Week Two-- Day ten

I'm pleased with my progress.  I've lost four pounds in ten days... that is, since July 1.  I am especially pleased because I'm trying to get away from spending "half my life" looking up calorie counts.  But one reason I can be freed from doing that is because I did it before and wrote down calorie counts for what I ate.   And, for the most part, my tastes are the same.

I read one time that most families have a standard number of meals they routinely prepare, rarely departing from them.  The number of different meals wasn't very high-- maybe about ten.    (Maybe they throw casseroles with chicken into one number  :)    Not   sure about that.)  But anyway, leaving that aside, I know that I'm not really big on variety when I fix for myself.    So it wasn't hard for me to write up a list of "Breakfasts"   I usually fix and their calorie counts,  "Snacks:  I usually eat and their calorie counts.   And so on.

The one thing I am going to try to avoid is "burnout".  I did well before when I ate a sandwich with veggies every day for lunch at work, but after three months a sandwich with veggies was the last thing I wanted to consider eating for lunch when beginning another "planned eating" journey.    So I'm going to work at not eating the same thing so much that I burn out on it.   However, having said that, I have possibly set myself up for that because--in my planning-- I've decided to eat a large salad as one of my main meals most days...    It won't be exactly the same, because I've stocked up on CANNED chicken and tuna and will use them and sometimes just cheese or maybe have ground beef (as in taco salad).  So hopefully, that will not be such a same-ol'-same-ol'    that I'll get burned out on it.     Eating a salad regularly should be part of my ongoing "lifestyle" anyway, even if I don't eat one daily.

I made out a two-week check list for grocery shopping.  (Two weeks because I get paid every two weeks. )  On it I put all the things I need to be sure I have on hand at home so that I'm not lacking for the right kinds of things to eat when eating time comes. On Monday, I finally had time to go to the grocery store and buy those things I didn't already have on hand.  

I had meant to write down what I ate every day.... Notice how I started off "Day 1"  and got to "Day 2" before that attempt was foiled. The 4th of July holiday, plus a birthday party and my brother coming from to visit and to have lunch, left me with very little time to sit down and write out what I was eating.  But, I did (kinda) keep a running record in my mind.   That's not usually as accurate, but at least I was counting instead of just eating whatever was in my pathway.  (Mostly I'll have to say "no" to the goodies my co-workers bring and leave in the breakroom.   Krispy Kreme doughnuts.   Cupcakes.  Those are  actually easier for me to pass up than the spinach dip or cheese balls.)

But, I'm on my way.   I've lost four pounds at least... My scale wants to be erratic in its readouts.  One readout actually showed me down 5.5 pounds, but I felt that was just an enticement for me to KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.   I have committed myself to this course--finally-- and I need to stay on it.   I need to add exercise -- which I plan to do-- and learn to drink more water.

Food Diary Day 2

Breakfast   About 200 Calories
Coffee   2 cups   (80)
2 boiled eggs, lightly buttered with Fleishman's margarine  ( 116 )

Lunch   About 275
Salad
with canned chicken  (113)
celery
sunflower seeds  (47 calories per T)    
craisins   (65 calories in 2 T)
onion
1 tablespoon Hellman's Light Mayo  (40)
chili pepper vinegar

Peach Tea   5 calories



Supper:  Felicia fixed it   About 850 calories
1/2 baked potato (NO sour cream OR butter)  (97)
macaroni and cheese  (147)
t bone steak  238 for 3 oz   I probably ate 5 oz   238/3 x 5= 400 calories
1 slice buttered bread   (approx. 200)
Water



Fitness:  Brad and I worked in the yard.  I cut and sawed brush and he hauled it to the burn pile.   I also mowed so I exercised my arms turning the wheel.   Then we washed the car.... bending and stretching involved in that.

Need to lose 50 pounds

Posted on Facebook in Mel's Skinny Darlings:

A poster asked how can I lose the 50 pounds I gained after having children?

One answer: 
Eat a salad w grilled chicken every day for lunch. 
Have grapefruit apple or pear as snack. 
Eat oatmeal or egg whites for breakfast and a piece of fish or tuna for dinner. 
Splurge a lil on weekends. 

