Great Expectations Gone Sour

Sometimes things don't work out the way you plan. Sometimes trips get cancelled at the last minute. Sometimes you spend your weekend in a hospital because your roommate needs to have her gall bladder taken out. I was more than happy to take her, let's just say that it wasn't my idea of the fun filled weekend at California I had been planning. Sigh...

So I didn't end up having to hold myself accountable to eating well while in California, so I didn't do a weigh in before and after. I'm sticking to Sunday weigh ins.

This week went really well. I had a ginormous burger at Red Robin but I still had a loss of 2.8 lbs for a grand total of 58.8 lbs. I am really glad that I have been able to find a balance for eating more normal and still be able to lose weight. I'm happy to see a big number for this week again.

Today I'm thankful that my brother is home from Texas for Christmas. I had a really crappy couple of days, so it was REALLY good to see him.

Eating Out

It’s okay to go out to eat with your friends when you’re on a diet. If you’re careful. If you don’t let yourself have a little fun every once in a while, your diet will never be successful. In my experience anyway. With too much restriction, you risk the chance of binging later on. Instead, change your eating habits. Make a lifestyle change. Control your portions rather than worrying about deleting entire food groups from your menu. This will save you from yo-yo dieting and help you maintain your weight loss. I feel like I have found a good balance on how to eat out with my friends. Here are some examples:

One of my favorite places to eat out is the Olive Garden. I love Italian food. Olive Garden is notorious for their unlimited salad and bread sticks. News flash: you don’t have to eat all the bread sticks. I decided to become a one bread stick girl. That is easy when you are with girls. I’m happy with one bread stick. As for salad, as long as I get my tomato and my olive, I don’t need a bottomless bowl. I’ll finish my one plate of salad and wait for my entrée. Hopefully you can talk someone into sharing with you, and with Olive Garden, I can usually get someone to split an entrée with me. So the only problem is selecting your meal. Luckily, Olive Garden is delicious, and it’s hard to go wrong.

It’s a bit harder to eat with guys. For some reason, they want you to eat more. They aren’t okay with you eating only one bread stick. It bugs them when you don’t want to eat chips and salsa. Like when I went to Chili’s with a couple of my guy friends a while back. They were outright offended that I did not want to partake in the appetizer. It annoyed them further when I ordered a turkey sandwich and did not eat the fries that came with it and took half of the sandwich home for later. Well, they got to eat my side, didn’t they?

Most often when I go out to eat with friends, we go out for sushi. Sushi is AWESOME when you are dieting. Sushi is surprisingly low in calories. Even the tempura fried sushi! Obviously, some types of sushi have more calories than others. Look it up before you go and see what fits into your calorie budget for that day. The bad thing about sushi is that it isn’t very filling. But it’s not as hard to fill me up these days, and it is delicious, so who cares? We typically go during happy hour when you can get sushi rolls for half off, so you can get two rolls for the price of one. I should only get one roll, but I usually get two just because I can never pick only one kind! Then you get to swap with your friends and try a bunch of different kinds… ooooohhhh…. Sushi…..

It’s okay to eat out. Just maintain balance and be careful with your portions. Skip appetizers and try to share your entrée with someone. It’s probably best to have water instead of soda, although I love me my Diet Dr. Pepper! The nice thing about dieting is that it’s like a diet on your wallet too. You don’t have to pay two bucks for a soda and you only pay for half of an entrée if you share with someone.

Today I’m grateful for Tepenyaki. I got to eat there last night for my work Christmas party and it was delicious, and an entertaining experience. They cook the food in front of you!

Eyes Bigger than the Stomach

Do you wanna know how I lost the first forty pounds? By eating practically nothing every day. I would have a breakfast shake in the morning and I would eat high fiber cereal at night. Oh, and of course lots of lots of water and Diet Dr. Pepper. I knew I wasn't being healthy, but I justified it by saying I was getting all my vitamins and minerals from my breakfast shake (those things are jam packed!) and by saying whatever I wasn't getting my body could take from my extra reserves. Of course I was hungry, but I was FOCUSED like I never have been before in my life. Something in me had clicked and I just wanted the weight gone and FAST. So I was ravenous, but had no cravings. Nothing sounded good. I literally did not want to eat. I have never experienced that before, and probably never will again. Those feelings are gone now. I crave food again. But that period lasted just long enough that my habits have changed, and I have self-control and will power now.

I have wonderful people in my life who all were concerned about what I was eating. It was pretty annoying actually. I was so focused on losing weight, and everyone was telling me to eat more. But I knew they were right, and I realized that if I wanted the weight loss to stick, I would have to lose it slower and in a healthier way. So I eat a lot more normal now. I've had slow weight loss weeks and I've had incredible weight loss weeks since starting to eat more normal. I am very happy with the balance I have created.

