Monday, December 31, 2012

Fifty pounds gone!

Today is the last day of 2012 and I hit my fifty pounds lost mark today. I'm actually surprised that I hit it because on Christmas morning I was 3 pounds away then the day after Christmas my weight went up 2 pounds!  YIKES I started drinking water like crazy and got right back on my 'clean' eating. Now, I'm not a clean eating fanatic! I eat mostly unprocessed foods, but I did allow my favorite Christmas cookies (just at the last one today!). My weight usually fluctuates up and down. I will have a loss and then the weight goes up a couple of pounds for two or three days before it comes back down. Well, I was technically at 48.8 pounds lost yesterday so I didn't expect the scale to be down again this morning, but when I woke up and the scale was right at 50 pounds lost I was excited!

I will have someone take pictures of me (not my husband, he is camera illiterate, but I still love him!) and I'll take measurements to post. I'm not sure I am going to post my actual weight, but we will see!  I will get all that done today or tomorrow!

I wanted to have a reward for my fifty pound weight loss and thought about getting a body fat caliper, but that would only be used once in a while and I feel might be a waste of money. I did some research and there is a little Pod type body fat machine at a local college that costs $30.00 to get your body fat tested and other than the hydrostatic this is the most accurate body fat tester. I think the best part is I can go back in a year and have it done again for just $15.00.  So I will call after the new year and see if I can set up an appointment for that.

So, that leaves me with a reward for myself. I want new shoes...I know technically that is a need, but I don't actually NEED them yet, but since I'm seriously into my exercise I want to make sure I have good shoes so I think I'm going to get these:


New Balance 770v3, Green with White & Grey

I have plans to do several 'races' this year. I just do them for fun and to challenge myself. I am never a serious contender because I'm too slow, but I'm faster than the person sitting on the couch!  :)

The first race I'm already signed up for is the Shamrock 8k (4.98 miles) at Virginia Beach. I did this race in 2005 and had planned to do it the next year because Mike and I liked it so much, but my mom passed away that year and that was just the end of my motivation for a while. So, this year I'm doing it again. I hope I can beat my time of 1:37 from last time, but I'll be a little heavier than I was last time, although I will have been training more so it will all be a wash for pros and cons. I would like to do it under 1:30, but just to finish would be great!

My second goal is to do a half marathon in October in Baltimore. That was the last race I was signed up for before I seriously began to gain weight. I was injured for this race and couldn't participate in it which made me sad...it was just a two weeks after this race that my mom passed away.

Those are my solid goals for 2013. I am going to try to do a half marathon in my town in August...that might be pushing my limits as far as time to get ready, but it's in my mind. The other is the 10 miler in Lynchburg in September. That's a hard course in my mind because of the hills, but I have some friends who are doing it so it might be a fun thing to do. I know if nothing else I can always count on my husband to do it with me and stay with me if I want him to!  :)

I think I've decided that my theme for this year is going to be: "Because I can!" Several years ago I had an F150 with four wheel drive and we happened to have a bad winter according to Virginia standards and my motto that year when my husband would ask why I wanted to go somewhere in this weather was, "Because I can!" Well, I have a healthy body other than too much weight. There are many people with thin bodies that can't exercise so I am blessed to be able to exercise at my weight so my theme this year is, "Because I can!" What is yours going to be?

Well, that is my post for today. I will get the measurements and photos up soon!

Adding photos. I don't have any good before pictures. I do have one, but I have to scan it and don't want to right now, but the first face photo is of me 2 years ago and the other is today. Not much difference!  :(  But I carry most of my weight in my lower body so I guess I won't see it in my face much yet!


Here is a face and side shot of me at 50 pounds lost.




Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Wicked Wednesday!

It's wicked because I had to workout hard today to counter the eating I did yesterday!  Seriously, I know I didn't eat as much as I would have in the past, but it was more than I needed, that's for sure!  I work up with a sugar hangover from all the cookies I ate!  LOL I've divided all the leftover macaroni and cheese and scalloped potatoes into containers for Mike to take with him to work this week so I don't have to look at them anymore! We are having vegetable bean soup for lunch and pork roast with cabbage and carrots tonight for supper!  The scale was honest (even though I didn't like it this morning) and I will just have to keep working hard to get that gain off and move on to my 50 pound goal!  :)

While I was working out my heart rate monitor went whacko a couple of times saying my heart rate was over 200 when I knew it wasn't (I'd have been huffing and puffing and gasping for breath if that were the case!) so I adjusted the monitor and it would go back to normal. It wasn't until it happened a second time that I wondered if it was because the band around my chest was getting too loose and moving around too much!  When I got home I shortened the band by TWO inches! LOL I don't think I'll have a problem with my heart rate now!  ;)

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Measurements

I'm not sure I'm ready to share my measurements just yet, but I am ready to share my inches lost!

