LADDventure

WAIST Management 1.5

Current Weight:  182
Weight Lost This Week:  .8 pounds
Total Weight Lost: That makes an even 4 pounds

Slowly but surely.  The good news is as follows...A-LOSING!  So the needle on the scale is moving in the right direction.  B-I know there is still a lot more I could be doing, or things I could be doing more consistently to speed up the weight loss even further and see even more results, so here are my goals for this week:
1.  Drink lots of water.  I am aiming for 90 ounces a day.
2.  Snacks should be fruit and/or veggies, period.  No arguments young lady.
3.  Move my body ever day.
4.  Write something every day this week, and post on the blog.  As I've said before, writing is conscious living for me, and I need that to be making healthy choices.  So check back every day this week for blog posts on all kinds of things! I said it online, now I have to do it right?   

Keeping it simple and hoping to see an even bigger number next week.  But, with that said, here are some other improvements caused by my new healthier ways that are not necessarily evident on the scale but just as exciting:
1.  Fewer stomach issues and migraines (thanks to far less processed food, more essential vitamins and minerals, and my new best friend, the chiropractor).
2.  Less muffin top.
3.  Less puffy face and neck. 
4.  Less laziness when it comes to my daily appearance (once I change out of my pajamas for the day, quiet Jeremiah)

 Thanks for checking in, and I'd love to hear what you are doing to lose weight/get healthy in the comments section below.  Every week I will post a question and would love for you to answer it, and share your wealth of knowledge!  
This week we are wondering ...

What improvement in your body do you notice first when you are living a healthier lifestyle?

WAIST Management 1.3 1.4

Current Weight:  182.8
Weight Lost This Week:  1.4 pounds!!!
Total Weight Lost: 3.2 pounds

I am particularly proud of that 1.4 pounds moving in the right direction in light of traveling, PMS, Wisconsin, cheese curds, enough said.
I was dreading the scale when I got back Wednesday night so it took me until today to weigh myself.  We will be jeeping all day on Sunday (excited squeal, it's been way too long), so I thought I would just weigh in today for the last two weeks.  I was honestly just hoping I didn't do too much damage, but was pleasantly surprised to see a loss, a 1.4 pound loss to be exact!
I usually have a very bad habit of thinking of everything in terms of all or nothing.  And, when it comes to trying to lose weight, that doesn't go over well.   
Here is the biggest thing I am learning..THE LITTLE THINGS MATTER.  I didn't have the perfect 2 weeks, but these are some little things that apparently worked.

• I chose fruit.  Ok not every time, but most of the time when ordering in a restaurant, I chose fruit as a side if it was available.  A side salad just seems like a poor substitute for fries, but if I think of the fruit as dessert, then I feel more satisfied.  

• I ate half.  Quite a few times, while eating out, if I really wanted something I would order it, but just eat half.  I would cut that burger, or sandwich in half before I even started eating and have them take the other half away when I was done, so I wouldn't be tempted to nibble.  That way I didn't feel deprived , but if I truly paid attention to my body, I was full and satisfied, and didn't need double the fat and calories.  

• I drank water.  Lots of it, with every meal and in addition to any other beverage.  

•  I had help.  This is actually something I previously thought of as a little thing, until I started sharing this journey on the blog.  I used to think that support from friends and family would just be annoying and feel like everyone was checking up on me, or that it wasn't really necessary because it was my own personal journey.  Not anymore.  This is a big thing.  Reading your tips and encouragement and knowing you'd be checking back in has been a huge motivator.  My friends and family were too sweet back in Wisconsin also.  My mom and dad had all kinds of fruit in the house when I first arrived.  My sister and brother-in-law had pre-cut all kinds of veggies to make salads and bought me diet coke.  My brother and sister-in-law made vegan enchiladas for dinner one night.  My other brother and sister-in-law were so thoughtful to ask if an awesome vintage burger joint was ok for dinner, which it was, but just their consciousness of it made me more conscious of it.  That's what prompted me to only eat half.  My dear friend made me a yummy veggie omelet with fruit and yogurt after a long walk early in the morning to catch up.  I have definitely wildly underestimated how important that support is, and am extremely grateful for it now.

 Thanks for checking in and I'd love to hear what you are doing to lose weight/get healthy in the comments section below.  Every week I will post a question and would love for you to answer it and share your wealth of knowledge!  
This week we are wondering ...

What "little thing" do you notice makes a big difference in your own journey to lose weight and/or get healthy?

