When Your Fat Jeans Become Your Skinny Jeans

Laura F

Laura F

New member
Day 1 of the journal thing... we'll see how this goes, I tend to start projects and forget them. Maybe not this time!

About me: I'm a 25 year old female with a desk job. I have hovered around 150 for as long as I can remember, with a goal of 140 (for as long as I can remember). I maxed out at 165 in college, kicked my butt into gear and lost about 15 pounds by running. Now I'm pushing 165 again, and trying to get back into a running routine. 140 is STILL my goal. I'm 5'7", by the way.

I have a weakness for all things delicious. Ice cream and potato chips, primarily, but snacking in general is my downfall. I have never successfully dieted, so my focus now is getting into an exercise routine first, and then slowly working on my eating habits. Trying to do both at once would probably be too much.

As far as the running goes, I want be to be "a runner" more than anything. I am trying to get into the 5K scene, although it's hard because I haven't found anyone to run with yet. Hopefully this will change on Wednesday, as I've decided to try out a local running club that runs a 5K distance each week. I'll let you know how that goes!
 
Welcome. Nice name for your diary LOL.

Good luck and look forward to your updates!

And I second that about desk jobs. Its so hard! I have a job where I work mainly walking all day, but a few months in the year I get put in the office.. when that month is done, I seriously gain weight, get lazy and when I go back to the regular walking around I find I am sooo tired and just want to sit down! lol.
 
Thanks, AngelWings! It's way too easy to snack with a desk job... I've got my food drawer that I TRY to keep full of healthy stuff, but the unhealthy snacks always find their way back in.

I will try to answer some of the sample questions as I go one... for now I will go with "What obstacles could get between you and your weight loss goals?" As I mentioned in my first post - SNACKING! I live with my boyfriend, and am somewhat of a closet eater. He just left for a bit and I had cheese balls and edamame, and made pudding. I avoided eating the pudding, thankfully. And edamame is good for you. Cheese balls? Not so much. I have to keep somewhat healthy snacks around, or things could get ugly. Half-gallons of ice cream are NOT ALLOWED in the apartment whatsoever. The last one I had I threw away because if I hadn't, I was going to make myself absolutely sick.

I am trying to adjust my diet in small ways. I stopped putting sugar in my coffee (although to be fair, that decision was only made yesterday). I got light english muffins to make my breakfast sandwiches with, the pudding was fat free and sugar free (with 1% milk). Hoping that every little bit will help!
 
Again with the snacking… I can’t stop sometimes! Today I ate:

1 serving instant oatmeal (low sugar)
Corn nuts… haven’t had those in 10 years, probably won’t buy them again soon
Cheese balls
A giant roast beef sandwich
1 serving of the pudding I made yesterday
More corn nuts
3 servings mini oreos
English muffin with 2 eggs, 2 slices Canadian bacon, and 1 slice cheese
1 individual sized bag of baked cheetos

I feel like there was more, but maybe not. Hopefully not.

Question of the day - Do you eat when you are not hungry? And the answer is a resounding YES! I eat when I am procrastinating, mostly, and I procrastinate just about every day of my life. I am currently in grad school, taking classes online, so no one is around to watch me eat during class, and then I eat when I should be studying. Which explains the cheetos. I also eat when I am killing time. Like when I get to the bus stop 20 minutes before the bus is coming. That explains the mini oreos.
 
Hi Laura! Just reading your diary and had to point out that I have similar food problems. I also absolutely cannot keep half gallons of ice cream in the house. I have such an addiction! Also, I like to eat when I'm procrastinating. My figuring is, if I'm eating, I will just have to put off whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing. I'm a lot better about that though. (At least the not eating part, I still procrastinate! :) ) I'm on Weight Watchers so I have to keep a log of everything I eat, and I find that keeping it all written out (typed out really), really helps me to not eat so much. I also find drinking a lot of water/powerade zeros throughout the days fills me up so I don't eat as much.

Good luck to you! :waving:

P.S. I forgot I wanted to tell you I really, really like the name of your diary. I have went through many levels of fat jeans becoming skinny jeans, lol.
 
