Stay on track!

Congrats on all your progress. We seem to have the same goals. I weight 170 right now, but want to get to at least 145lbs. I'm really struggling with my eating and was wondering if you had any tips? Where do you go to get all of your calorie information?
 
Hey!!! I get my calorie info from the packaging but also from a scale that I got at Bed Bath and Beyond. (They have a 20% off coupon if you sign up for their e-mail list, and you can always unsubscribe afterwards.) It is called a Perfect Portion digital food scale. It has the regular food scale, but then it also has what looks like a nutrition table that shows the grams or ounces that you are measuring, plus the calories and everything. It comes with a booklet that assigns numeric codes to foods for 1,999 foods, and you put the bowl on the scale, zero it, add the food, and punch in the code, and it tells you exactly how many grams and calories you would have. I'm sure you can't be totally accurate, but I've cross-checked it with labels on packaging and it's been within 5-10 calories every time. It has codes for everything.. like if you want to measure raw chicken, broiled chicken, roasted chicken, with skin, without skin, etc, which is really cool. It also has an option where you can have a food that you make and store up to 99 of those. I also use calorieking online, or just do a google search of like "blueberries calories" or whatever I'm looking up.

The scale is really nice though because you can just keep it right on the counter and use it as you cook.

We do have similar goals! You are trying to get in shape for your wedding? When is it? We can motivate each other if you want! I will check out your postings.

Breakfast:

1/2 a bagel (125)
1 XL egg (85)
1 piece american cheese (reduced fat) (50)
1 piece canadian bacon (20)
1 cup of 1% milk (102)

1 pint bluerries (snack) 229

Things I am angry about:

I weighed myself this morning and I was .6 higher than yesterday. I really need to put my scale away and only do it once a week but I can't. The only difference was I was wearing my spandex compression garmet and yesterday morning I wasn't. But I can't see my garmet weighing more than half a pound.

Things I am happy about:

Instead of having a whole bagle this morning, I only had half. I wanted the whole, but I had willpower and put it back.

My boyfriend has started counting his calories too, with no proding from me! Hopefully if we are both thinking about it, we will somehow encourage each other to be conscious of our intake.

Lunch:

Left over filling from burrito dinner last week. Approximately enough filling for three burritos, but no tortillas. One burrito had 320 calories, and 100 of that was the tortilla. So the filling was 220, and there is no cheese on top of the burrito so I will estimate that has 20 calories in it. So about 200 x3, which is a 600 cal lunch. :-/ kind of steep but whatever. I'm still in my limit!

Day total so far : 1211

That is a pretty high value for just lunch time. Dinner will be small!

Dinner:
two bowls of cheerios, 110 calories each. Then one cup milk (102) and a third cup milk (34). Total: 356

Day total: 1567

I did absolutely no exercise today :(
 
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Chelsea,

Yes, I'm getting married June 9, 2012. Less than 12 months to go. I want to look beautiful in my dress and not feel self conscious. I'll be going dress shopping in January, so I hope to be pretty close to my goal or have achieved it by then.

Good job on the willpower of resisting the other half of the bagel!

I went to Steak and Shake today for a meeting with a prospective DJ. I had a glass of water and resisted from ordering anything. The milkshake ad was really tempting, but I didn't give in! Pretty proud of that one.

Hope your day is going well!
 
SHOMYGOSH! Steak and Shake is soooo good and you're right, those shakes are amazing. But as good as those shakes are... doesn't it feel SO GOOD now!? I bet you feel really proud of yourself. I always make sure to point out what I did that was good for the day; it helps me feel less deprived, or at least like I am making a trade. Trading the immediate gratification of eating something I shouldn't be for the long term gratification of knowing I have will power and integrity.

We can do this!!!! You will look so good in your dress; I'm not anywhere close to getting married but I love looking at wedding magazines.
 
Breakfast:

Chobani strawberry, on top of 47 calories of fresh strawberries.

Total: 140+47 = 187

Very small breakfast.

Lunch:

Chx noodle soup (sodium, i know, i know) - 220
Bowl of Strawberries - 77


Walked two miles after lunch!!
Lunch total: 297

Day total: 484

I was aboslutely starving when I got home, had headaches all day... never eating that little again. I didn't even try to eat that little. I only grabbed one soup and strawberries from my house. Usually I have clam chowder which has like 400 cals in one container, but I grabbed chx noodle and it had half of that.

So for dinner I made a pasta concoction and probably ate too much of it, but I definitely had it in my calorie bank for the day so I wasn't too concerned.

