Ups and Downs of weight loss

When I stepped on the scale last week, I knew I'd take a hit. I had my first "real" cheat day in 3 months and enjoyed a day of eating all the junk food I had lived without (donuts, regular soda, croissants, french fries, etc). In one day. Surprisingly, this resulted in a weight gain of only 1 pound. This week, I focused on sticking to the calories My Fitness Pal allots me and was rewarded with an almost 4 pound loss! Which makes it now 32 pounds I've dropped since the beginning of my journey.

It's been 3 months this weekend, so that makes it a little over 10 pounds a month. While I am certain I would have dropped more without my various ups and downs in how I have eaten, I also know that I will continue to have success because I am not "dieting." Instead, I have changed the way I eat, allowed myself exceptions and learning experiences, and am able to see food as nourishment first instead of a tasty fix.

If you're on a path to better nutrition, I recommend three things:

The My Fitness Pal app
GNC Total Lean Ready-to-drink Shakes
Yogurt (personal fav is the Cherry Fage)

Good luck!

Miscalculations

In the world of weight management, there is one factor that can silently sabotage your efforts...bad information. While much of the world is doing a great job of listing their calorie counts on their menus and in nutritional data online, not every restaurant does this yet. When having to do it on your own, it is quite possible that you will miscalculate things you eat.

This week, I did that. And I gained weight because of it. Thanks to My Fitness Pal, I was able to look at which foods I KNEW I got right, which then allowed me to see what I must have counted wrong. This did several things for me:

• It allows me to never eat those foods again, since I clearly can't properly account for them
• It allows me to NOT beat myself up for the weight gain
• and most importantly, it allows me to NOT let this to be a setback 

When you're trying to be healthy and lose weight (or gain it), as with everything in life, there is going to be a learning curve. Some days, weeks, months everything will go the way you think it will. And some won't. That's normal. When you don't know why it happened, it's easy to tell yourself that you failed, that your body is against you, that you might as well just give up because you clearly can't do this.

But when you know why, when you have the right tools and the means of changing your thought life to support you instead of sabotage you, miscalculations can be seen for what they are. Miscalculations. Not an attack, not a failure, not a character flaw. Just a simple, human, miscalculation.

So as I start my Friday, instead of feeling weaker, I actually feel stronger. I know how to do better next week, I know what to avoid and what doesn't support my efforts. I feel empowered.

***Sidenote: You'll notice in my post on what I eat, instead of deleting the things that contributed to this gain, I lined them out so that you too can avoid them :)

Friends are great reminders

This past week, I had the pleasure of sharing my new found success with a good friend of mine. I listened as she expressed her frustration at recent weight gain and then had a time of reflection as she said no to having a salad with me for dinner because "I already had dunkin donuts today, so I'm going all out for dinner."

I remember being there. I remember when my brain was not on my side. I remember when each moment was consumed with thoughts of when I could eat again, which carbs I wanted, when I could get the next sugar high.

Listening to my friend, I had an extreme feeling of empathy; but not just for her, I had it for myself. I thought back to how I had been and thought for so many years and I just felt sorry for that 'me.' The slavery I had to my thoughts was so strong that at one point I tried to join the football team in school and later the army...just to have someone structure my life in such a way that my brain couldn't control me anymore. I was willing to have a drill sergeant scream at me and open myself up to going to war just to find some mental peace.

Ultimately neither of those happened, so my thoughts kept attacking me and sabotaging any of my attempts to change. When I finally decided I was going to get lapband, I was done. I was done fighting, I was done being bullied by my thoughts and I was done feeling worse every morning.

As I've shared in previous posts, my journey to getting the lapband included several epiphanies. The final one was that I simply had to say NO to myself. And I had to mean it. Listening to my friend struggle with her thoughts showed me just how far I've come. I don't try, I don't talk myself into eating healthy, I don't distract myself from thinking about unhealthy foods. I am free, completely.

The recipe for getting where I am is pretty simple:

Say no.
Pray.
Get people to support you without judgement and without jealousy (avoid others who are struggling still - they will unknowingly talk you out of making good decisions)

If you want to know:

What I eat

My exercise routine

My church

What I eat

Within 1 hour of waking (170 calories):

• Chocolate GNC Total Lean Shake
• Coffee with just a splash of half&half

3-4 hours later, lunch (400-600 calories):

• Hale and Hearty salad with chicken, spinach, goat cheese, strawberries, cucumbers and onions. Chili-Lime vinaigrette with french bread on the side and 2 pats of butter

or

• Panera Bread pick two deal with greek salad (no olives) and black bean soup (or chicken noodle), a side of french bread and 3 pats of butter

or

• Beans and rice with cheese and LOTS of hot sauce

or

• Subway sandwich

3-4 hours later, snack (100-300 calories):

