Raisana's Diary

R

Raisana

New member
Raisana's Diary - Here's to new friends and less rolls!

I'll start with the "suggested" questions:
-- How much weight do you want to lose? I estimate about 50 lbs, but I am more concerned with body fat % than total weight. I want to get under 30%, and to 25% long-term.
-- What is the timeframe for reaching your target weight? I think that 6 months is reasonable, if I can stick to my guns this time!
-- How do you want to accomplish your goal (what methods do you want to use)? I'm going to monitor my food intake, specifically trying to keep my calories from carbs to half of my total food eaten.
-- Who or what can support you in reaching your goal? My husband has always been supportive of my goals, and has thankfully been very tactful when it comes to my failures thusfar. I also have a very good girlfriend who is also struggling with her weight, even though I don't see her as often as I'd like. Hopefully this site can help fill the gaps between those two!
-- How realistic is your goal? I would hope that they are very realistic! I do not want to be a skinny stick-girl, but I need to get into better shape.
-- When will you start? I would love to say RIGHT NOW!! But let's be honest - it's Easter weekend. I will not use it as an excuse to eat like a pig, but my hardcore efforts begin on Tuesday.

I am currently 190 lbs and 5'6", and 41% of my weight is body fat. If I were to keep all the muscle I have right now and just drop fat, by 30% I'd be just shy of 150 lbs. 25% would be about 140. From these numbers, I'm to guess I have a good amount of muscle (114 lbs with 0% fat - my sister doesn't even weigh that much total!), which is something that I'm happy with, and that I want to build upon. I don't want to be thin, I want to be healthy. I think men and women look fantastic with good definition and tone. I definitely don't want to go overboard, because I still like a little curve on myself too... does that make sense? I don't want to go lower than 25% fat because then I fear I won't look like a woman anymore.

My chosen diet will be a low-carb, high-protein diet. Not an Atkins or South Beach diet, but one that I read about a few months ago and flopped on after a month. It was an e-book by Tom Venunto called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. I have tried a hundred different diets, I think, and I really believe that low-carb is the best way for me, and I think that this way makes the most sense. The basics of the plan are to eat like a body builder to lose fat and gain muscle - The specific (in short) are to eat 50% of your calories in protein, and split the other half between good fats and as unrefined carbs as possible. It makes me a little sad because I love pasta and pizza and cake, and everything carby, but if I can stick to it, I can at least afford an occasional treat ;) On the plus side, I LOVE fresh fruit. Love love love love. I have come into a love of fish lately too, there seems to be a lot more flavour than in chicken, which was my diet staple previously.

As far as exercise goes, I think this is where most of my work will be going. I can take care of my food good enough with a credit card and packing a lunch before going to work so I don't even have to deal with a food court or cafeteria, but exercise... well that's real effort involved. I have to TRY. Right now, shamed as I am to say it, I'm working out about once a week. At my peak I had 5 days a week of about 30-45 mins a day of cardio, and 3 days a week of about 10 mins of free weights right after the cardio. I'd like to get back to that, and stick to it for longer than a month. I also think I need to switch up my exercise methods. I had done mostly DDR (dance dance revolution, a video game that is pretty strenuous, for those that don't know), but when I tried jogging, I realized how little those 2-minute bursts really did for my cardiovascular health! So, more jogging, and keep the game for maybe when its raining or other extreme reasons. Right now I can jog at what I imagine is a very modest pace for about a minute, and it takes me three more to catch my breath enough to start again :(

What else... Oh, rewards. I can't in good conscientiousness reward myself with food, so I guess the second best thing would be cash value at the local Futureshop, since I'm a pretty big technophile. Say, $15 for every % of body fat goneÉ And when I chose to spend it, it doesn't reset ;) So when I lose 1% I can get a DVD, and when I get to 4% I can get a new game... and when I get to 10% gone... hmm! Well I guess Ill just have to browse the website to see what I can get for $150 that piques my interest!
 