In three months u should lose 30 lbs. I've done it twice over the last ten years. 
Limit urself to 1200 calories a day. 

Find low cal stuff u enjoy like watermelon or spaghetti squash w tomato sauce, spinach etc that can fill u up but has lil calories. 
I also used to buy the whole grain English muffins and put whipped cottage cheese for breakfast. 

Just start looking at calorie contents if everything and adding them up n keeping track. There r a few apps out there for smartphones. 

Also check out hungry girls website

Good luck!

"Planned Eating"-- Food Diary Day 1

Breakfast
40     1cup of coffee with sweetener and coffemate
216   2 hard boilded eggs (156), cut in half and lightly spread with 1T. Fleishman's                margarine (60)

Lunch 
Subway BLT on 9 grain bread   320
Pepperjack cheese 160
Black Olives   35
Vinegar and Oil  45      Total of all 560

One Soft Peppermint  20

Bag of peanuts   260

Dinner (at work: 3-9)
Subway BLT on 9 grain bread   320
Pepperjack cheese 160
Black Olives   35
Vinegar and Oil  45     
Green Tea  5
Medium Orange 80    Total 645
Snack 
Large Gala Apple 109
1850 so far.

If I hadn't had that weakness hit me and ate that bag of peanuts, I would have been on target.

1/2 cup baby carrots  35


Fitness:  
I didn't want to excuse myself on my very first day of my plan so  I decided on a "just get moving" approach.   In absence of having an internet connection in the Living Room, where I have room for Leslie Sansone's In Home Walking, I figured I'd not excuse myself from doing something.

I set my kitchen timer for 15 minutes of "get moving"...
and I walked  back and forth, back and forth, and did kicks and  side steps and knee raises with hand touching opposite knees, kick backs,  and the other things Leslie Sansone does but I also added  toe touches, waists twists,  side bends, push ups, calf stretches, and knee bends done at the kitchen sink.

At work: Walked from middle of stock room to the front registers and back several times.

ONE MILE

TWO MILE

THREE MILE

Blog to Lose

I had a bookmark of a site that I went back and took a look at yesterday and thought it might actually give me some motivation to do WHAT I NEED TO DO.  

Blog to Lose is a "community" of folks who are each trying to lose weight and have signed up to blog regularly about their efforts.   Maybe if I do that I can at least REMEMBER what I'm doing in the midst of all the other things that I'm trying to just remember these days.  

Finally I Started Walking

Like I said previously, I've had some problems with my feet.  But what I didn't say is that I also have problems with my knees.   They just don't work like they used to.    I can't get up and down very well.   When I say down, I mean I can't get down in the floor and then get back up unless I have something to get hold of and pull myself up.   And I can't climb up on a step- stool, ladder, or go up stairs--  without support either.  And I have to be careful when I sit down that my bottom is not lower than my knees or it's a VERY difficult for me to get up.   Personally, I think a  lot of the "damage" I have in my knees has come from my work both from abuse on the one hand but also because of just standing relatively still on concrete for long hours for years.

But, I've gone part time at work and the days I do work  are not as long in  hours as they used to be.   So I DID START my walking plan.   I live on the lower side of a circular road.   From my house around the back side of the circle and up a hill then back to a level area is right at half a mile.  Last Monday I began my walking regimen by going up that hill and then just a little further along the level at the top, then turning around and coming back.   The whole walk takes about twenty minutes and it has been quite an effort for me.   (That really bugs me because if there was thing I was when I was younger it was a walker.   That incline would have been nothing for me to scale.)   Anyway, I keep telling myself that it takes 21 days to make something a habit so THE IMPORTANT THING is for me to FIRST create the walking habit.   I can still remember back when I did have that habit and if something interfered with my walk it  seemed like a vital part of my day was missing.    So right now I'm aiming to get that habit built into my life.

 HABITS HAVE A MOMENTUM OF THEIR OWN.    Once I get the habit established, then I can increase the amount of time I walk.   But right now I'm still battling my unenergetic self (my feelings) to just get out there and walk.  I "don't feel like doing it" so I don't want to.  But I have pushed back on my feelings now and done it for eight straight days.   I have 13 more to go and then I'll see if it's really true whether I "have the habit".

