Awesome. I’m very excited to say that I am now an official member of the Healthy You Challenge. This will be my first week. I have been reading all about since I have started my blog and I finally convinced myself to sign up, and I am pumped to be a part of it. So many of the awesome blogs that I read are members of this challenge and I no longer wanted to be left out. So, for my first check in post, here are my details, my stats, the goods, the low down, the down low…you get my point:
My Current Weight: 209.2 lbs
My Starting Weight: 213.8 lbs
My Goal 1 Weight: 185.0 lbs
My Goal 1 End Date: April 11th, 2009
My Goal 2 Weight: 165.0 lbs
My Goal 2 End Date: October 27th, 2009
Food Action Plan:
My daily calorie intake will be 1200 calories a day, however, I can eat more if I work out, depending on how many calories are estimated to be burned from that workout. I am using MyFitnessPal.com as my tracking tool and it figures in those calories burned for me.
I am not really tracking anything else food wise, however I am trying to eat a lot more fruits and veggies, drinking lots of water, trying to eat less carbs and trying to fill up on foods that will help me feel more full and content for longer. Maybe next month or so I will start tracking another item such as carbs, fiber or proteins to help me make even better choices. And then slowly add on to what I am tracking. Thankfully I am a numbers lover so I truly enjoy tracking calories, sometimes I think I am trying to lose weight just so that I have something to track and chart. I am such a dork!
Fitness Action Plan:
My first few weeks my main goal was to do 30 minute workout sessions three times a week. It didn’t matter what I did, or how intense it was, as long as I stayed active for the full 30 minutes and that I did it 3 times during the week. So far so good. This week I am actually going to bump that up to 4 times a week now, but still keep it at 30 minute sessions.
Things I am doing for activity include going to the gym, workout DVDs at home, and walking or running with my dog Maliboo (we call her Boo). When I go to the gym I typically use the treadmill, the elliptical, or the stationary bike. I would like to incorporate more things at the gym soon, but baby steps for now, I am doing things I enjoy first to keep me motivated to go. Some of the DVDs that I workout to include Carmen Electra’s Fit to Strip (it’s the second disc of the series and really the only one that I like because it’s not a “dance” routine, but it’s a GOOD workout), DVDs from Self Magazine, and DVDs from Shape Magazine. I really enjoy most of my DVDs and like having a variety so that there is usually one I can do that will go along with the mood that I am in at the moment.
What’s Motivating Me:
Well, there is a lot of things driving me right now, but I will list just a few so as not to bore you.
1. Texas! Yes, Texas. I live in Ohio, with my boyfriend T.Love. However, he is from Texas, and our friend from there is getting married in April. We are going to the wedding and it will be the first time we have seen our friends and T.Love’s family in a long time. The date of the wedding is April 11th, and that’s the date I chose for my Goal 1 end date. (I split my goal into 2 parts so as not to feel too overwhelmed, I may even split it up some more in the future).
2. Florida! Disney World to be exact! My friends and I are planning a trip for there in October and I would love to be lookin’ good for that trip so I don’t have to be self conscious the whole time and so I can actually enjoy myself. Disney World is more than just Mickey Mouse and stuff to T.Love and I. It’s where we met, almost 6 years ago. It’s where I lived (and worked) for 7 months and had probably one of the best times of my life there. It’s also where I remember being the last time I was truly 100% happy with my body, with who I was. The health and shape and condition I was in 6 years ago when I was living in Orlando, Florida and working for Mickey Mouse is what I am striving to be again, it is my underlying motivation for my health and lifestyle. I really could go on and on about that time spent there, but I’d have to create a whole other blog titled “Disney Dork”. Hmmmm…..
3. My brothers wedding! Yay! My big bro is finally getting married and I couldn’t be happier for him. I love the woman he is with and I am totally honored that I get to be in the wedding. But, being in a wedding means being in a bridesmaids dress, one which I have already purchased. So gaining weight is not an option. That happened in the last wedding I was in and I was mortified. I gained so much weight that the dress did not zip at all, and I had to switch dresses with someone else and get it altered and yadda yadda yadda… no fun if you get my drift. This time, I am shooting for needing to get the dress taken in by wedding time. That would be sweet, I’d pay a lot of money for that to be the case. Oh yeah, did I mention that the wedding is in Vegas?!?!?! Yet another reason to lose weight.