Last edited:
Haha, wow. 12 hours and not even one peek? I think maybe I should change the title to something more interesting than just "Raisana's Diary" ;)

So here it is, Easter morning, and the Easter Bunny brought me a pound of chocolate >< PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE, which is even better/worse! I let myself have three peices about the size of the tip of my thumb, and I have put them out of my sight. Let's hope that "out of sight, out of mind" stuff works. Easter dinner will be made by my mother in law, who is a fabulous cook, and she's making lasagna. She made the effort to get whole grain noodles, extra lean beef, and half-fat mozza cheese, which is definitely appreciated, but, you know, it's still lasagna. I still have to have the strength of will to not gorge myself on it like a starved beast.

Between now and then is all up to me, though, so I'll just try to drink a lot of water and eat sparingly.
 
Raisana! Welcome to your diary! Sorry no one has peaked at your diary in 12 hours.....I'm assuming people are partaking in the wonderful Easter Celebrations. I, however, am not, so am able to read through your two entries w/o worrying about my family that is over :). I like the idea of rewarding yourself with something better than food! I think too often I hear my friends telling me that when they lose the first five pounds, they'll celebrate by going out to a nice dinner! Not a good idea in my opinion!

GOod job with putting the chocolate out of your sight. If possible, try to give bits and pieces to other people, kids, husband, etc. so you wont have possession of it at all. I am horrible. Even if I "hide" it, deep down I know it's with me, so I'll still eat it when I have the craving. But when I give it away, there's no more to eat!!!!!! Maybe save yourself a couple pieces and give the rest away! It's good that the lasagna is made with healthier ingredients. Just be aware of your portions....part of this lifestyle is not giving up what we like, but just eating it in moderation. Make it a goal to go to the gym or go for a 30 minute walk tomorrow. Try and get your friend or another buddy to go with you, as it makes the time go faster and also gives you motivation!

Anyway, hope you have a very Happy Easter! Enjoy the dinner :).
 
Well, today went about as well as I'd hoped. I managed to keep half my chocolate un-eaten so far (omg....), and didn't absolutely stuff myself at dinner. I had one piece of lasagna (about 2 inches on each side, and 1 inch thick), and two huge servings of caesar salad with homemade dressing to fill myself up with - the whole salad's dressing was about a 3 oz mix of egg, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, tobasco and worchester sauce, and I think I had a quarter of the salad to myself. Add on top of that a couple small dinner rolls. Dessert was apple crumble and ice cream, I kept mine to fit on a dessert plate, the ones that are like 4" across, and didn't pile. All in all, it was all pretty horrible food for a diet, but I think my portions made it "less" bad. Like I said in my first post, the real effort start on tuesday!

I really want to do some sort of workout tonight, but I am hurting from last night. I forgot to post about it, but I did a 45 minute DVD workout, the Turbo Jam Cardio Party. I hadn't pulled it out in like six months, and pushed myself really hard without stretching first >< For anyone that hasn't tried or seen Turbo Jam before, it's made up of a bunch of moves to work the whole body, including kicks, punches, jumps, and some dance moves all thrown together. It's pretty fun, but the instructor can get kind of annoying in her never-ending cheer ;) Also, not something to just jump into without stretching and warming up! So now my middle and lower back are really sore, and I've got a bit of a muscle knot in one of my shoulders too.

I think about all I can do about today is take some muscle relaxants and go to bed early, and if I'm up to it tomorrow, do some extra cardio *and* weights... and if I'm not, I'll just have to eat light and forget about leftovers that might be in the fridge. I have some salmon steaks I can thaw and throw together with frozen veggies if push comes to shove.
 
Good job with the portion control.....it sure beats eating whatever you want and feeling super guilty after! I have heard about Turbo Jam and contemplated buying it.....it seems like a really good workout....good for you! I'm sure it's a hard thing to just jump into after it's been a while!
 
Even though I went to bed early, on three muscle relaxants, that was the one of the worst nights sleep I have ever had. Oh em gee. I slept pretty solidly for the first three or four hours, but then every time I rolled over (and I roll a lot) I woke up because I could feel it all across my back. I still hurt pretty bad.

I'm contemplating whether going for a walk would make it better or worse because I think I've heard that getting up and moving around is better for back pain than just lying until it goes away... but I am having a hard time believing it.
 