• Greek yogurt

or

• frozen yogurt with white chocolate chips and raspberries

or

• White cheddar popcorn

or

• Hummus and pita

or

• GNC Total Lean Vanilla Shake with a splash of coffee

3-4 hours later, dinner (200-600 calories):

• Wahoos #1 with blackened chicken taco, white rice, white beans and a grip of limes

or

• Spicy tuna roll and 2 pieces of salmon nigiri

or

• Salad with tuna, crushed lime tostidos, tomato, onion, red leaf lettuce and lemon juice

or

• Cream cheese, salsa and lime tostidos

or

• Pineapple chicken with white rice

or

• GNC Total Lean Shake

Snacks at night, if I need more calories or want dessert:

• Sugar free chocolate/vanilla swirl pudding

or

• Brookside dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds

or

• Frozen yogurt with mini m&ms and mini marshmallows

I use the My Fitness Pal app daily!!

Perseverance

After last weeks minor setback, I proved to myself that I have changed. How? I did NOT emotionally react, feel defeated and throw in the towel. Instead, I had a protein day, got back to the gym and prayed that God would work His magic on my body to heal it and help it to rebound quickly from the illness and medication.

This week I am down not just the weight I gained that week, but an additional pound, bringing my total pounds lost to 25.6! I was prepared for it to come off slowly and was completely awe struck at the scale this morning. I knew I had followed the right eating plan and exercised; but with steroids, I was cautious to be optimistic. I'm overjoyed to see the quick rebound my body made and be able to see God's hand in helping me to get through that bump with a good attitude and get to see such awesome results.

Last weekend I realized I could no longer wear my normal work pants, as they're way too big, so I went shopping. I figured I'd be down a size and brought a bunch of pants to the dressing room. They were all too big. I'm down 2 sizes! It's such a great feeling to know I'm in control of my body and my mind even when things externally impact me.

Another funny thing...I took a picture with a friend and could actually see the difference in my face. It's weird when you see your own weight loss happening.

Excited for the weekend!!

Surprise success

Having gone on vacation for a week and eaten a bit more than usual, I was expecting this week to reflect a bit of that. Last week I dropped a pound and a half, so I thought if I was lucky I dropped another 2 pounds this week.

When I got on the scale, I had to re-weigh myself 3 times from disbelief. I dropped 6 pounds this week! Granted I tried to eat a bit less this week to make up for last week, but I never expected THAT! I cannot recommend highly enough the My Fitness Pal app. It has made ALL the difference. I'm able to keep track of everything so easily and monitor myself constantly.

Before my vacation, I expressed my concerns with several friends from church, so I feel very thankful that their prayers helped me get through it all with such ease and success. I feel strong, empowered and able to succeed like I never have before!

Success

On the road to health, it's always important to point out the things you do right. This week, even though I suffered from some additional stressers, I was able to stay right where I needed to be. I ate 1500 calories or less each day, started my day with a protein shake and got to the gym 3 times.

As a kid, there was VERY little I wouldn't do for a gold star. So to honor my inner child:

The real reward? On top of feeling great, I am down another 3 pounds. That makes it 18 so far!! I think instead of thinking in those terms I want to start thinking toward my goal instead of away from my past. So to change it up, I am now 111 pounds from my goal! The goal could change as I'm more interested in feeling great and being healthy than weighing a specific number, but for now it'll work.

Tomorrow I leave for a week-long trip around the northeast. It'll be awesome, but will carry with it additional eating challenges and probably no time to work out regularly. I'm fortunate to have a body of fellow Christians who support, pray and encourage me along this journey. One of them sent me an email after my last post encouraging me through my munchies. If you don't have a support system, I highly encourage you to get one. It really makes a difference to feel like there are people rooting for you.

I attribute my success this week to my support system, the My Fitness Pal app and my planning. Happy Friday, kids!

My Fitness Pal review

In all fairness, this is my first day using it, so I could change my mind; but I LOVE the My Fitness Pal app! You can search various foods, put in calories yourself or create an entire food profile. It then compiles everything into weekly or longer data so you can see your progress. I also love that it tells you based on your weight, height and goal how many calories to eat per day.

Before you think this is just for those losing weight, it has goals to gain or maintain as well; and it has entries for exercise. I am not easily impressed and that is the word I would use with regard to this app! I had been writing down each days foods (if it goes in my mouth, it's counted) so this lets me do so on my phone, which is ALWAYS with me. In addition because you can enter your own foods into it, you can figure out your favorite meals once, input it with a name you'll remember, then just go to My Foods and find it the next time you eat it, instead of trying to recalculate things.

What's even MORE awesome is that because you create a login, you can access the information even if for some reason your phone isn't with you. Though I imagine that isn't often. I was able to see a pattern in my eating that tells the story of the successful weeks of weight loss versus non-successful ones. Oddly for me, I have many days where I under-eat so this called me on it and will encourage me to get my calories in regularly. A healthy metabolism is a properly fed metabolism.

Happy App-ing kids!