2.2 pounds! Twelve in Four

So here we are at the end of week 4 and heading into the 5th week of a new way to eat. Last weeks stress is slowing down but not gone, and I found Thursday to be a day of wanting to eat, eat and eat. But instead, I consumed a little more water than I normally do and ate a few more veggies. I am telling you - I am determined to be healthy!

Found my favorite popcorn seasoning at Albertson's the other night and I am in HEAVEN I tell you! I would go to the movies and eat a large bag of popcorn slathered in this stuff! (Not a horrible snack, but I did use that awful movie butter to help it stick!) Now I pop good old Orville's 94% fat free popcorn and dump some of this white cheddar seasoning from Kernel Seasoning's and enjoy a wonderfully delicious low cal, high fiber, low fat snack. mmmmmmm it's wonderful. I'll continue to enjoy it at the movies too, just a smaller bag and no added butter gunk. The seasoning sticks ok as long as the popcorn is hot. I might try "I can't believe it's not butter" spray and see if that helps a little bit. I'm just glad to learn that one of my favorite snacks is not something I cannot have. :)

Have been lax about exercise and so I promise to take the dog for a walk today. I am also dropping my intake of food a little with this 12 lb loss. I figure it's another way to lose weight and stay on track. I don't want to get too discouraged by that darn scale!

As promised: PICTURES! Someone mentioned...well a few folks mentioned...that I looked unhappy in the first set of pictures. OF COURSE I DID! I am HUMONGOUS! However, these pictures feature a happier me, because I am 12 pounds lighter. :)

I will leave this blog at that. And take my doggie for a walk. Have a great week, and check back next Saturday evening or Sunday.

2.4 pounds, new meds make me feel a lil funky and dealing with emotions around missing the 10lb mark.

Here we are at another win: I weighed in at 283.4! Another 2.4 pounds shed this past week. (applause goes here.) That puts me at 9.8 pounds lighter than I started 3 weeks ago. Not bad! I figure, if I reach the goal of being half the woman I was when I started this thing, I'll get there by my 47th birthday. (1 1/2 years away.)

I found myself feeling kind of disappointed after the weigh in. I really felt like I'd done well..I even went to bed many nights with MANY calories left uneaten. I think I'll do my best to get all my recommended calories in and trust it will lead to great loss. :) I'm getting better at planning meals ahead too.

It took a while to get over the disappointment in the number on that scale. I was SURE I was going to break that 10 pound mark this week. (see prior post!) But alas, I think I slowed my weightloss down by cutting too far back on the calories. I'm also taking that new medicine for my heart which can cause water retention, lightheadedness, dizzyness..but should pass in a week as my body gets used to the medicine. Of course, I am to tell my doctor if I start to retain too much water...that's a bad thing for my health, forget about the scale!

So I struggled to finish my points Wednesday night and still went to bed short about 3 points. :/

Still have the mindset in place, and feeling good about the healthier choices I am making for myself.

I meant to post this sooner, but Friday night was tough, and Saturday was filled with tears and depression. I stayed on my plan though.

3.6 pounds, Exercise and a Trip to Emergency

Well this past Wednesday, I weighed in at 285.8 pounds! A loss of 3.6 pounds for a total of 7.4 pounds so far!!! (Applause goes here *GRIN*)
A little less than the week before, but I think that is fine, since I started my period the following day. :) (Sorry if that's too much information, but I'm pretty happy about that.) I suffered almost zero PMS symptoms and my skin experienced minimal breakout too.

I went out last weekend (the weekend before weigh in) both Saturday and Sunday and took a long walk along the bluffs here by where we live. Saturday was challenging, but doable, so Sunday, like an idiot, I kicked it up a notch and climbed a steeper hill, pushing too hard all the way up...but I made it. Enjoyed the rest of my walk with the man and the dog. Came home, did the dishes, sat down with some a big glass of Crystal Lite Lemonade on ice, got my laptop out to play some Second Life and suddenly WHOOM!!! My heart started racing. (Third time in the last 2 years.) I did all the stuff they told me to try to make it stop...no luck. Off we went to emergency to find I had a heart rate of 204 to 215 bpm.

Emergency was a zoo; the nurses were tripping over each other to get me wired up...IV, prepare injections, hook me up on oxygen..., which she promptly ripped out of my nose. HAHAHA! Then gently placed back in my nose. What could I do but laugh? They wire me up for the EKG...I get one done before and after injection and then the little nurse starts rolling the machine out and I have to tell her..."I'm still connected!!" Too funny, but scary too. Anyway, the first injection (adenosine- a natural amino acid) did the trick and my heart stopped and resumed beating at about 110 bpm. They made me stay til I'd sucked up an entire IV bottle and my h/r was down to about 90 bpm. We came home and I took it easy.

This is not life threatening and it's actually not uncommon either, but should I have issues with arteries being plaqued, then I could possibly have a heart attack...one more reason to get the weight off and eat healthier foods.
I went to see my doc, I now take 5mg a day of some Calcium channel blocker, because he and I agree that what I am doing is the right thing and he wants me to be able to exercise for goodness sake!