WAIST Management 1.2

Current Weight:  184.2
Weight Lost This Week:  Gained 0.4 pounds (boo hiss)
Total Weight Lost: 1.8 pounds

I weighed myself every which way possible this morning, but the fact remained.  A 0.4 pound GAIN.  Grrrrr...Ok still down overall from 186, but it is hard not to be disappointed when you see a gain in Week 2.  I know this is all part of the process, and I could have made even better choices, and your body starts to freak out a smidge when you change things so radically and store fat cause it thinks it's starving, and maybe next week will be a really big loss, blah blah blah.  I am consciously trying to break my all or nothing mentality of the past as in, "See, I was so careful this week and it's not working, so I guess I'll just eat half a pan of brownies."  No.  It is frustrating, but I am choosing to focus on what I can still improve in terms of my diet, other healthy goals, and keeping up the things that I know are working well for Week 3.

My Goals for Week 3:

1. Just keep tracking, tracking, tracking (sung to the tune of Just Keep Swimming from Nemo).  Tracking my food with exact portions is so important and it works so I need to keep it up.

2.  Move my body every day.  Some form of exercise needs to happen for at least 30 minutes every day.  This will be tricky as I am traveling this week back to WI, but I need to really get in this habit.

3.  Get enough sleep.  I had a very difficult time falling and staying asleep this week, and I don't think that helped anything.  I need to make it a conscious effort to get 8 hours of sleep.

4.  No fast food.  I haven't had fast food (other than Jimmy Johns) in the last 2 weeks.  Traveling for me, especially back to the Midwest, makes that tempting.  I will avoid the airport Wendy's, or Tacos El Rey and Infusino's back home.  I know my weaknesses, and although there are better choices to be found at these places, I tend not to make those better choices when I am there :-)


5.  Plan ahead.  I find myself starving after an airplane ride, or running around my hometown to catch up with everyone and then just eating whatever.  I will pack healthy snacks and be mindful of not letting myself get so hungry that I want to eat everything in sight.


I will be checking back with a weigh in next Wednesday after I get back to Ariona, so I'm using the same scale consistently.  Unless of course I find a scale in Wisconsin that tells me I've miraculously lost 10 pounds in which case I will be posting sooner. Here's to a great week of travel and just making the next healthy choice one at a time!


Thanks for checking in and I'd love to hear what you are doing to lose weight/get healthy in the comments section below.  Every week I will post a question and would love for you to answer it and share your wealth of knowledge!  

This week we are wondering ...

What are some of your best healthy travel tips?

     

WAIST Management 1.1

Current Weight:  183.8
Weight Lost This Week:  2.2 Pounds!!!!!!!
Total Weight Lost: 2.2 Pounds

First of all, thank you so much for your kind words after this initial post in which I bared it all.  That was a difficult thing to do, but you all made me so glad I did.  You have totally been an encouragement to me already, and a source of accountability as I thought about the fact that I would have to post this week's results here today while my husband ate cheese and crackers last night and I drooled.  I am thrilled with my 2.2 pound weight loss this week, and you better believe that .2 counts! The little things matter.

Some little things I did this week that made a huge difference:

1.  Tracked my daily eating in Weight Watchers Online.  I do not go to meetings (you guys are my version of meetings and I like you better quite frankly).  But, entering everything I eat or drink makes me conscious of it, thus prompting me to make better choices.  That's why I do love Weight Watchers.  It's just a tool to make intentional choices about food.  No magic or pills involved.

2.  Menu planned and stocked up on lots of organic fruits and veggies Monday at Trader Joe's.

3.  Ate a lot of said fruits and veggies.  Fruits and vegetables are worth 0 points on the new Points Plus Weight Watchers system.  Which, I love because it reinforces the most nutritious choices.  So, I can eat all the fruit and vegetables I want.  It makes sense because no one ever got fat on fruit and vegetables.   I found myself reminded that yes, I can just eat fruit for breakfast, and I didn't need to have some sort of bread product with it.  Bananas and mango can be breakfast, and a tasty one at that.

4.  On Wednesday, made a very low point value, but tasty lunch to go with my afternoon cocktails on my pool day with Jess to balance out the cocktails.  (Enter veggies and fruit again).  This is the other thing I love about Weight Watchers - no deprivation.  I just have to make good choices.  I knew I would be having a couple of cocktails, so I had fruit for breakfast, mostly veggies for lunch, and then even splurged on a Jimmy John's turkey sub for dinner, but just accounted for all of that.  Nothing is "off limits."