Right Bicep - 2.375"
Right Leg - 4.375"
Waist - 5.5"
Hips - 5.125"
Total inches lost - 17.375
Weight Loss - 42 pounds


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

More changes...

Because I can't remember if I've mentioned this one thing before I'm going to mention it again, but my seat belt is a lot easier to get around me and I used to have to lean to the left to get the seat belt on and now I can fit my hand in right beside me to hook it.

The other thing I have been doing for a while, but just realized it yesterday. I used to have my desk chair the chair set on the highest setting because it was hard for me to get up. When I would get up from the chair I would have to put a hand on the window sill and desk to help push myself up. Yesterday I was typing something and decided to lower the chair to make the angle to see the screen easier, then I forgot it was lower and got up WITHOUT pushing myself up!

I need to keep remembering little things like that which aren't scale related because the scale doesn't show the whole picture!

On another note. I believe I'm going to get a caliper to calculate my body fat percentage. When I lost weight about 10 years ago my body fat percentage was 21.6%, but I weighed 210 pounds so I thought that I was still really fat! I won't let that happen again. 

For those who don't know here is a chart to compare!  I was in the "Fitness" range and was upset that I wasn't below 21% BFP! I need to remember that the scale doesn't tell the whole story!

 Ideal Body Fat Percentage Chart1 Ideal Body Fat Percentage Chart: How Lean Should You Be?

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Another pound!

I've officially lost 42 pounds!  I'm getting there! I know that I want to buy 50 pounds of food and take it to our church's food pantry, but as for a reward for myself I'm not sure yet. A massage sounds good, but I'm a little paranoid of someone touching my body at this weight still. I have been thinking about getting shellac nails so maybe that will be my reward! I have been buying so much stuff for cooking that I feel a little guilty buying a reward for weight loss!  LOL

I've made a decision to switch from LiveStrong.com to MyFitnessPal.com for my weight loss entries. The main reason is that I've connected with several people on facebook who use that and on LiveStrong I kind of felt alone. There are blogs that are more relevant to my situation on MFP so I'm going to start posing my food and workouts there.

I considered getting a Fitbit that everyone is talking about, but after reading reviews of Fitbit vs. Polar FT4 heart rate monitor I've decided I already have the best tool so I'm not going to waste my money buying something else! I would like to have a caliper to get my body fat percentage, but they aren't that expensive so I might get one of those this week.

I do know I need to measure myself soon! I had measurements taken when I started last year, but the trainer has them and hasn't gotten them to me yet. I should have gotten them when she did them, but I didn't!

I've also decided to eat my workout calories. In the past I've stuck to a caloric intake and not added calories to compensate for my workouts. I'm working out so much that I feel I need to compensate a little bit, plus everything I'm reading now tells me that I need to do that.

There are some cool tools out there to find your basal metabolic rate and total energy expenditure. Here is a link to my favorite one. Once you add your information by turning the wheels your BMR will be on that top which is what your body's organs need just to function. The body number is the amount of calories your body needs to do all your activities. Take that TEE number and subtract 500 calories to lose 1 pound a week or 1000 calories to lose 2 pounds a week. Anything over that is too much, but honestly, my TEE is so high that I'd have to eat a horse, literally, to eat all my calories!  Anyone who says that dieting and gaining weight messes up your metabolism doesn't know my body!  I burn calories like a freight train...I can't imagine how many calories I used to eat!  YIKES

Anyway, here is the website to calculate your metabolic rate: Energy Expenditure Calculator

Monday, December 3, 2012

Finally!

I went to visit my sister over Thanksgiving and I logged all my food, and yes, I was honest about it. Thanksgiving Day I went over my calories by about 1,000 (which is actually really easy to do!  Wonder how many calories I was eating before!  YIKES), but I walked a mile so that brought the damage down to about 800 calories. Still not bad and I didn't hate myself for doing it. It was a holiday, I enjoyed my day, and I went right back to it the next day!