4. My dog…. I love her, and she does not get enough exercise outside and I think she is going insane so T.Love and I are making more of an effort to go walking and running with her. She deserves it, she is nothing but a black fuzz ball of love to us. And, it would be nice to be able to run closer to her speed when we do run. When I do run with her, it’s pretty much her walking way far ahead of me and me running my little tail of behind her… haha, it’s a sight.
5. Ok, this will be my last one, but honestly the list could go on forever! but this one is important. here goes, you ready?, it’s ME! I want to do this for me, for my health, for a long, happy, healthy, active life with T.Love, Maliboo, Kitty( Peaches) and our future family. If I’m not doing this for myself, then there is no point in doing it.
So there you have it, my plan in a nutshell ( a BIG nutshell at that ). As part of the Healthy You Challenge, I will be updating my progress every week. Good luck to every one! and to sign out, here is a quote (my new favorite quote ) that I heard from Mary at A Merry Life. It is currently the words that I am trying desperately to live by in moments of weakness:
“NOTHING tastes as good as being thin feels”
Thanks Mary!
And Thanks Diana for starting (and maintaining) the Healthy You Challenge!
Feeling good this past week. I had a really good grip on everything I ate, minus a minor break down on Wednesday, but all is well. I managed to keep my goal of three 30 minute workout sessions for the week as well. Not gonna lie, I was really shocked that I did make my workout sessions because everyday I came up with an excuse NOT to go to the gym, but I managed to convince myself to still pump out some workouts to my DVD’s that I have. It’s been a long time since I have done these videos and boy did I forget how much they really do kick my butt. Each one left me super dog tired by the end of it. It felt REALLY good too.
Alright bloggers! I just wanted to share about a short article that I read in Self Magazine last night. It’s and older issue I think but I just now had time to go back and read through it. The article was about the healthy benefits of blogging, even if it’s just a ‘for your eyes only’ blog. They claim that blogging can help with your sleeping. It states that when you blog about your feelings, you bring on relaxation, which helps your body rest easier at night. They also state that it can help with our immune system saying that “expressive writing may encourage growth of white blood cells, which fight off infection.” Lastly, the say that blogging can help lower blood pressure and heart rate, which will keep our hearts in better shape. So go us for not only blogging for our health with the goals of losing weight or getting fit, but for doing an all around pick me up on our bodies!
If you have read earlier posts of mine, you may have come across some about Sparkpeople.com and how much I LOVE that site. I use that site mostly for logging my food and exercise, for their recipe section, and also because it is flooding with articles about becoming a better you.
While I still LOVE them, and will still probably use that site a lot, I think I may have found a new favorite for food and workout logging. I stumbled upon this site when I was looking for a place to make my weight loss ticker. The site is MyFitnessPal.com It is a much more simple interface and still seems to have a huge database similar to that of Sparkpeople.com’s. However, the part that seems to reel me in the most, is the “plan” you setup in your profile and how it intertwines into the food and fitness logs. When you sign up (and yes it’s free) you fill out some profile information and it takes about a minute. You enter your birthday, height, weight, goal weight, gender, normal daily activity level, how many times a week you plan on working out, and your goal for weekly losses (or gains) and you can select from gain 1 pound a week to lose 2 pounds a week. Now I would LOVE to lose more than 2 pounds a week, but I know better and I know that it is not healthy to push it more than that. So I chose the lose 2 pounds a week option. Here is a screen shot below, it’s kind of blurry, but if you click on it, it will be better:
Now, once you fill all that information out, it will display your suggested nutrition and fitness goals based on your answers that you just provided. It will display your suggested targets for net calories, carbs, fat, and protein consumed a day as well as the target calorie burn per week as well. Now my net calories scared me when I first saw that it was 1200, but then I realized that if I workout, it takes those calories burned and puts them in to the remaining calories I have left to consume. So the more I exercise, the more I get to eat! Yay! I know, that’s pretty common sense but it didn’t seem to click until I saw it laid out here and on my food log.
