Day One - Not Quite Perfect

Yesterday, New Year's Day Tuesday, was Day One for the New Me.  I actually started following the meal plan on Monday to get a running start and ran smack into two familiar hurdles right out of the gate.  I don't mind eating the foods on the plan, in fact, getting all that produce in is a challenge.  Obstacle One came in the form of the premade TollHouse cookie dough in the fridge.  Ate the whole thing at midnight Monday.  2100 calories.  Felt horrible but woke up telling myself, "I will NOT give up."  Obstacle Two took the shape of the last piece of cheesecake left over from granddaughter's birthday.  Down the hatch it went for afternoon snack.  Again, felt miserable.  A couple hours after that, I told myself, go record the cheesecake on your tracker and see if it really derailed your whole day.  Actually it didn't.  I still had about 400 calories left to eat some dinner and to have my favorite evening snack, celery with Pace picquante sauce mixed with 1 T sour cream.  The key was that I prepared the celery dip before I went to bed so it would be ready for my midnite crave time.

This morning the scale was down 2 lbs so Onward & Upward!  Probably water but I will take whatever encouragement I can get.

Two resources I used yesterday:
A.  Al Roker's new book, "Never Goin' Back: Winning the Weight Loss Battle for Good".  I wouldn't say I am learning a great deal, but it makes my shame less to know that Al Roker has weighed 20 lbs more that me and he is an inch shorter.  His conclusion, same as mine, "Eat less, exercise more."  His secondary conclusion, same as mine, "Eat cleaner foods" meaning more foods in their natural state, avoiding processed foods.

B. Netflix film, "Hungry for Change." Various health experts are interviewed about the myriad ways the food industry spikes processed food to keep us coming back for more.  Just a few examples: Diet soda - filled with sweetener aspertame & caffeine keeps one coming back just like a drug.  They mentioned diet coke drinkers who used the drink to not eat, which I did when I was younger. Fortunately, I kicked the soda habit years ago.  Another example, high fructose corn syrup, of course.  That is an obvious, read the label and avoid at all cost.  For me, I want to avoid this for me AND the grands.  A third ingredient to avoid was MSG.  In lab studies of fat mice, there are no naturally fat mice so scientists fatten them up by giving them MSG.  Sick.  Avoid it. 

At the end of the film, they went into a spiritual tone and talked about how many of us (me) use food to fill a void and that "LOVE = SAFETY"  I never heard that before but it is so true for me.  It is interesting that I was just talking to the granddaughters about our family being a safe place for people to express themselves and they seemed to respond to that.  I know that until recently in my adult life, there was no safety anywhere, so I guess it is no big surprise that I had a HUGE void to fill.

Well, time to launch Day Two! Talk to you later.

Ready to Begin

It is New Year's Eve 2012 and I am ready to begin my new life tomorrow.  Buoyed by my success at quitting smoking 6 years ago tomorrow, I am ready to begin my march to 100 lbs lost by this time next year.  Starting at 318 lbs.

Preparations made:
1. Visited nutritionist.
2. Prepared a meal plan for first week.
3. Tried out food & fitness tracking system on WebMd.
4. Got this blog going.
5.  Set up Jenny McCarthy exercise system on my new pawn shop Wii (thanks Jordan!)
6.  Praying for God's help and strength!

Watched a Netflix video called, "Fat, Sick, and Almost Dead."  The title pretty much describes my physical condition, but not my mental.  The guy in the film kicked off his road to recovery with 60 days of veggie/fruit juice only, 3x a day.  I tried to look up the juice recipe on the film's website, but there is something wrong with it. I could do juice maybe for breakfast or a snack. I am not going to do it entirely right now.  The inspiring part of the movie was that the first guy got a truck driver to do it with him and that guy really racked up changes in his life.  Worth watching if you are in need of a boost.

I am attaching my beginning profile photos.  What it is, is what it is!

Planning, planning

For about a week now, I have been recording my food and exercise on WebMd. (http://www.webmd.com/diet/food-fitness-planner).  I am still in the preparation phase for my Jan 1 start date so I have not changed my eating patterns.  WebMD recommends that if I want to lose 100 lbs. in the next year I should take in 1740 calories and do at least 250 calories in exercise. Thankfully at this hard to exercise time of year in Minnesota, driving a car is about 300 calories an hour. Throw in four granddaughters under 10 years old and I KNOW it is worth 300 calories.

On most days I have been going over by 1000-2000 calories. Good to know. I also have a very hard time getting in 2 veggies & 2 fruits, like have not made it yet. I have also not made the required 8 glasses of water yet, and I thought I was drinking a lot of water.  Now, I have started menu planning.  Joan the nutritionist from the Emily Program gave me a chart of food groups to get in so I am slotting that into an excel spreadsheet, then I will match those food groups to actual menu items.  I want to have all my food planned and in the house for at least the first month so I don't have to think about it.

Here is a photo of chicken kabobs that will be good for the New Me.  We made them on a family camping trip last summer.  Just chicken breast, red peppers, yellow peppers, mushrooms, onions, sprinkled with lemon juice.  Yum!