I've been putting on a science camp in the mornings and working nanny-ing in the evening, getting up at 4/5 in the morning to workout... very tiring. Luckily, I can sleep in tomorrow! :)
 
I've had a stomach ache when working out before. It really blows because you know if there's pain there's something wrong, but then this may be the only time in the day you get to work out. Is it common ? or was it just today? I hope it doesn't happen to you again.

Feeling good about your eating habits is a good thing! You're focus is much more on health rather than numbers, in reality that's what this is all about.

Oh man I wish I had your determination to wake up at 4-5 in the morning :O! Go you!
 
Penguinita said:
I've had a stomach ache when working out before. It really blows because you know if there's pain there's something wrong, but then this may be the only time in the day you get to work out. Is it common ? or was it just today? I hope it doesn't happen to you again.

Feeling good about your eating habits is a good thing! You're focus is much more on health rather than numbers, in reality that's what this is all about.

Oh man I wish I had your determination to wake up at 4-5 in the morning :O! Go you!
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It's not really common anymore, per se- I know it was because of the massive amount (compared to my normal, small meals) of food I consumed late the night before, coupled with getting up earlier than usual so not having as much time to sleep it off. It used to happen all the time, every time after I binged. No fun. :/
Thanks very much for the encouragement!! :)

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Well, my weigh-in is technically tomorrow, the 6th, but I thought I'd check up today as well, start doing all my weight checks over 2 days to at least get some sort of average. Disappointment- back up to 61.8 kg! A whole kg more than 5 days ago! HOWEVER, I also did measurements, and my waist is certainly heading even closer to 26 inches, so I must be losing something, right?

I've gotta admit, it's getting frustrating, this whole slow-and-steady diet thing. In all my past diets, I wouldn't have been satisfied with anything less than .5 kg A DAY. And of course, I did gain it back a lot of times...but there were also times (like the past 6 months) where I ended up with a serious downward trend in the end! And yes, it probably didn't do anything for my body composition except make it worse, but at least I got results faster! Goodness, I am just impatient, I guess. ><

Does anyone else ever get frustrated with this? How do I stop feeling bad about it?

Aaaanyway, plan for the day: cardio for ~60 minutes, then legs for strength, and yoga in the evening! (I bought the DVD I was borrowing from the library, I love it so much xD) Food...I guess I'll still be shooting for 1300-1600 calories!
 
Don't worry Hanabi, I'm impatient as well and I really wish I could get the results I did the last time I went on a losing weight bend. However, at the time I was only concerned with shedding kgs and not in getting healthier and thats why it all came back the second I wasn't restricting like a fiend.

Slow and steady seems to be the way to do it, like the body takes more time to convince it likes the new diet and lifestyle change.
 
Thanks so much, Syrnxie!! <3

Well, I went off track pretty badly again yesterday. Had a bunch of apples, sandwiches, and oatmeal again. >< I'm not doing so great, am I? Messing up every few days! I didn't end up too bad as far as calories- just around 1800. Hm. I know what happened: I was feeling, for the first time in a while, like I wanted to go have one of those massive 10,000 calorie binges, and in an effort to stave off any compulsive behavior as soon as I got the chance, I went ahead and just had a bit too much of healthy food instead. And it worked- I no longer want to go off track at all! But I still wish I could stay on track a little better.

Anyway, my official weigh-in was....back up to 62.3 kg. >< Not a good sight. BUUUT, I also took my measurements, and those are down! Full-on 26.5 in waist, and 21.5 inches upper thigh! My scale also said my body fat was 23.7%! I don't put any stock in the accuracy of the body fat measurement on my scale, because I know it reads 2-3% higher than actual in the morning based on the one time I got my BF% tested professionally in one of those vacuum pod things and compared it with the scale reading. But it's still useful to see a downward trend, and about 3 weeks ago, it was saying 25-26%!

I'm determined to stick to my plan today. Writing it out this time...
exercise: 1 hour of yoga in the morning
breakfast: eggs and toast (300)
lunch: turkey sandwich (300)
snack: string cheese, V8 (150)
dinner: grilled chicken, salad (200)
snack: nuts and carrots (150)

I wonder if it's ever proper to do massive calorie cycling? Like as in 1000 calories one day, 2000 the next day, which would average out to 1500? Because that would work better for me, satisfy my strange eating habits to some days prefer having not as much and some days a lot, if I could actually plan it out like that!

Oh! And I went dress shopping with my sister yesterday at Ross. Great store. : D
I bought a really cute, cheap casual dress. But there was also a green silk one, one shoulder with a big flower on it, really fun and extravagant, that I wanted to buy.... only it was a size 3 in junior's, and it only zipped up about 2/3 the way. >< I really wanted to buy it, and just keep it for when I could wear it, but chickened out in the end.

edittt:
Had a roast beef sandwich instead of turkey for lunch. Mmmm. xD
 
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Oh!!
So I was just eating some delicious soup as a snack after dinner, and I had a realization:
I'm pretty sure that the reason my weight jumped back up is because for the past couple of days, I've been consuming a huge amount of salt!!
I've gotten into making soups of various sorts, mostly with different veggies and spices, and plenty of those super salty boullion cubes!
Compared to my usual diet of plain foods, it's got to have been like a 500% increase in salt intake. No wonder I'm retaining extra water!
Phew, good to know. :)
 
OH MY GOSH I went so waaaaaay off track today, it's not even funny.