Okay, so a couple more muscle relaxants that just don't help (they didn't even make me feel loopy or sleepy this time, which is extra-weird), and an A535 backrub from my husband later, I'm at least up and moving around. Food today was a couple of homemade egg mcmuffins (1 egg, a slice of cheddar cheese, chopped up veggies mixed into the egg and a whole grain english muffin for each), and a few pieces of beef jerky. Three times I have opened the fridge to left over apple crumble and lasagna and just turned myself around. Didn't even bother digging for something suitable. I haven't been genuinely hungry yet today anyways.

Can someone suggest a good site for calorie and workout tracking? If they have body fat % calculator too, that'd be a bonus, but not necessary. I have caloriecounter.com bookmarked already, and they have a body fat calculator, but they have a pretty poor food database, and I'd like to have as few sites bookmarked as possible.
 
Today's totals - calculated with MyFoodDiary.com:
2 home egg mcmuffins: 707 cals (!!!), 39g fat, 55g carbs, 38g protein, 9g of fiber
A big bowl of frozen veggies with a tbs of margarine: 177 cals, 2g fat, 35g carbs, 8g protein, 12 g fiber
About 3 servings of jerky throughout the day: 243 cals, 15g fat, 7g carbs, 19g protein, 1g fiber
Piece of lasagna: 450 cals, 12g fat, 50g carbs, 35g protein, 1g fiber
Total: 1577 cals, 68g fat, 147g carbs, 100g protein, 23g fiber.

Tomorrow I definitely want to get in less fat and more protein, and maybe about 200 calories less. Also - a workout of some kind.
 
getting moving with a light workout can help sore muscles from a heavy workout recover. don't over do it.

I use Calorie king for tracking my food and exercise because it has a good selection of food that I commonly eat in the database without having to add to many custom foods but many others use fitday

this is my public calorie king diary as an example



there is more private info and a lot of charts and tools as well.
 
Wow I am so unbelievably exhausted right now. I couldn't fall asleep until 2am, and then was up at 6 for work. And I ate like JUNK. My new coworkers took me out for lunch to a cajun restaurant and I have no idea what's good or bad in cajun food and got crab cakes and rice (probably woulda been okay if it weren't for the cream sauce they put on it), and they also got me a welcome basket with chocolate and jellybeans in it! I didn't eat all of it, but I did have a small handful of beans and two chocolate hedgehogs :( The only improvement I made today was that I drank more water than diet pepsi. Even though I am SO TIRED, I'm going out for a walk before I turn in for the night.

I am too tired to type out each food and will just copy/paste the totals from MyFoodDiary.com:

Meal------Cals----Fat--Carbs--Protein
Breakfast--504---6.9g--95.5g--22.2g
Snack #1--440--18.0g--64.3g--4.0g
Lunch-----937---49.5g -90.5g--33.1g
Snack #2--30----0.2g---7.5g---0.5g
Dinner-----844---34.0g --99.1g--34.5g
Total-----2755--108.6g-356.9g-94.3g
------------------35%---51%---14%

Oh, I also measured myself this morning:
190.6lbs, 40 in waist, 43 in hips, 44% body fat. The 40% was from memory, I guess I remembered a little too favourably.
 
Last edited:
Hi Rais,
I wanted to stop by your diary, and give you a little read. YOu have some great goals, and you will do well. I will come by later and read more, I haven't much time right now.

All the best,
Brian
 
*is back* Sorry for the leave so soon after joining. I needed to get my head on straight.

Trusylver: I'm measuring my neck, waist and hips and punching the numbers into a calculator. I don't think it's very accurate, though because when I played with it a bit, it seems to assume that your neck has no fat on it or that it doesn't put fat on when you gain weight, or something. So I think I might have to invest in an electric measuring tool. My mother in law has a scale that has metal bits on it, and supposedly can measure it for you, but nobody can figure it out - she paid like $50 for a scale that she gets the same use out of as a $20 one.

Brian: thanks for the support! I'm sticking to it this time!

I slipped back to 191 again, so I have to redouble my efforts!
 
Challenge for today: Run up the stairs! I work on the 8th floor so I am going to walk down the stairs, right to B2, and then walk up the stairs! All the way!