I will list the whole receipe and then break it up so I can figure out how many calories I ate.

4 servings whole wheat rotini - 800cal
2 cups Quorn chx replacement - 160
vegetable oil, 2 tbsp - 248
1 large onion - 50
1 bell pepper - 30
2tbsp capers - 10
artichoke hearts - 50
3 tbsp olive oil - 240
1 yellow squash - 72
1 cup alfredo sauce - 400
1/4 cup parmasean cheese - 60
green olives - 10
grape tomatoes - 10
1 cup spinach - 7
sundried tomatoes - 40

Total: 2184

We got five servings out of it, 2 that I ate and 2 that my boyfriend ate, then I have one serving for lunch.

That's about 437 per serving, so two of those is 874 for the meal. I also had a full glass of milk, which is probably 150.

Day total: 1598.

About an hour after dinner I walked to the gym (2.7 miles) and did yoga for 1.5 hours with a class. I didn't do anything hard or go super hard; I was looking for the stretching. So all in all I walked about 4.7 miles yesterday and stretched for a while. I'm proud!

Things I'm proud of:

Even though I was super hungry, I still managed to have healthy portions at dinner, and make something healthy. In my other life, my boyfriend and I would have just stopped at Dave's on the way home and bought something from the pre-made deli section of the store. How unhealthy!
I felt really tired after dinner but I still motivated myself to get up off the couch and walk to the gym and do yoga. Now that I'm going to the gym again, my boyfriend is too :D Funny how that works!?

Things I'm not so proud of:

I used too much oil in dinner.
I should have stopped at one serving but I knew I had a big deficit and I didn't want to eat too few calories.
 
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Wow, way to go. I don't think I could eat that small of a lunch and still function lol! Nice job on the walk! My 2 mile walk will be later this evening at about 8, can't wait!
 
I know, that was a terrible day until dinner time. I will never eat that little again.

Breakfast today:

1 bowl of cheerios, 110
1 cup milk, 110
12 almonds, 80
1 pear - 113

Total: 413

Luch: 1 serving of our dinner yesterday - 437

Day total so far: 850

Much healthier than yesterday!!!

I probably won't walk today at work, it's supposed to be 102 and if I wear my compresion garmet plus PT gear outside, I will die of a heat stroke most likely.

Also, super proud: I weighed 160.4 this morning!!!!!! I'm not going to move the ticker though. I will move it on Monday. I have, however, decided to start the ticker at what my original weight was before my procedure, which was 173. I remember them saying that number and me being so sad because I had slipped up for like two weeks and gained about 7lbs. It makes me proud to count down from 173 instead of 168 :) 168 was my weight when I started this blog though.

Update: although I said I wasn't going to walk, I DID. And it wasn't even that hot or terrible. I just let myself be convinced it was. No weather will keep me from walking on my lunch break! 2 miles. Nice.

Dinner:
cabbage: 20
chx: 211
tortillas: 130
avocado: 98
greek yogurt: 40
salsa: 10
cheese: 100
sugar free pudding and strawberries: 99

Total: 708

Day total: 1558
 
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Ahh thanks guys!!!! Man I seriously love this website. I can't believe how motivating you guys are. Even just to see your tickers move so much and that you guys have made so much progress makes me believe in myself and have willpower!!!!

What do you guys think about when you are having trouble getting motivated? I think about bathing suits LOL.
 
What do you guys think about when you are having trouble getting motivated? I think about bathing suits LOL.

...funny you say that..while I'll never get into a bikini again..two kids over 8 pounds and it is road map central on the ole tummy...lol.....my goal for next summer is a smoking monokini though. I actually was looking last night...I so would love to wear a "hot" bathing suit again..at least once before 40!!..so sick of the "grammy" skirted ones I have been wearing all these years!!
 
Oooo a monokini!!!! How chic of you. I don't know how I would look in one of those, I haven't ever tried one on. But it might be interesting...

I do love a good retro one-piece though, and not because I am trying to cover up my body. I think they're so cute! With the halter and the extra fabric that comes down straight.. and the rouching (sp?) on the sides helps to make it look cuter.

But above all... I want to look smokin' in a victorias secret bikini. That's all I want. :)

Well not all I want.. I want to be more confident and happier and look better in all my clothes. But I have this vision of walking down the beach in Cancun in a glorious bikini (no specific one, just that it's glorious) after a few days spent lounging on the beach in some tanning oil (so bad for the skin.. but so good for the soul) so i'm basically a bronze goddess. Sommmmeee daayyyyy!!! Some day soon!
 