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Thanks, BikiniBound! I’m glad you like the title and glad someone shares my habit of using eating as a procrastination tool! Do you keep track of calories, too? I tried that a while back and found it just a huge task sometimes, when information wasn’t readily available and I wasn’t measuring serving sizes. I try to keep track of just the actual food I eat, figuring that will help to catch my snacking binges, but even that is something I only stick to for two days at a time. I just have to keep trying, I guess!

I did go to the running club on Wednesday. They do a 5K distance every Wednesday. There were maybe 17 people there, mostly girls around my age. I was hands down the slowest person in the group, but I finished without walking. I have a couple of friends who are interested in running with me, which will help keep me going. I’m hoping I stick with this, it’ll be a good way to track my progress, make sure I’m running outside and not just on a treadmill, and teach me to run without music (I’m signed up for a relay race next year… no headphones allowed!).

As far as food goes, this week has been decent, with the exception of Thursday night. That would be a night out with the co-workers… many beers, nachos, potato skins, and cheese fries later, I was feeling a little gross. But on a positive note, the live-in boyfriend, who is out of town for the weekend, has been gone for nearly 11 hours and the only thing I have eaten is the breakfast sandwich I made myself for lunch. I was worried I’d go nuts with no witnesses here to stop be, but so far so good!

Finally, today’s question is: Where do you go for exercise? A local public gym? School/work gym? Home?

And the answer is: A gym in the basement of my apartment building. It is free and open 24 hours, and I often have the place to myself. I generally go before work, meaning around 5:15 am. The private aspect of it is both good and bad. I don’t have to worry about being self-conscious, but it’s also more motivating to see others all around you being active. The gym was being renovated for a couple of months and I was going to a public gym during that time. It was good to have things to look at and an “audience” to motivate me. I realized the difference last week when I was by myself and then some people came in who were touring the apartment. For those 60 seconds they were there, I felt my running form improve tenfold. Then the second they left, I was back to normal, which I hadn’t realized was pretty bad until that moment. I thought about sticking with the public gym, but I know that when the Boston winter hits, there is absolutely no way I was going to go out and defrost my car at 5 am when I could just walk downstairs. I will just have to make an effort to improve my form and keep motivated!
 
I am learning how to guesstimate calories. Its not so bad, really you'll find most things like bad snacks have calorie labels on them anyways. Knowledge is power for weight loss! I have roughly counted for two days and its great! I can tell my body "Be quiet, you've eaten your daily quota of food you should be satisfied" Or I can eat another snack or whatever.

Giving it a try couldn't hurt and you might find it liberating just to realize how much you eat. I did! hah. I never thought I could count calories either.

I so know what you mean about exercising in public LOL. Although I've never been to the gym, when I swim in a lake or something, with people around I feel like a powerhouse, or run/walking by the road...

Way to go with the 5K! Thats like, a long distance dream of mine, to be able to run that far!

I rock the way you're answering all your questions thats so, like, creative!

Way to go in your endeavors!
 
I agree with Angel Wings. I hate counting calories, too, but without doing it I just eat way too much! I actually only count Weight Watcher points, but counting calories definitely work too. By the way, I'm not pushing Weight Watchers, it's just that that is what's working for me right now. I just do the online program, I don't go to the meetings. It's cool because I can track everything online on their website. But in the past I have used Fit Day. It's a free site that let's you count calories as well as all the other nutrients. It keeps track of your weight, inches lost, and moods too. A lot of people on this forum use it. And if you track online like that, you'll find that it gets easier because eventually you will have most of everything you eat everyday already in the system so you won't have to type it in every time. I would definitely try counting calories!

By the way also congrats for the 5k and wanting to be a runner! :hurray: I admire runners so much because I know how good it for you, but I hate running. I hate cardio in general, unless it's dancing. I much prefer strength training. So anyone that is a runner or wants to be one is just admirable in my book.
 