This weekend I think I will not exercise quite so vigorously, didn't walk today, beyond 40 mins of wandering the grocery store, (that COUNTS people!!!)and I will take an easy walk with the dog tomorrow. The man is having some rather bad back issues and so he may or may not join me. I am thinking he shouldn't, he was fine til we walked last Sunday...Maybe I should avoid walks on Sunday all together. HEHEHEHE.

So three days into the next week, and I'm having the chocolate cravings, and wanting to eat! Eat! EAT! But I learned last time I took a lot of weight off, that my body has a cycle that goes with my menstrual cycle. And there are about 3 days a month that I just don't try so hard to watch what I put in my face. That's not to say I forget about it completely, but I'm not hard on myself for giving in to the ice cream or the snickers bar. I know in three days, I'll be fine and the cravings will be gone to be seen in another month and that is OK. This time though, I have tools like the Skinny Cow ice creams and the Weight Watcher's brand isn't bad nor are the Healthy Choice ice creams. But If I want a Snicker's bar, I'll have it; I don't think they make that low cal anyway.

This is a new way of eating in general...and I'll stick with this for life...I realize I did it right last time, only thing I did wrong was stop making the right choices. This time, I am in it for life. I know it works.

Mindset is still solid, enjoying eating a plateful of veggies during the day, consisting of 1 bell pepper (either red, yellow or orange, I do not like the green ones), some celery, carrots and a cucumber. Mmmm refreshing and delicious and so filling. I also remember how much I like a baked potato with salsa and a touch of cheese. (Thanks for showing me that one Kathy!)

Work keeps me busy enough I need to remember to eat, but I'm staying hydrated and I've cut way back on caffeine. I'm finding it easier to wake up in the morning, sleeping a bit better and experiencing less acid reflux. Even after eating 4 Jack in the Box tacos. Yes 4. I can do that if I plan right...and I basically missed lunch. *sigh*

Last weeks reward was shopping. I went out to Lane Bryant and bought two pairs of capris, two camisole tank tops and a necklace for 40 dollars. (The capris were less than 5 bucks a pair!) Ever the bargain hunter, I caught a great sale and I enjoyed mixing up what I bought to create 4 different looks. Fun stuff and a great reward I enjoyed all week.

This Week, I took myself out and had my eyebrows shaped by an Indian woman who does the "threading" technique. It was amazing. I was in and out in about 5 mins. It felt like she was taking all of my eyebrows, but when she was done, I felt like I was ready for the red carpet. They are shaped beautifully and so clean! What a treat. That will be a reward again in the future. I'm so please with the way it turned out.

I'm thinking the 20-pound loss reward is going to be a hotel room with a big deep sunken tub for me to just soak in til I am pruney. I do miss that!

This week I expect to break the 10-pound barrier. Wish me luck!

Thank you again to all of you who post comments and email me. It really is helping, and I appreciate it so very much!

Til next week then...

Week one complete and a weigh in

First I want to thank everyone who reads this for the positive posts, emails and phone calls I've gotten. I really wasn't expecting the level of support I have received and I am amazed and humbled. Thank you everyone.

I've decided against a picture EVERY week, that's just ridiculous. I'll do a new picture every month on the 21st and we'll watch me shrink. At the end, I'm going to get some help making a flash presentation of the incredible shrinking woman that I mean to be! On to the foody stuff...

The first diet week was Easy. Mind set in place all well. No glitches. I did use some spare calories (it's allowed) but generally had a great week. Weighed in on Wednesday night with a loss of 3.8 pounds. I'm pretty happy about that since I haven't even started exercising yet. And I AM drinking plenty of water, so don't give me that crap that it's all water weight. I'm keeping this win and you can't take it from me. :p

So here I am, now weighing a lofty 289.4, which doesn't feel like much of a change and it isn't, but it's in the right direction. :)

Thursday was a bit of a family drama day, so I found my old habit rearing it's ugly head...FOOD! NOW!!! ROWRRRR!!! "How did you deal with it?" you ask...I was well prepared. I had my low calorie chocolate cake and a cookie with me. And we have some 100 calorie Hershey snack packs at work. I had chocolate and didn't blow my diet...plus I recognized it and didn't have the sweet stuff til well after the "craving" passed and I'd gotten on with my day and some lunch. :)

I am lucky, I work for some nice folks who understand that sometimes, your personal life requires you to be there to handle it. In the midst of our busiest work season and I missed half a day. No one batted an eye, and although I was stressed about it before I got there, I was very much ok when I got to work. That helps with work stress a LOT.

Had a fun day on Wednesday too. We had a vendor bring us lunch from Chili's so I took a few mins to find out the cost of their food to my diet...(a diet that 2 others in the office are on..and I think a fourth person is joining us as well, just unofficially. I shared that information with the other two and we all ended up having the lettuce wraps. Avoid the peanut dipping sauce and you are A-OK.

I Know this is all about mind set and I can tell I'm in the zone. No big hurdles...no falling off the wagon...truth is, I'm not ever starving...don't think I ever have been. lol. I'm just, once again, paying attention to the food I put in my face.

This week, more walking and gearing up the exercise. Wish me luck!