You'll make it there! I know you will!

Besides just wanting to be healthier and look great, I want to not be self concious in by bathing suit. Which may end up being a bikini if I lose enough!

Keep it going! You can do it!:hurray:
 
A quiz... because I'm bored at work.

1. What is your current height and weight?
5'5", 160.4

2. If you were at an ideal weight now, what would that weight be?
I think it would be 130... I can remember weighing 130, in fifth grade. How sad.

3. At what weight would you like to be at four months from now?
I could see myself at 145. I would like to be at 140 or possibly 130 by Spring Break.

4. Why do you want to lose weight?
I want to feel attractive and confident. People always say I'm not fat but numbers like BMI and waist/hip ratio and the scale say otherwise. And of course I want to look better.

5. Do you want to lose weight for a specific life event such as wedding or reunion? If so, when is that event?
Spring Break vacation, 2012! March 10th. Cancun, Mexico :)

6. What obstacles could get between you and your weight loss goals?
Large portions, or underestimating the calories in different foods.

7. Why do you think that you now have a weight problem?
My parents let me eat whatever I wanted when I was young, and I use food as an emotional thing - I'm happy, let's eat. I'm sad, let's eat etc.

8. What lifestyle changes do you think would help you lose weight?
Smaller portions. And using a food scale. And exercising every day, one way or another.

9. Have you lost weight in the past? If so, what has worked in the past to help you lose weight?
Yes. I lost ~50 lbs between my freshman year of high school and my junior year of high school. I went from 210 to 155, and then my senior year I was at 163. I stayed at 163 until the end of my freshman year, when I was at ~180. I stayed at 180 for most of college, and lost ~30lbs my senior year. Then I have stayed about the same (165-ish) for the last year and a half because 163 is the max limit for my height for my job (military). I always lost weight when I consistently exercised at a high intensity (soccer in high school) or even at a low-intensity (college, but I ate almost no carbs).

10. Why do you believe that you did not lose weight or you gained the weight back?
I got lazy and drank too much in college, and I ate at the all-you-can-eat buffet in the cafeteria every day, three times a day. I didn't exercise like I should have.

12. Would you try writing down all food and drink consumed for a given period of time?
Yes, and it's been working amazingly. It's like having a group of people all in the same room with the same goals, sharing everything they know!!

13. Do you cook at home often? If so, what do you cook?
Yes. Almost every meal I make is at home. We eat in a restaurant maybe once every two weeks, but I wish it was even less than that because I can't tell what I'm eating.

14. How often do you go out to eat? Where do you go?
See above, and we usually pick chinese (the worst) or Mexican (can be bad, but can also be somewhat healthy). I like sushi too, but it's usually kind of pricey. We don't eat at fastfood restaurants though, not that it really matters because regular restaurants are usually worse than fast food.

15. What are your three favorite foods?
Three fav healthy foods: Any and all vegetables, seafood, homemade egg mcmuffins
Three fav unhealthy foods: Pizza (tons of it), chinese food, french fries. (But it's getting to the point where the idea of feeling the way I feel after I eat that kind of food is enough to make me NOT eat it, which is amazing.

16. What are your three favorite restaurants?
Indian food, chinese food, italian food

17. What are three things you can do differently when it comes to food?
Definitely watch my portions
Use less oil/fats
Use more meat-replacement stuff - Quorn, tofu

18. If you woke up tomorrow and your body was exactly the way you want it, what would be different?
My thighs would be skinnier where they rub together at the top (no touching..), my arm fat would be gone and they would be toned and strong, my stomach would be flat and muscular, no leg or armpit or moustache or rouge eyebrow/chin hairs, permanently tan, and the fat at the top of my back would be gone, and I would have perfect eyesight. And then I would quit my job and be a victorias secret model. Haha :)

19. Do you eat when you are not hungry?
I used to, when I was bored. But I can't remember the last time I did that.

20. Do you binge eat (large amounts at a time)?
No. Even when I was not watching my intake, my portions were large but I would not call it binge eating. Except if I made a batch of cookies and ate a lot, but even then I wouldn't say I was "binging" - it was just a lack of self-control until my appetite was satiated and then it went away.

21. Do you hide your food or eat in secret?
No.

22. Do you eat when you are sad, nervous, or depressed?
No, usually it's a happy feeling that makes me eat.

23. Do you eat as a reward?
Definitely used to, but I am getting more and more control over separating food from my emotions.