Wow, what a wake up call. After both of you (Angel Wings and Bikini Bound) suggesting calorie counting, I went back and checked out FitDay.com, since I remembered I had used that in the past. I noticed that the last weight I had posted on the website was in September of 2007. I had wanted to reach my goal (140) by 3/18/08. At the time, that was a ten pound goal over a 6 month period. Did NOT meet that goal. The last time I even put food or exercise in there was in May of 2007. It’s easy to forget how long I’ve been trying to lose weight. I think I will try the calorie counting again, and hope that I can keep up with it for a bit longer this time. Unfortunately right now my eyeballs are too tired for numbers. But here’s what I ate today, sans calorie amounts… not bad, for me, those no-bake cookies are GOOD, so I am happy to have only eaten four. I made a small batch, thankfully.

Lunch
Sandwich: Bulkie roll, deli turkey, miracle whip
1/2 individual sized bag pretzels
Med iced coffee with milk

Dessert
2 no-bake cookies

Snack
1/2 cup jello

Dinner
Sandwich: Bulkie roll, buffalo style chicken, miracle whip
1/2 individual sized bag pretzels

Dessert
2 no-bake cookies

Gym tomorrow at 5:15am. 7 hours from now, meaning I should get some sleep. But first… question-o-the-day:

How often do you go out to eat? Where do you go?

I go out to eat A LOT. I switched jobs in June, and am getting better at bringing my lunches, but prior to that I was eating out just about every day for lunch, pretty much every Friday and Saturday night for dinner, and a couple of nights during the week. Not only was that unhealthy, but terribly expensive. Since starting the new job and having a more normal, forty-hour workweek, my boyfriend and I have made it a goal to cook more and I have been trying to bring my lunch more. But of course I do slip up, such as last week when I failed to bring my lunch Wednesday through Friday. I generally eat any of the little sandwich places around, such as Au Bon Pain. Thursday I grabbed some takeout sushi and on Friday, I was in a funk and ate two donuts for lunch. Yes, two donuts for lunch. My Friday and Saturday night dinners are usually at some type of chain restaurant. The last time was at one of our favorite places, where I got two grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon, and French fries. I ate every single bite of it and it was delicious. I probably would have died if I was calorie counting that night.
 
This week has been a good week.... The running club last week inspired me more than a little, and on Monday I was up at 5:15 jogging outside, by myself, for the first time in years. Did it again on Wednesday. Today I jogged after work with a friend in the park. Despite her "not being a runner," she wanted to do another lap around the park and I was pretty much ready to stop halfway through the one we were on. MapMyRun.com says we jogged 2.9 miles, non-stop! Couldn't believe that. Couldn't believe she wanted to keep going on. We both had a great time, and it looks like maybe I finally found a 5K buddy. It was a good day!
 
Hey welcome to the forum!! You sound a lot like me and our goals are pretty close. Looking forward to reading more! Keep it up - your doing great so far! I could never get up and run outside before work - I mean I tried it once or twice and loved it but then I just couldn't make myself do it again - I really love my bed! Have a great healthy weekend!
 
Thanks for stopping by, CG!! (I cannot bring myself to call you by the full name, that just sounds mean!) I’m much more of a morning person when it comes to running, if I waited until I got home from work I would never end up going. Unless it’s something scheduled, like a 5K or running with a friend, of course. And speaking of 5Ks…. Did one this morning! 33.12 or so, the official results haven’t been posted online yet. I did the same route in July in 36:40. Three minutes faster this time! It was ridiculously hot in July, and nice and cool and less humid today, so I’m sure that had a big part in it. But either way, I am happy. I jogged the whole thing, despite really, really wanting to stop and drink my water. Instead I just sort of aimed at my mouth and hoped for the best, haha.

I also weighed myself today for the first time in a few weeks. 159.2. I apparently blocked the last weigh-in from my mind, because I told my boyfriend there was no change and he laughed at me and said I had lost three pounds. And he was right! It’s slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I can’t remember if I said this already or not, but I put away my scale a while ago. Figured there are plenty of other ways to know if I’m on track or not, aka those skinny jeans that are now my fat jeans. Therefore, I have no idea how long it took me to lose those three pounds, but either way, they are GONE.

