Still Chugging Along

Well, it has been about a week since I joined the gym and I have been going every day. I am staying pretty motivated, even while I am there. I am a pretty fickle person and it is hard for me to stay interested in things. I have been splitting up my time on the cardio equipment so that I don't get bored of using just one of them.

It's so hard for me to do an hour of cardio on once machine. I get too bored of doing the same thing and I want to quit. What I have started doing is breaking up my time. I will do 20 minutes on three different machines. The last few days I have done 20 minutes each on the stair climber, the treadmill, and the stationary bike. the treadmill is my least favorite. I think it is the most boring and least challenging out of all of them.

I am hoping to build up my stamina enough that I can run for a full 20 minutes on the treadmill. I think that would be fun, and it would keep me interested enough that I wouldn't try to rationalize a reason to quit and do something else. So far, the stair climber is my favorite. That is strange to me because in the past it has always been my least favorite. I am really enjoying it these days, though. It really works up a sweat and I burn a lot of calories on it.

I'm glad that I have been enjoying the gym, and I hope it stays that way!

Think Thin!

The Diet That Worked

So I lost 35 pounds in 44 days on the hCG diet. At least half a pound of that was hair. I wasn't surprised that the hCG diet made my hair fall out. My hair fell out when I was pregnant, so it seemed natural that it would fall out while I was taking the pregnancy hormone. All in all, I consider the diet to be a success.

I kept the weight off really well until recently. After splitting up with my husband and moving back in with my parents, I fell into a slump of depression. Anyone who knows me knows that I eat my emotions.




I give you, Exhibit A.

So I slowly started to gain the weight back. And since I haven't even grown my hair back yet, I decided not to retry the hCG thing. I have been focusing on eating right and working out.

Eating right goes as follows: I have always had pretty low iron stores in my blood. I have been treated for anemia twice. I never knew how serious anemia was until recently when I started looking into iron deficiency. Apparently, I had NO iron left in my bone marrow. Yeesh. I also don't get enough B12 or D vitamins. I have started to try to correct this through my diet in hopes that I will be too full of the good stuff to eat any of the bad stuff.

So far it's been working out well and I am learning a lot about nutrition as well. I have also started to take a multi-vitamin because I don't always hit all of my vitamin goals.

I'll let you know how it all turns out.



Think Thin!

Why I Haven't Updated

If you're wondering why I haven't been updating, it's because I have been failing miserably with dieting. Last night for dinner, we had pizza. I had two slices and probably would have had more if Caleb hadn't prevented me.

Caleb climbed up on the table and tossed the entire pizza to the dog. I know they are best friends, but that is a little excessive. He did get in trouble, but it was based on principle alone. He saved me from that extra helping. I was secretly thankful.

I did work out today; just a smidge. I only had a few minutes, but I wanted to spend that doing something. I walked about half a mile in 15 minutes at a brisk pace. I probably only burned about 50 calories, but that is better than nothing. I feel pretty good about it. I hope that I will be able to do more tonight.

I could use a little encouragement...

Think Thin!

Exciting! Vote for Me!

Exciting news everyone! After 2 full days of voting, my blog Justahousebear is in 3rd place in a best blog contest! I just need a few more votes to pull ahead and I need you! All you have to do is follow this link and click the THUMBS UP symbol. You can vote once every 24 hours, so do it again tomorrow! I know the competition is fierce, and their mothers will be voting everyday, all month, so I need to know I can count on you all to vote for me!

Think Thin!

Starbucks Banana Walnut Bread

Dear Readers,

Do not be fooled by its seemingly wholesome nature. Starbucks Banana Walnut Bread is a caloric grenade. We had a loaf at our morning meeting today and I had a piece. After looking up the nutrition facts online today, I was shocked to find that one slice is over 400 calories!

I knew I was being bad. I knew it the moment I felt how heavy and moist the slice of bread was. I just didn't know that it was that bad! Now I have to run a mile to make up for my calorie overage today!

I have learned a valuable lesson. Losing this weight is going to take more than counting my calories consumed and tracking my calories burned. It's going to take forethought. I'm going to make healthy choices, or at least know what I am getting into so that I can weigh out my consequences.

Think Thin!

Calories Consumed vs Calories Burned

Well, friends, I am closing out my day on My Fitness Pal. Today I consumed 964 out of my allotted 12,000 calories. Combine that with my 96 calories burned through exercise and that leaves me with a remaining 332 calories in my day.

When you close out your day on My Fitness Pal, they tell you a projection on how much you would lose if everyday were like the day you've just ended. Today, My Fitness Pal says that if everyday were like today, I would lose 17 lbs in 5 weeks.

That is a huge motivator for me! However, I would love to lose more. The great thing is that I can tweak my workouts and my diet to meet my weight loss goals.

Think Thin!

Diet Confessions

I ate a doughnut. A glazed one. With raspberry jelly inside. It was 206 calories of melt-in-my-mouth goodness. I knew I was going to eat it, so I tried to eat in slowly and savor it, rather than gobble it down in hopes that reality wouldn't catch on.

I entered it into my calorie counter, and realized that it hadn't hurt me as badly as I thought. It definitely wasn't good for me, that's for sure. It was full of empty calories that aren't going to do anything to benefit me at all. However, I was able to avoid feeling oppressed by a diet, and that is important to me.

If I feel like a diet is controlling my life, then I will resent it. If I resent it, then I will eventually rebel against it. If I rebel against it, then I will only hurt myself.

I think that eventually, I will be able to fade those things out of my life. I am hoping that as I get used to eating healthier foods, I will stop craving those unhealthy abominations. One day... maybe I will sneak a carrot into a movie theater... hmmm. Yeah, I don't think that one is going to happen.

Think Thin!