One thing I have found since my return to eating more normal is that my eyes are bigger than my stomach. Have you heard this term before? I'll have a plate of food and I won't be able to finish it. I still give myself servings that I would have been able to eat 55 lbs ago. My stomach has shrunk significantly, and my eyes haven't adjusted yet! Something I need to be careful with. But I have learned to recognize that I am full and to PUT DOWN THE FORK! Whereas in the past I would have cleaned the plate. Unless I realize I am full when there are two bites left, then I finish. Get off my back!

Today I am grateful for my bed. It is ginormous and comfortable and warm, and much too big for my bedroom. It's been really cold lately, and I just want to stay in my bed all day long!

How Fast Can You Lose Weight?

So I've been creating graphs to chart my progress so far. I had a week a with some pretty intense cravings and it was hard for me to remember to stay on top of my diet, so I decided to remind myself why I'm doing this by showing myself how good I've done so far. You can find the graph I created on my new Progress page. I created three graphs. The first one I created shows my actual weight starting back in February when I got put on my new seizure medication. As I have mentioned, I don't feel secure enough quite yet to reveal this information, but I will soon. The second graph I made shows my BMI since February. Same with weight, I feel like BMIs are a little too revealing, so this graph, too, will soon be revealed, but not quite yet. However, the third graph I created shows how much weight I have lost since February. This third graph I made is the one you'll find on the Progress page.

The tricky part about this is that I did not maintain accurate records, so a lot of this is guesswork until September. They are very educated guesses though. Like I am assuming for instance that I was at my peak weight when I went in for my neurologist appointment back in February. I dropped ten pounds without really doing anything on my own, so I guessed that two months later I was at a weight ten pounds less. Between then and somewhere in July I tried half-heartedly to eat better since I was on medicine that hindered my appetite, and I ended up yo-yoing back and forth another five to ten pounds. It was in July that I made a conscious decision that I was going to take dieting seriously. That is when you see the graph going up significantly. Between the middle of July and the beginning of October I lost another 30 pounds. That is ten weeks, for three pounds a week! It's no wonder I have been unsatisfied with my rate of weight loss lately after my rapid weight loss earlier this fall.

This got me thinking. What has changed? Is it me? Am I doing something different? I found an awesome website with some amazing insights. It gave me some answers as well as helped me to refocus.

#1 The fatter you are, the quicker you will lose weight.

A fatter person doing the same activities as a lighter person for the same amount of time will lose more weight, simply because more calories have to be burned to move a heavier person.

Voila! 46 pounds ago, I was losing weight more rapidly because I was burning calories faster just to move myself around.

However... I'm not completely innocent.

#2 What you eat and how often you cheat on your diet

I definitely cheat every once in a while. Diets have too often failed for me because of deprivation. I am trying to create balance in my diet so I don't balloon when I eventually reach my goal. I have talked and talked and talked about my lifestyle change goal. However, I still need to be careful. This website provides a very nice article on how to cheat on your diet and still be successful. It also provides a list of foods to eat, and on the list is high fiber cereals and oatmeal, which I eat frequently, yeah for me! The website also says not to drink soda, but we all know that's not gonna happen. :) When I get closer to my end goal, I may have to give it up, but I'm not quite willing yet!

#3 How motivated you are

Obviously, I've been more motivated in the past. It's hard to stay as motivated when you've had success. I need to stay in the same mind frame. Now that I've tasted success, I need to keep going strong until I make it to the end. I'm not worried that I won't make it, I've just slowed down. You'd think that with the success I've had, that I would keep going full steam, but maybe I've gotten cocky?

What is the point?

I need to refocus. I don't expect to lose three pounds a week, but I need to remain as motivated as I once was.

Today I am grateful for the people in my life who keep my attitude in check. Sometimes I need a reminder to be positive!

Diet Dr. Pepper - My Only Indulgence

I know that I have mentioned that the catalyst to this entire journey has been when I paid a visit to my neurologist last February and she decided to put me on a safer seizure medication. This new drug involved lots of fun side effects, my favorite one being decrease in appetite, of course. People who are put on this drug lose 2.5-5% of their body weight, so while this drug definitely helped, it wasn't magic. Some of the other fun side effects I got to live with were dizziness and drowsiness (which I was already use to from previous medicines) and abnormal skin sensations. What they mean by abnormal skin sensations is tingling of the extremities, or like when your hands and feet fall asleep. This happens frequently now, and it's pretty annoying. Well, whatever it is in this drug that makes my hands and feet tingle also makes carbonation taste funny. When my neurologist explained to me that carbonated drinks were going to start tasting funny, I almost said no way. I love soda! When it comes to soda, I am equal opportunity, I love it all. I used to, anyway.

My family and friends were pretty annoying about this when it happened. I was in a grieving period, and they just kept telling me it was a good thing. Water is better for you, you shouldn't drink soda anyway! They kept telling me that I shouldn't try to get used to the funny taste of soda. They were right. Soda is not good for you, and water is. But it's hard to explain that to your addiction.