The problem? On the trip I gained 4 pounds!  Seriously?  How does a body do that?  Well, today, two weeks after the trip to Chesapeake, I finally showed a loss again! I have officially lost 41 pounds now! Nine more to go to my one quarter goal!  :)

Today I tried a new routine for my weight training. I love to lift weights so I've been reading about it and I know that I won't gain so much muscle that I will turn into Mr. Olympic so I decided to lift more weight with less reps. I felt like I had a harder/better workout than normal...although, I feel like I was working out hard before too. At least I sweated more!  LOL

I need to find some kind of log to record my exercises and the weight I'm using because I won't remember them at all!  LOL

I had a weird thing happen to me at the gym the other day. I wear a heart rate monitor to keep track of my heart rate and calculate my calories burned. Well, I was just going to walk and I put the treadmill on 3% incline to get more benefit from my walk. Well, the heart rate monitor said my heart rate was over 200!  Impossible! I would have been lying on the floor gasping if that were the case. So I ignored it. It kept saying that to the point that I lowered the incline on the treadmill, but kept my pace (which is slow, but still moving!  LOL) The heart rate monitor continued to say my heart rate was over 200 so I adjusted it on my body and that did the trick!  My heart rate was in the 130's, which is exactly where it should be, so I knew I wasn't going to die!  

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was last Thursday and we traveled to my sister's house in Chesapeake for the holiday. Our family actually celebrated on Wednesdy because my husband had to get back here to work on Thursday! I did well with my calories and even walked a mile on the morning we celebrated Thanksgiving. I went over my calorie goal that one day by 800 calories, but I'm generally under my calories so I wasn't worried about it. 

The morning we left I weighed and was down to losing a total of 40 pounds. My body's natural rythm is to gain some pounds on the scale after a loss. That wasn't helped with the holiday in the middle, but the weight is back down to within one pound of what it was last week. I am happy with that. 

I have been on this journey so many times before and everytime I learn more things. Although I'm eating about 1500 to 1800 calories a day, I'm still not sure that's enough for my body. I have been doing a lot of research and I think I do burn a ton of calories...there is not a thing wrong with my metabolism, it's my eating that was broken and lack of movement!  I can fairly easily burn 1,000 calories on my weight lifting days. I usually spend about 90 minutes doing cardio and weight training in intervals. I find I like that and the cardio machine I like the best is the elliptical machine. It burns the most calories for me.

I recently found a website that calculates your calories burned during a day and then just subtract calories from that to know how much to eat to lose weight. According to that I should be eating way more calories than I am...I don't think I'm brave enough to eat that many, but I do think I'm going to up my caloric intake a few hundred calories. When I lost weight about 10 years ago I was very successful and ate 2200 calories a day!  People didn't believe me when I told them. Now, I'm not even sure that was enough with the exercise I was actually doing!

At my lowest weight 10 years ago (210 lbs.), I was only eating 1600 calories, but at the time I'm thinking of I was training for a triathlon so it wasn't uncommon for me to spend 3 or 4 hours in exercise...walking/running, biking, and swimming!  I probably burned that many calories in exercise so my body was not getting any fuel!  No wonder I wasn't losing anymore weight!

I want to be smart about my weight loss because I am 54 years old now and need to get this weight off and keep it off! I don't want to be skinny...I don't like skinny, actually!  LOL  I just want to be healthy! I need to remember that if 210 lbs and a size 10 dress is healthy, I need to be happy!  :)

Ten more pounds to the 50 pound mark and that will also be 1/4 of the weight I want to lose!  I will have to do what I've done three more times!  It's a breeze!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

More changes!

I was going to a birthday party today and had to pick up another family member to go. He needed to sit behind me so I scooted the seat in the car forward. Although my knees were touching the dashboard I was still comfortable and got in and out comfortably. Here's the thing that surprised me, when Mike's brother got out of the car and I put the seat back to the original position it felt too far back so I moved it closer to the steering wheel!  Also, all day I felt like I was sitting lower in the seat!  I'm sure it's all part of my changing body...even if the scale isn't chaging!  LOL

I was able to stand longer today without my knees hurting...they hurt at the end of the day, but I did much more standing than I would have done before. 

I know this sounds odd, but I have been really tired lately, but I also know that I have been doing a lot more...more cooking, baking, cleaning, etc..., so even though I'm tired I feel like I accomplish more around the house!  My house has never been cleaner!  I am doing it slowly as I have the energy, but it's making a huge difference in how I feel about the house!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Little changes...

I decided I need to start posting my progress again. I've officially lost 35.5 pounds since last year about this time, but it's been 25.5 since Sept. 3, 2012 which works out to be about 2.5 pounds a week. Not what I wished for (3 pounds a week), but a good safe weightt loss.