So far I am on my third cup of water - I have a glazed ceramic mug, and have been keeping a tally on the side with an overhead marker that'll wash off when I'm done. I wanted to use a dry-erase marker, but this'll work, and I guess it won't wipe off as easily either.
 
What I've seen some people do -is put a rubber band around the cup/bottle for each time the glass gets refilled -- or if you're planning on 8 glasses -put 8 rubber bands on the cup - then each time you refill - remove it.

I used to use a shot glass and drop a penny in each time I drank a glass of water :)
 
maleficent said:
What I've seen some people do -is put a rubber band around the cup/bottle for each time the glass gets refilled -- or if you're planning on 8 glasses -put 8 rubber bands on the cup - then each time you refill - remove it.

I used to use a shot glass and drop a penny in each time I drank a glass of water :)
Click to expand...

Those are neat ways to keep track of water intake! Probably a lot less likely to get ink on my hands at the end of the day ;)

So my stair challenge got nixed today. I ended going out for lunch with a couple friends and forgot about it completely! My hubby is making me go running with him tonight though, so at least I'll get something in.

I printed off some YMCA program schedules, I have a Belly Dancing class and Tae Kwon Do highlighted, both of which sound like fun. They're both over $100, but it seems like if I paid for them in advance I would definitely be a heck of a lot more likely to do it, and working out in a group means I can't slack-ass my way through the material. It also means that other people with a lot less to lose than me would get to see my blubbery butt jiggle to the beat... nobody wants that.
 
I will almost guarentee that there will be plenty of women with bellies at the belly dancing class... taut bellies just dont belly dance as well for some reason :D it'sa great ab workout that you get to do in barefeet and it's just a little sexy too :) your husband will definitely get the benefits of it :)

If you have a Learning Annex in your area (they do a lot of low priced adult education type classes, they usually have belly dance classes or other dance classes -check by the door in the supermarket -those schools usually leave their brochures there...
 
Sadly, there are no Learning Annexes in Edmonton... the nearest is in Calgary, and I don't fancy driving 3 hours for a 1 hour class ;) However I have decided that I will sign up for both Belly Dancing and Tae Kwon Do - since the first is once a week on Sundays for an hour and a half, and the other is Mondays and Wednesdays for 1 hour each. I would have liked it spread a little better, but signing up for a class I have no interest in, just because it's on a Friday would probably just set me up for boredom and/or wasting money. I remembered that I have a $500 "Health & Learning" fund that I can draw from to pay for classes, gym memberships, etc, so I won't even have to pay for them!

So yesterday, I ate a total of almost 1900 calories, which is 100 over "maintenance" for me. I had a too-small breakfast and then made a bad lunch choice and got a rueben and fries from the cafeteria -- I don't even like saurkraut!! But it was the daily special. Ughs.

Today, I had a proper breakfast (Kashi Go Lean Crunch and skim milk with about 4 big strawberries chopped in), and packed a lunch. My lunch is mostly fruit (2 mandarins and some more strawberries), and then a single-serving container of 1% cottage cheese for protein, and a 90 calorie bag of microwave popcorn as a little treat to get me through the day. I'm at 650 calories for the day, and so can have a good 500 calorie dinner and be within my goals! Plus I have a run with my hubby planned for tonight (last night was too cold), and am trying for the stairs again!
 
Stair challenge -- COMPLETE.

Damn, it only took 5 mins to go down and then up 10 floors, not even enough to count as a real workout! It sure felt like one though, and I'm glad I did it.

Now to locate some working lungs...
 
Yesterday I was just so tired after work I had to nap for like two hours. My husband had plans for the evening at that point so we couldn't go jogging. I did play some hard DDR for half an hour though! At least I worked up a sweat.

Today's plan - I packed a LOT of fruit to eat througout the day, because yesterday I was also starved by the time I was off work, and got a bag of chips from a vending machine (at least they had the whole wheat chips that were only like 200 calories for the bag). Hopefully I can avoid that today.

I plan on going up the stairs again, every day until I can get up to the top without wanting to collapse. And then, I'll do it TWICE!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top