For the past two weeks, since I started posting on this forum, I've had a few minor slip ups, but I think maybe only once or twice did I go even slightly above maintenance calories. Which is awesome! But today, I totally blew it. D:

I got off to a great start on the day- had a wonderful workout, ran really hard and did some really heavy lifting for upper body. And yet, I started eating compulsively right after my mid-morning snack and just kept overeating all day, all manners of strange junk food that I honest-to-goodness would normall never even think to eat! Really weird...maybe after eating so clean, even though I never craved anything junk-y, I was actually wanting some after all...?

I don't even want to count up the calories. I don't think I could, to be honest! I didn't look at the calorie counts on most things, and probably can't even remember everything I had. But let's see...
-normal breakfast
-4/5 servings of broccoli
-3 large apples, peanut butter sandwich, nutella sandwich, another apple, 3 packets of flavored oatmeal, tuna sandwich (at home)
-banana, 2 very large candy bars (something with chocolate and peanut butter) (from gas station)
-2 small-ish packs of Sunchips, assorted candy, 3 handfuls of wheat thin-esque crisps, small packet of mini cookies (while nanny-ing)
-2 bananas, full bag of Chex Mix dark chocolate mix, 3/4 bag of Chex Mix honey nut mix, 2 pack (12 cups total) of snack-size puddings (on the way home after work and at home)
-3 hard-boiled eggs (at home)

And that's the end of it. Whew. Hope that made at least someone feel better about the last time they think they overate, haha. xD

Yeah, deffo not point in counting up the calories, because I know it was too much, but I also know that the only way to deal with this is to just get back to eating regularly tomorrow and not try to make up for it or anything, because that'll just prompt another binge day, most probably.

I know it's not the end of the world, only one day, couldn't have gained more than a couple of pounds...but I'm still disappointed, mostly because I was on such a good streak and I would really have liked to be super un-bloated on my birthday. Oh well...nothing to do now but drink lots of water and tea to settle my stomach and get back on track tomorrow, I guess. Right? :S
 
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Hi Hanabi!

So you had a hungry day! See what happens tomorrow.

Maybe your bod was just ready for some extra cals.

Hope your day goes great tomorrow!
 
Hey dear!! Don't worry about the calories. I know, it's hard to have to deal with the fact that you overate (when you couldve controlled yourself) but it's all about taking it one day at a time. So yes, you overrate, but you admitted it and you were honest with youself about what you ate!! But, you know what, tomorrow'll be a better day! You seem really motivated and strong, so I know you can do it!!!

And is tomorrow your super-duper-birthday?!!:D
If so, happy happybirthdy!!!! Wishing you lots of happiness and cake of course! :)
 
Flumes & Amsterdam- thank you guys so much for the encouraging words!! I tried my best to put the slip up behind me today and get back on track.

This morning I did an hour of elliptical and legs strength training, plan on doing some abs later tonight.
My food intake:
-turkey sandwich for late breakfast
-protein bar for snack
-delicious green leaf lettuce salad and grilled chicken for dinner
-nuts (now portioned out :D) and carrots for snack
-plus maybe up to 50 calories in Altoids throughout the day!

I have also been drinking a lot of Sobe LifeWater the past few days. I realize it's still not quite very natural or anything, but there's no artificial sweeteners in it at least...
 
your last meal you posted looks great! ive been chowing down on fruit mosty but its getting expensive to eat it several days a week. chopped up strawberrys are my fav right now. they are starting to come in season and they are sweet and filling.

I wish i had the same drive as you. i always chicken out on the elliptical and choose walking. but the elliptical burns sooooo many more calories.
 
Flumes said:
I need 10 characters....but I just wanted to do this:

:hurray:
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Thank you, Flumes!! :D

size32someday said:
your last meal you posted looks great! ive been chowing down on fruit mosty but its getting expensive to eat it several days a week. chopped up strawberrys are my fav right now. they are starting to come in season and they are sweet and filling.

I wish i had the same drive as you. i always chicken out on the elliptical and choose walking. but the elliptical burns sooooo many more calories.
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Yeah, fruit is deffo pretty expensive, especially this time of year where I live!

I actually don't like the elliptical too much...I prefer to run! But I've got to give my knees a break every few days. ><
 
Im with you on the whole salt thing. I tend to not realize it, but it really does add up. Its crazy. The food where I live tends to be pretty salty. I really have to be careful about what I'm eating when I'm eating out because if you are not, then it all adds up. It is crazy how the weight just shoots up.

You are doing wonderfully, hanabi. keep it up. we all have bad days but it is important to write that off as just a bad day, and work hard to have a good one.

Good luck!
 
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