5.  Drank lots of water, which is easy to do when it's 100some degrees outside.

6.  Looked at the online menu of a restaurant I was going to meet a friend at for lunch, made a good choice, and then stuck to it when it came time to order.   I am very proud of myself for this one because I do enjoy a french fry but opted for a salad ahead of time.

Here are some things I can do better this week to keep up the weight loss momentum:

1.  Track every little bit of food or drink that crosses my lips.  I am familiar with Weight Watchers, so sometimes I got lazy this week knowing approximately how many points I had eaten and forgot to track it.

2.  Tracking it more exactly would help me budget my points a bit better, so I have more weekly points left at the end of the week.  (See above...used almost all my weekly flex points on Wednesday)

3.  Walk the dogs.  A simple walk every day is a great way to start adding in more activity to my daily routine.  The bonus is I get to add in points for activities, which means I get to eat more, which obviously I enjoy.

 4.  We started a weekly subscription to Chow Locally's Chow Share  box of locally grown, organic produce, so I will be planning around that.  My goal is to use up each and every fruit or veggie in there this week. On a side note there is rhubarb in this week's box, and my Midwestern heart is happy!  I have literally had a 3 year craving for rhubarb.  Crisp anyone?

5.  Less alcohol.  Not that I had a kegger or anything, but those poolside cocktails add up.

Thanks for checking in and I'd love to hear what you are doing to lose weight/get healthy in the comments section below.  Every week I will post a question and would love for you to answer it and share your wealth of knowledge!  

This week we are wondering ...

What is your favorite summer fruit treat?
      Mine:  Frozen mango.  Snacks all week came from  a big bag of frozen mango from Sam's 
      Club that I ate still half frozen.  It's already cut up, and tastes like a refreshing, nutritious 
       popsicle.

WAIST Management - Getting Real

This was supposed to be Sunday's post.  It has taken me 2 days and lots of excuses to work up to writing it.  I ran into this post on Mama Laughlin's hilarious blog, and it inspired me to share.  My new direction is a response to what I felt was a lot of waste in my life. I have been wasting time, relationships, food, space, money, my house, creativity, talent, opportunities.

One of the largest things (pun intended), that I feel I've been wasting is my youth and relative health.  By relative health I mean that there is no disease or disorder I am struggling from that is out of my control at this point.  I have become increasingly aware of the fact that there are other 31 year old women who have cancer for example, or M.S., or who are wheelchair bound.  I am not one of them.  I should be using this able body to get  healthy and live life.  I am overweight, stressed, and lazy quite frankly, none of which are beyond my control to change.

So here is my current state of affairs when it comes to my WAIST management...

186 pounds currently (yikes I just typed that out loud). 

Size 14 pants (complete with muffin top).  

Shorts are nowhere to be found in my closet (but elastic is plentiful).

14 in dresses and skirts (and heaven forbid it hits above my knee).

XL in tops or anything with no number size (enter elastic again as yoga pants abound, but no yoga is being done in them).

I couldn't even tell you my true bra size unless there's a size ill-fitting (my cup overfloweth).

I have slowly gained weight over the last 10 years or so and told myself the following:
"I'm just curvy" (which I am even at a size 4, but my curves are now hidden under fluff)
"I gain weight proportionately"  (but there is nothing proportionate about 5'3" and 186 pounds)
"I'm confident with who I am" (and by confident I mean crying in my closet and avoiding pictures)
"I'm perfectly healthy" (cue migraines, back and neck pain, IBS, exhaustion)
"I'm just too busy" (crap no excuses now, I just quit my job)

 "I'll start losing weight and getting in shape Monday, or after the holidays, or when summer starts." (or when this zombie apocalypse is over.  You get the picture.   Always making it an all or nothing even though I know deep down that I can start now with my very next food or activity decision, and those little things add up to true weight loss.)

I have been a smidge heavier, but I've been WAY lighter and healthier and need to get back there.  It's not just about the number.  If I was 5'11" and looked and felt my best at 186, then I'd be thrilled with 186.  Not the case. My goal weight is 130 pounds - 50ish pounds I would eventually like to lose.  But along the way I will celebrate the small successes so I will be checking in every Sunday with my WAIST MANAGEMENT post.  Sunday is my weigh in day, and I will include progress pictures every 10 pounds to keep myself accountable and hopefully inspire a bit along the way. I'm enlisting the help of my online peeps to encourage me, share tips with me, and tell me to put down that doughnut.  So feel free to comment and cheer me on!

So with an adventurous spirit, here are the BEFORE pictures...

In the interest of full disclosure, I chose to take the picture with the disarray that is my current bathroom visible as well.  

And here's to the last time I will see 186 in the mirror or on the scale!