Also, it will tell you when you will be expected to lose 10 pounds by if you follow the plan. How cool. Now I do realize, that (A). I have to follow the plan to reach that goal, and (B). that everyone’s body is different so the result will most likely vary, even if I am by the book on this. However, I am very much a numbers type of girl… I really love crunching numbers, (which is why I think I actually REALLY like tracking calories) so when I see all of this laid out in front of me, it makes me feel like it is more attainable in a sense. Seeing this doesn’t make me feel sick like I do when I say I need to lose 50 pounds by June.
The reason why I like the food and fitness trackers more here than Sparkpeople is because underneath my goal calories, it says how many calories I have remaining and how many extra I have earned through workouts and it will adjust the totals accordingly. So if I burn 300 calories running, then it will add 300 to my 1200 calorie goal for the day, and then I get all excited because I get to eat more if I want. Woo Hoo!
Alright, so I guess it isn’t that cool, but I really like it alot, it is a much more simplistic design than sparkpeople and I think maybe I just needed a change of scenery. So still lovin’ the spark, but lovin’ My Fitness Pal now too…
…and it was so much easier to do than I thought it would be. What I am talking about really has nothing to do with losing weight (although there is some research that it actually does affect it) however, it does have EVERYTHING to do with my health.
One year ago today, I quit smoking. With the exception of one night, I have not smoked a day since then. I quit cold turkey. I say that I have no clue how I did it, but I do, and it has everything to do with the guy I was dating then, and the love of my life who I am with now.
A few days before I decided to quit smoking the guy I was dating at the time, decided that he wanted to split up after three long years. It sucked, it was awful, but it’s over and I’ve moved on and I am in a WAY better place now, with a much better person. I won’t say that my ex is the reason why I smoked, that is not fair at all, and I am the only one I can hold accountable for smoking, but I will say that I smoked to have another reason to be around him, to have another thing in common with him. I smoked before I met him, but not as much as I did when we were together. I know it’s lame. I didn’t see the point of quitting if he was going to be smoking. I know I know this sounds soooo pathetic but i guess I’m kind of rambling now. It was just one of those things, after a meal, we would smoke together, at the bar we would go out to smoke together, when we would work on fixing up the house, we would take smoke breaks together, you get the picture. It wasn’t that he was the reason I was smoking, but he was definitely not a reason I was quitting either.
Well, 3 years later, it all comes to an end right after new years. I denied it then, but I’m so much better off without him now. A few days after we broke up, my friends and I went to the bar, and well, drank, alot, and with that I smoked, ALOT. So needless to say the next morning I was in pain, but mostly my throat was killing me from all that I smoked. And I realized then at that moment that I no longer had anyone to smoke with, and I was feeling very disgusted with the thought of smoking, that I decided there was no reason to continue. So I haven’t.
It was really hard in the beginning. But I had someone new in my life, well kind of. I have been friends with this person for almost 5 years now, but we got back in touch with each other when he came back from Korea in December. (He is from Texas, I am from Ohio, so we only really spoke over text, and email). In March I went to go see him and things went incredibly well, and I came home without that hole in my heart that had been making it ache so much. I came back no longer as single Cookie. I now had my boyfriend T.Love. And I love him so much. And having him in my life helped me to not pick up a cigarette again. He thinks smoking is gross, and of course I wanted to impress him since this was a new relationship. He also was the first person to tell me that he was proud of me for quitting. I had gone about three months cold turkey so far, and one day, out of no where, he sent me a text saying that he wasn’t sure if he had said it yet, but that he was so proud of me for quitting and knows that it is a hard thing to do. So whenever I craved a cigarette, I would think of him and how proud he was and that now I have someone to live for, so it no longer made sense throw my health away on a cigarettes. Now my T.Love lives here in Ohio with me and we don’t smoke, together 
I really thought I was a smoker for life, and never thought it was an option for me to quit. I enjoyed it too much, guess I found other things to enjoy. I’ve been reading a lot of your blogs lately, and everyone has wonderful stuff about their accomplishments of 2008, and I never posted one, because I didn’t think I did much, I didn’t think I had much to be proud of, but as I’m writing this I’m realizing that I was wrong. I quit smoking, I found my future husband, I got my new puppy Boo, and my new kitty Peaches, I have a great circle of friends, and I’m realizing that I have the power and abilities to do more than I ever thought I could.