Now the little things I've been noticing: my seatbelt fits better, my shoes are a little looser, sitting farther from the steering wheel, and just getting around a little easier.

I've been complaining that I'm always tired, but I also know that I'm doing more. Yesterday and today I cleaned out cabinets in the kitchen. I've been baking sweets for Mike because he likes them and I've allowed  myself to eat a serving and accounted for them on my food log so I don't feel deprived.

I've been working out five days a week consistently for a few weeks now and can feel the results of my efforts on most days. I start out on the elliptical machine for 10 minutes, do weight machines and alternate with the elliptical. I started with just one minute on the elliptical between machines, but I'm not up to five minutes on the elliptical between machines.

The good news is that I'm losing weight, but the bad news is that it takes longer working out to burn as many calories!  I enjoy doing the weight machines and I know that weight lifting is what will burn more calories in the long run so I'm trying to put more time in there than on cardio.

My sister and I are already signed up for the Shamrock 8k in March so I need to start doing walking and building my stamina. I can already workout for 90 minutes, but much of that time is weight lifting so I'm not on my feet...I want to build my cardio time. My goal is to finish the 8k in less than 1.5 hours. The last time I did it I finished in 1:37 so I'd like to do it in less time than that!  I will let you know how that goes!  There is a 6k in February I'd like to do, but it's at Virginia Beach too and I'm not sure Mike will let me go over there twice in two months! :)

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Finally coming down...

I weighed this morning and I'm down 24 pounds from my highest point about a year ago. 14 of those pounds since I started again the first of September! I feel better even if the scale just moves a little bit in the right direction! I will probably stop weighing everyday soon, but for now I need to. Last time I lost a significant amount of weight (160 pounds in 2 years) I only weighed myself once a month, but now I have two scales that I can use everyday so I use them...or at least one of them!  :)

I am feeling better physically and emotionally. I can tell that I do a lot more around the house.

I've been having fun making new recipes this week. I made lemon chicken for the first time which is good, not wonderful, but something good and different. Another new recipe was some kind of chicken and mushrooms...almost like a stroganoff only with chicken.

I also discovered roasted vegetables, mostly squash, in the oven!  Mike and I both love those and they are so low in calories. The first night I used olive oil on them and they were  yummy, but a little greasy for me. The next night I used a no calorie olive oil spray and they were still yummy, but not the same as with the real olive oil. I have found if I use the no calorie spray on the pan and then just a little drizzle of oil oil over the top of the vegetables it is very very yummy and just right.

Oh, and last, but not least, I found an apple crisp recipe that we both love. It is about 300 calories a serving, but well worth it!

I have a place on LiveStrong.com that I can put a recipe into the website and it tells me how many calories it is per serving!  Pretty cool!  Now I feel like I can make things and know exactly how much I'm eating!  :)

Off to exercise this morning again!  I'm actually enjoying it! I just have to get it in my head that it's not an option to do anything else but go workout and I'm fine! :)  

Sunday, September 30, 2012

One month...

Well, my weight is not coming off as quickly as I'd like, but I can tell a difference in my body and energy level. Even Mike mentioned yesterday that he was feeling like he had more energy. We both think it's because we aren't eating out much anymore. This last month I can only think of twice we ate out and that was on purpose and planned...not because I was too lazy to fix something.

I've logged my food everyday at LiveStrong.com. I used to use FitDay and it's good, but when I had a personal trainer earlier this year I started at LiveStrong and have just stuck with it.

As I said in my last post I started to exercise. I've gone three days a week the last two weeks. I think this week I'll push it up to five days and only take two days of rest. I would still only do weights three days a week, but I'd add two more days of cardio. I also want to continue to build up my cardio time. Right now it's still at 10 minutes with about 50 minutes of weight training. I'd like to at least do 30 minutes of cardio...this week I'm going up to 15 minutes. I am still on the elliptical machine that I like cause it burns so many calories!  :)

Monday, September 17, 2012

Fall down...

...get back up again!  I can't tell you how many times I've started over at this weight loss!  I'm at it again and I've lost 10 pounds...wish it was more, but I will take it for now. I just started exercising today. I did 10 minutes on the elliptical machine and four weight lifting machines. That was what I could do today. I actually broke the 10 minutes up into 5 minute sections because the elliptical machine just really is hard for me, but according to all the studies I've seen does the most good for me so I will continue!  :)