24. Do you eat while watching TV or using the computer?
Yes I do. I know I shouldn't, but I have been limited my portions so well lately that I don't really see the problem. Plus I am usually too busy looking down at my food to watch the TV. We just sit at the couch because our dining room is kind of a mess.

25. What do you normally eat for a meal?
I will make a main protein dish - meat or fish or meat replacement - with sides of a salad or beans or steamed vegetables. Then sometimes a popsicle.

26. What type of snacks do you eat?
I'm not much of a snacker.

27. In terms of exercise, what, if anything, are you currently doing?
Walking, yoga, stretching. I can't do intense cardio or swim or ab workouts yet (surgery), but I can start using the elyptical so I will do that soon.

28. Where do you go for exercise? A local public gym? School/work gym? Walk on my lunch breaks at work, walk to the gym, walk the dog, weights/yoga/stretching at the gym.

29. What, if anything, are your three favorite types of exercise?
Cross country skiing (even though I look like an idiot, go super slow, and fall a lot) because it's such a good workout, swimming but not in lanes.. just treading and playing treading games, like water polo, soccer, but I haven't played in a long time. I'm trying to find a team.

30. What is your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly motivation to move towards your goals?
Daily is logging my intake and exercise and reading other peoples' experiences. Weekly is weighing myself and recording it on my ticker. I also put things I want to buy from victorias secret in a wish basket on their website. Monthly... I don't have a particular monthly goal as I've only been watching my intake for three weeks. Yearly, I don't think it should take a whole year to lose my 30-40lbs, but if it does, it would be to have it done by next year. I think it should only take me 6-7 months to get to 140, as I only have 20 more lbs to go. But my yearly goal would be to get to my weight that I like myself at, 130 I imagine, and maintain it successfully.

31. Do you have rewards for certain goals?
Buying new clothes, the vacation in March is kind of a reward I think.
 
Nice quiz, I'll have to do that.

To stay motivated I read my Women's Health magazine, or look at the clothes in other magazines/catalogs. Clothes seem to motivate me a lot.
 
Oh yeah!! Self magazine is where it's at lol.

I just picked up SELF yesterday..and me and the hubster were swimming and he was telling my about an article he read ....I was like what!! you never read...he said yeah but "Sammy Brady" was on the front and I got hooked...lol.
 
:) that s really good chelsea how u put down everything u eat!
maybe i should start doing that too cause it looks like it s working out well for you.

I also take walks with my puppy but he s sooo lazy that i dont go that far ... they say that dogs are like their owners lol i guess it s true since I have a st bernard!!! lol i even named him Chunky cause welll he was a chubby kid :p but The theory is wrong since im not the one that chose him but my ex did lol ah well... i guess i ll put him in some kindda shape when i pull him up that mountain!!!

keep up the good work... u know I ll be coming around :p
 
I didn't do too much exercise yesterday, which was kind of a bummer. Just my lunch walk. But I will do some tonight. It was 103 degrees here yesterday and all I felt like doing was drinking water and laying on the couch. Correction: sitting on the couch. Laying was too hot, even though we have an air conditioner. We have an upstairs apartment in an old house, so it doesn't stay cool for too long.

BIG NEWS: We bought tickets to Cancun for spring break yesterday. I know it's far away, but we had the money and the tickets were cheap, and I asked my work if I could go and they said no problem. The tickets jumped up about $100 a piece from one night to the next, so we figured we should do it now.

BIGGER NEWS: I am now officially locked in to wearing a swimsuit in front of 1,000's of tiny college students (my boyfriend is still in college but I graduated, so that is why we are going on spring break) on a daily basis, as well as some of his friends who are also going. There is no turning back now. Not that there was before, but this just kind of sealed the deal. I put one on last night and examined myself in the mirror. I definitely need some kind of tan before I go... it makes everything look so much more toned!!! I used some of that self-tanner last night, just to test it out. I can't very well go out and lay in the sun because of my surgery and stuff, and by the time I look decent it will be the end of the summer. I'm not sure how it turned out because of my compression garment, but my face, arms and chest look a little more golden. I hate the smell of this stuff :( My stomach is flatter than before, but there is a lot of internal scaring which makes it bump out in weird places It's not super noticeable, I only know it's there because I have to massage it every day and I can tell where the bumps are. I'm also still really swollen (it takes 6 months to see the final result - how convenient, hopefully I will lose all the weight I want to by then and the results will look even better!) My skin also needs to pull into itself, which it has done a lot of already, but it still kind of looks like I had a kid or something. Not that bad but if you saw me in a bathing suit you would be like, "something is not right here." But I guess when you have 4 liters of fat sucked out of you, your skin takes a little while to get back to normal :) it's only been three weeks too! I will post picks when it looks less weird. I have some before ones too.