Who knows, maybe a year from today I will be writing a similar post, of how I am even healthier because I reached my goal weight, and that my future husband is my husband (or fiance), and that my wonderful circle of friends, is still my wonderful circle of friends only plus some more babies (wink wink Mr. and Mrs. W, and you too Mr. and Mrs P, Baby B needs a sibling!) and maybe even another marriage!
Well, I do know, that I am very hopeful for 2009 and already know it is going to be a good year. Sorry if this post turned mushy at points, it really was supposed to be strictly about quitting smoking, guess I wanted to share more!
~Cookie~
Getting back to where I started… Maybe now I can show some progress in the correct direction, you know, lose, not gain, like I have since I started this blog… Go figure… But, I’ve been doing better lately and I hope that I can keep goin’ down!
For very obvious reasons…
I wrote a post last Monday about what will be motivating me to stick with my efforts to lose weight and get healthy, and I have a new one that I would like to add to the list. (To see the rest of the list go here. )
Some how, ( I have absolutely no idea how), but somehow, I let my dear friend Miss E. convince me to do a triathlon with her. Like I said, I have no idea how. I haven’t even done a 5k yet, but I apparently think that I can do a .5 mile swim, a 12 mile bike and a 5k. Really? How crazy can I be??? But I am going to do it, and I am going to finish, and that is my goal for that race, to finish, and I honestly think that will be a HUGE accomplishment, just to finish.
The race is August 19th, 2009. It is the TRex Triathlon. And I am actually really excited for it. I haven’t come up with a specific training program yet, but I want to do some research this week and see what some others recommend for a beginner. I will keep you updated on what I plan on doing and how my "training" goes. The coolest thing about it is EVERYONE gets a medal, very exciting if you ask me. I will do it for that, definitely…
Sunday is already here and almost over???? Already? Work has been so incredibly stressful lately and I am dreading Monday so much that I have spent the last 2 hours trying to come up with ways that I could logically quit my job, but still have some livable source of income. Guess what, not happening! Ah well, nothing I can do but take it one day at a time. Definitely time to find a new job though. Anyways, here is what I have had to eat for sunday:
Baked potato: 100 cal
Light Sour Cream: 40 cal
onions: 30 cal
Orange: 100cal
It’s a weird combination I know, especially since it was my breakfast, but I didn’t have breakfast until almost 1pm so I guess its not really breakfast anymore then huh?
Lunch, dinner, whatever it may be called…
Tuna Sandwhich:
Bread: 140 cal
Tuna: 60 cal
Mayo: 110 cal
Cheese: 70 cal
Lettuce and onion: 30 cal
This is pho… it’s a Vietnamese dish, that my friend Mrs. W made and it was delish. Her sister said it was kind of like what chicken noodle soup is to Americans. I liked it alot (which is surprising because I am somewhat of a picky eater). I however have no idea how many calories it was, so hopefully its not too bad in that aspect. I should be OK since I have only had a total of about 700 calories so far.
Its about 8pm and I am very full right now so I hope I won’t have a major snack attack tonight before bed like I always do.
As for working out, T.Love and I went to the park with our puppy Maliboo and walked for almost and hour.
I really hope that I actually make to the gym tomorrow. I think I will but T.Love wont be able to go and I tend to have a harder time convincing myself to go when I have to go it alone.
What I am Eating Today (so far)…
Surprise Surprise! I had Kix for breakfast… AGAIN!
And for Lunch, I had a yummy Healthy Choice Chicken Margherita Cafe Steamer and a glass of hot chocolate.
I will update tomorrow the rest of what I ate when I get a chance to go somewhere that has internet for poor little Cookie to use.
OK, so it is now Sunday and I can finally finish updating what I ate for Friday. I didn’t keep good track on Saturday, but surprisingly I did today so I will post that also. Here’s the rest of Friday.
DInner was surprisingly yummy, I had hamburger helper ( I know, not the best choice, but we currently don’t have much to choose from in the house), and a salad with some balsamic vinegarette dressing. I dont remember how many calories this meal ended up being but the hamburger helper was about 340. Some how I managed to not snack at all late at night on Friday night which NEVER is the case. I snack WAY too much and I know its the reason why I let myself get to my highest weight ever.
T.Love and I also went to the gym even though I spent the whole day at work thinking of excuses to get out of the gym, so yay me for going! woo hoo!
Well, thats about all for Friday, hope to have internet soon so I can update things more frequently and not have things so after the fact.