Thanks to everyone who has written to say they are proud of my efforts in running! It’s been a dream of mine for probably 8 years, and I am finally seeing that come true. Starting with 3.1 miles, and my ultimate goal is a half marathon. We’ll save that race for next year, though!!
 
Wow! I always dreamed of being a runner.. it might be possible when I loose a bit more and get lighter on my feet, thats awesome you're really doing it!!

Congrats on the 3 lbs thats so cool.

btw I should probs follow your example and put my scale away :S
 
Hello forum friends!

I never made it back to FitDay.com, but I have been logging my food and running on ActiveTrainer.com. Going on eleven days straight. Still not counting calories, but I am at least checking them when I eat snack foods. Will not be having cinnamon toast crunch again, haha. Big day yesterday for me… I went for a run with my friend after work again, doing the same 2.9 mile route. The boyfriend wanted McDonald’s for dinner but I declined, and instead ate a tuna fish lettuce wrap. I did not miss the bread one bit, and the lettuce added a nice crunch. And although I ate a late night snack for the first time in a while, I actually counted out one serving size of chips and two servings of salsa and sat down with that, instead of dumping some salsa into a bowl and cozying up with the whole bag of chips. Pretty big for me. Of course, the last Friday of the month in my office always means fruit and bagels for breakfast and pizza and cookies for lunch (oh, and I may have suggested that McDonald’s tonight :ack2: ) but hey, one good day is better than none, right? Baby steps!

I also bought a food scale off of Amazon.com, which has now been hanging out in the leasing office for days now. And it will be there until Tuesday, at least, due to the leasing office schedule not exactly coinciding with mine. But I’m pretty excited for it, I tend to overload my sandwiches with deli meat so this should help a lot.

That’s all I got, I’m trying to focus on writing but the Jerseylicious episode I’m watching is just too distracting!
 
Good for you for making those changes. Baby steps are still steps in the right direction! I count out my chips, too. If I have the whole bag in front of me I will lose control!

I really need to buy a food scale. After you use it for a few days, can you let us know how you like it? I just kind of guess at how much deli meat I am putting on my sandwiches, which is not good, lol.
 
Hi Laura, awesome going with that huge run! It's something I've always wanted to do as well, always been petrified of it though as I'm crap at it lol. I never thought of eating a lettuce wrap and leaving out the bread, thanks for that idea and I intend to use it with my next tuna lunch! :)
 
You guys will be the first to know how I like the food scale! I'm hoping to finally get it tonight, and I put some chicken in the fridge this morning to defrost (I keep some in the freezer all the time but usually fail to remember to take it out before I'm hungry) so I will definitely use it tonight to see how much chicken I am really eating.

After two weeks of successfully keeping track of my food intake, without calorie counting, I bit the bullet yesterday and kept track. And what an eye opener! Without any regard to calories until after they were all safely in my belly, I realized today I ate 2,528 calories, by my rough estimation. Thank goodness I didn't have that fried dough that I had planned on eating (I was watching Monday Night Raw live in Boston... yes, I am a RAW fan!) No wonder I am running but not losing much weight. That has GOT to change, and it will change NOW!! I think my body subconsciously knew it was in for something big, because I woke up with the biggest craving for a sausage egg and cheese bagel from Dunkin Donuts. Somehow I managed to go there for coffee and avoid the breakfast. Ate my low sugar oatmeal instead. Not quite the same, but I'll be much happier when I add up those calories today.
 
Oh, and Shinsplint, glad I could help :) Hope you like it as much as I did! I never really keep lettuce on hand because I tend to eat it once and forget about it, but I think I will have to make a point of having it around now. We can thank PF Chang's for the inspiration... they have delicious lettuce wraps there, although they're a little messier than my tuna wrap was!
 
girl that sounds too familiar.
I am 25 with a desk job as well! also snacking is my downfall too. I ADORE ice cream, cookies, chips.. sigh. it is tough to let it go indeed

I am also at 165 but unfortunately I don't have your wonderful height LOL
I am just 5'2 and need to go down to around 120.

good luck on your journey! btw love your diary's title. all my jeans are ''skinny'' jeans but I am certainly not skinny in them! lol
 
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