I just now did a quick search on the validity of that much quoted axiom and found, if you read my link, that it's not really true.  But I need to do it anyway.  And this article does say that they are splitting hairs about whether you're establishing a habit or a routine or ritual.  Habits are mindless.  Routines are determined changes.  Oh, well.  I was hoping for the mindless change, but I suppose life doesn't ever really work that way.  However, I DO KNOW that I didn't even use to have to think about hitting the road first thing.  It was built into the way I did things in my mornings and when I missed a morning of doing it, I went all day with that feeling  somehow there was something important missing from my day.

The Plan vs. The Reality

I meant to start in February with walking every day that I did not have to go into work really early (which to me is 9AM.  I know that's not "really early" but by the time I get up, get my devotions done, get ready to go and drive 30 minutes to work, it's "really early" for me to try and also fit in walking in the morning.)

Well, that didn't happen.  I  have excuses.  Just excuses.   Mainly I get sidetracked into doing things that are easier to do.  It's not easy to break out of old habits and begin new ones.

But, my memory is kicking in now.  I do remember that one issue I had with walking was that right around the same time I was thinking I'd begin a walking "program", I also began have some serious foot issues.   I have a "deformed" foot.  I have hereditary bunions.  Foolishly, at 18 years old I had surgery on one of those bunions so that it would not project so noticeably. (My issue back then REALLY was how my foot LOOKED.)  The surgery must have severed something in my foot which would allow me to move that big toe to the right.  Over the years (I'm almost 66 now) that toe has progressively drawn to the left.  But in the past few months, another issue began to surface.  My toe next to the big toe began to pull to the right and up UNDER the big toe.  This progressed to the point that I was having PAIN in my foot because of the lapover.  I am on my feet all day at work and by the time I could get off my feet, I am ready to just let them rest for awhile instead of starting a walking program.

I've tried to realign the toes by using those cushioned toe thingy's you can buy at Walmart.  (They are called Toe Bandages and the package says "Wrap toes in cushioned comfort with soft slip on bandages.)   They are circular.  I  managed to pull my second toe back into proper alignment by slipping one of those bandages over it and the third toe.  Doing this for awhile-- plus prayer-- has at least (finally) alleviated the PAIN I was having in my foot.  But then, I got sick.  So, go figure.   Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.

But I have for the most part watched my calories.  By "watch" I mean I have written down what I am eating and I am trying to keep up with -- at least  approximately--the number of  calories I'm eating per day.

I have found in the past that just doing a count of calories in my head before I actually eat something is a strong deterrent to eating things that are HUGE calorie hogs-- like pieces of thickly frosted cake or cupcakes or even doughnuts (which are often available on the breakroom table at work because of birthdays or other events).

I started my calorie counting on January 30.   I had lost 8 pounds by last Saturday.    I haven't done as well on my eating this week mainly because I excused myself for eating "comfort food" while I've been fighting off a chest cold. And whatever this "bug" is that I'm fighting is making me VERY weak.  I must have strength for my work so... like I say, excuses... for eating too many calories.  However, I did check my weight this morning and found that I'm only up half a pound.   So maybe if I'm careful today, I can at least be back on track in the morning (my weigh in day) and keep forging ahead.

I am teamed up with some others in a scaleback effort in the state.  We are each supposed to lose at least ten pounds in three months.   That doesn't seem like an unreasonable goal but it does require vigilance.  I cannot continue to eat like I was eating before and achieve weight loss.

Leaving out the scaleback effort, I need to do this for myself since I have been given the figures that show I am "prediabetic".  That needs to be a wake up call.  Diabetes is nothing to play around with.

Hopefully, by next week, I'll feel better and with my foot doing much better, I might convince myself to start that walking effort that I meant to begin at the beginning of February (and continue for the rest of my life).

On Tuesday, December 13th I had a doctor's appointment

I weighed 219

My cholesterol was up

My A1C was 6.3 up from 6.2 last year.  Somehow last year when the nurse mentioned to me that it was 6.2, she didn't get across to me that I was in a "pre-diabetes" position.  But looking at the guideline below (found on this site even last year I should have been considering myself VERY  CLOSE to what is considered diabetes.    American Diabetes Association


So, given this knowledge, I must lose weight and start getting exercise or I will no doubt be going on up that scale.