This monkey knows how I feel.

Soda still tastes funny if I drink it out of a can. I love Diet Dr. Pepper. It really is my only indulgence. I had a bad week last week, but I'm back on track now. I can only drink it out of a fountain though. I am a frequenter of gas stations. I definitely have my favorites - Common Cents in Bountiful of course, and I do think that the Bevrons and Mavericks do a good job. It really depends on the syrup to carbonated water ratio. Thanks to this medicine, you will never see me buying soda from a grocery store, and I don't keep it at my house. For some reason that I can't explain, I can only stand it from the fountains.

I don't feel guilty for my Diet Dr. Pepper consumption. I really do drink a lot more water now than I used to, especially the last few months. I have even come to enjoy water a lot more than previously. But my diet is pretty strict, and if I don't allow myself my one indulgence, then I don't have my balance that I'm trying to create.

Today I'm grateful for the test I have tonight. Why? Because then I'm DONE with stress for a little while and can play for Halloween weekend!

Excuses, Excuses...

This week wasn't great in the diet/exercise aspect, so I wasn't too excited for my weigh in. This week was pretty stressful with my new job. It's supposed to be a part time job, but I worked full time this week for training. The food I have at my house isn't very transport friendly, so I ended up eating fast food for lunch every day. I was very careful about portion control and to eat from the healthy menus, but I would still prefer to not eat out. I also only worked out twice. I did an upper body Body for Life workout, and my arms sure were sore for a long time. My little brother "spotted" me. What that really means is that he messed around in the garage and did not pay attention to me at all while I worked out. If I were to have dropped the weights on my head, he wouldn't have noticed. I also did the Body for Life running routine.

This week: My job is part time! This means I don't get a lunch break and will be eating at home, thank goodness. I will also have no excuse not to get a third and maybe fourth workout in each week.

As for the results this week, I lost 0.4 pounds, which brings me to a total loss of 44.6 pounds. What a waste of a week. It has gotten me thinking. I actually weigh in every few days just to keep track of my progress and make sure I'm not doing anything stupid. Last Friday morning I weighed one pound less than I did this morning. I know what happened, of course. I ate out this weekend. I was very careful about portion control. I am going for a lifestyle change, so I think it is okay for me to go out to eat every once in a while, otherwise I don't have the balance I need to be successful. I guarantee tomorrow morning I'll be back to my weight from last Friday morning. It's pretty irritating that my official weigh in has to reflect my weekend fun. So I'm creating a poll. You can vote on the side of my blog.

Here are the rationales for the two choices:

Change my official weigh in day to Fridays - this way the number on the scale will reflect my healthy eating choices from all week rather than the weekend. When my weight fluctuates up from the weekend and back down afterwards, it balances out. Changing the weigh in day to Friday just means that my readers don't have to hear my whine about it anymore.

Keep my official weigh in day at Sundays - this maintains consistency. As my mom says, this will also make me want to control myself on the weekends. However, I am not having a problem controlling myself. When I go out with friends, I am very careful about portions and what I pick to eat. I am trying to create a balance in my life so that I don't crash and burn. But the act of eating out of the ordinary does make a difference on the scale.

Those are the voting options, go ahead and vote, and I'll decide what to do from there.

Today I am grateful for free drinks from the Bevron. Why should I have to pay for my drink anyway? :)

Lifestyle Change

One thing that me and my mom have talked about for years is the topic of today's blog post. Someone in your life is always on a diet, whether it is yourself, a friend, or a family member, someone is always on a diet. People are always talking about diets. It's the number one scam out there, it's in all the magazines and talk shows. The truth is there is no easy fix to losing weight. It's a long battle. But there are ways to make it easier.

When me and my mom would have discussions about going on a diet, we would invariably decide that we didn't want to go on a diet. Diets tend to fail. They are hard. It's just a bunch of rules that you don't want to follow. What we would decide is that we would want to just have a "lifestyle change." What does that mean? Change your lifestyle habits so that they are healthier. Don't just do a crash diet, lose a bunch of weight really fast, go back to your old habits, and gain it all back. This is called yo-yo dieting and is extremely unhealthy. Change your lifestyle, lose weight slowly, and when you're done losing weight, your habits have changed. Eat like a normal healthy person. A normal person going out for ice cream doesn't eat the whole gallon. A normal person still goes out to eat every once in a while. A normal person eats dessert. They just don't overdo it. It's okay to go out to eat. It's okay to have a cookie. If you follow too rigid of a diet plan, it is likely that it will fail. If you restrict yourself too much, you end up binging later.

I'm hoping for a lifestyle change. My diet is probably a little too strict, but I'm doing really well. I go out to eat with my friends, and I feel like I have created a good balance for myself. When I'm done losing weight, I have done it in a way that I don't believe I will have a problem with possibly gaining weight back. I'm not fixated on food anymore, it doesn't control my life. I will have a healthier lifestyle when I'm done going down this path.