Not only are we going to Cancun, but it is, as I mentioned, spring break, which brings back memories of watching MTV in middle school and seeing their "spring break" program. I've never been to a real spring break destination, but we Youtubed some videos of it and I feel like I am going to go into "mom-mode" and wonder if their parents didn't love them enough and that's why they're doing lap dance competitions or girls are making out with each other for free beer on stage. Yikes. Maybe I didn't think this thru very well.. :/

Rant finished.

Breakfast: Homemade english muffins

1 english muffin - 110 (edited, thought it was 130 but it was less, woo hoo!)
1 slice reduced fat american cheese - 50
1 xl egg - 85
1 piece canadian bacon - 20
1tsp butter - 34
1 glass of skim milk - 90
(I finally convinced Brent to let me buy skim instead of 1% - he's one of those milk snobs)

Breakfast total: 389

Going to my Dr. appointment, it should be my last one for a couple weeks! Yahoo!


Back from the Dr. and she said I am looking great. I don't have to go back for two whole weeks! But still have to do the massage every night, and cold compresses. Luckily there is no more draining (yuck).

Just had lunch:

2 corn tortillas - 74
rotisserie chicken, no skin - 164
red cabbage - 18
avocado - 84
plain greek yogurt, 2 tbsp - 13
salsa - 10
shredded cheddar cheese - 48

411

+389 = exactly 800!

I love getting a rotisserie chicken from the store. It's so easy and you can get like four to six meals out of one bird. I love making tacos with red cabbage too. It's crunchy and kind of spicy, like a brussel sprout. It has a good taste. I think they would be really good with a whitefish or shrimp too. Plus the yogurt in place of sour cream... sooo good. :D

I'm going to clean the house now, and it's so hot out that I consider it to be part of my exercise lol :) Calorie count says you burn 170 per hour, and our apartment is pretty gross, plus I need to clean out my car and wash my windshield. Bring on the burn, cleaning!!!

Not sure what's for dinner yet... chicken drumsticks with the skin removed??? Cooked on the grill !??!?!? With some potatoes and grilled onions? mmm.. sounds good. We might be going to see HP tonight :) I'm excited! Hopefully we will.

Update: cleaned the house, did not clean the car. Not a total loss! Then I walked/RAN UP ALL THE HILLS on my way to the gym, (I was proud of the running hills part). Not a fast run, but I used to run all the time and now getting back into it is exciting. I'm really giving myself permission to take it slllooowww and stop and walk if I want, I feel like the slower I take it and the more substantial the build-up, the less likely I will be to get burned out or hurt myself. Once I got to the gym, Brent showed me a bunch of different exercises to work my back. (The Dr. said I should work on strengthening my back to make my core stronger.) Then I stretched and we drove home.

Dinner:
1 serving of pasta - 200
1 cup lima beans - 220
1 ladle full of a pasta sauce:

1 large can tomato sauce = 260
1 medium onion = 44
1 chopped zucchini = 31
2 tbsp peanut oil = 240
garlic = 5
meat replacement, 2 cups = 160
2 medium tomatoes = 44
capers = 10 (i LOVE CAPERS).
total sauce made = 794 cals

There were 11 ladles (I used the same ladle) of all the sauce I made, and I put one ladle on each of our 200 calorie serving size of pasta. So 794/11 = 73. I will round up to 80.

80 for sauce
200 for pasta
220 for lima beans
and 0 for water!!
60 for a dessert popsicle :)

Exactly 560 calories for dinner. I am impressed. And we have a ton of sauce left over so I can make it tomorrow for lunch :)

Day total: 1360

Plus all of the exercise I did on the way to the gym and at the gym, I feel pretty good about myself! Now to shower and see Harry Pottah!!!
 
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Hey Chelsea!

I didn't do anything other than my walk at work last night. I woke up and was just so sore from having started running. Plus I was really tired. Like where you live it was super hot. I'm thinking upper 90's, but the heat index was about 116. Why they don't just say it's 116, I don't know, but it was a nasty one.

Congrats on getting your tickets! You will look amazing for your trip! And I agree with you about the "mom mode". I'm not one yet, but am not a crazy partier by any means and would feel weird around girls and people acting like that. lol.

Hope your doctors appointment goes well!

Have a great day!
 
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