Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Bare Minimum Blog Syndrome

Date: 10-26-09
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 187.5 (188.2)
Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 1.3 (2.6)
Total Weight loss: 32.1 (31.4)
Pounds left to lose: 12.5 (13.2)

These are my stats from Monday the 26th. I am all out of energy lately. I’m flat out exhausted. 8 more days and one last weigh in until I set sail for my 10 day vacation. This week I was the biggest loser again and get to claim my prize on the upcoming Monday. I am still holding strong in fourth place in the overall standings, but fighting hard for the third spot. Keeping up with my normal pace as usual.

I will update again before I head out for vacation with details of where my diet stands and my plans for not gaining while on vacation. I just wanted to keep my stats current and weekly. Sorry for the skimmed details.

Stay tuned and keep up the good work.
<3 Tiffany

Monday, October 19, 2009

Keep up the good work.

Date: 10-19-09
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 188.6 (190.8)
Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 1.3 (2.2)
Total Weight loss: 31 (28.8)
Pounds left to lose: 13.6 (15.8)

I decided to do my stats a little differently from now on. The stubborn side of me can’t choose to post Biggest Loser stats or my own from home. I feel like I want to have honest numbers up for the contest but I also don’t want to discredit the main scale I have been weighing on since day one. Well day one after the big scale fiasco of 09’ I blogged about. Anyways the stats in black are my stats from home and I decided to change the color and put my Biggest Loser stats in parentheses. I will do it this way from now on.

I didn’t update because of a lack of time and motivation last week after the Biggest Loser results came back in. I won top Loser for the week! Whoop. I also moved up to third place in the overall standings. I don’t count on staying there because of how close the others are, but only time will tell. Another 2.2 pounds down this week. My prize was also a choice of a few certificates. I ended up choosing one for a free t-shirt from Cleanline. I am sure I will just give it to my sister, I can’t imagine shopping there. I think I would feel too out of place.

Seventeen more days left until my cruise. I am taking a ten day or so break from the Medifast diet. I think it will be a good test to see how I will do when I am ready to really transition off of it. Although, free food, room service, and endless amount of time for drinking isn’t exactly a real world situation test. It’s sort of a drastic test and one that I am concerned about. I am worried about how much I will gain back and about how difficult it will be to start up again after I am back in my normal swing of things. My family just wants me to relax and have a good time and not worry about it. I think after a couple days I will be able to. Seventeen more days to slim down a little bit more for the fitted dress I got. I will post a few pictures when I get back.

Lately I have been using my aunt as an even bigger motivation. She is looking so great and only a few pounds away from my second goal of 155. I couldn’t imagine getting down to that size but I believe that anything is possible if I try hard enough.

My goal this week is to learn a healthier way to deal with the random “snack attacks” I get on the weekends, or when I have a lot of down time. I have been obsessing (that maybe too strong a word) with food and watching the clock for when I can eat next. I am not usually hungry let alone starving to the point of staring at the clock. I am just bored and use food as a way to occupy my time. This is such a negative habit to have and even more dangerous for after I am finished with Medifast. I haven’t found a good way to deal with this yet. I am defiantly interested in some feedback from people who have found constructive ways of dealing with it. Sometimes that extra bottle of water just doesn’t cut it! I have managed to still stick to Medifast to the T, but am just searching for something to ease my way a little bit.

Quote for today by an unknown author. Remember this as we are on our journey to loving ourselves Inside and out!

“It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.”
<3 Tiffany

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

A Few Firsts

Date: 10-13-09
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 189.9
Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 8.3
Total Weight loss: 29.7
Pounds left to lose: 14.9

This blog entry is going against the grain a little bit. I am going by my scale at home which I have noticed is about two pounds lighter than the biggest loser scale. I will post my biggest loser stats as of yesterday.

Date: 10-12-09
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 193
Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 5.2
Total Weight loss: 26.6
Pounds left to lose: 18

It has been two weeks since I posted. The day before last Monday’s weigh in, I came down with the local flu bug around here. I barely got through work on Dayquil and luck. After work I was straight to pajamas and bed. Blogging was not on my priority list (sorry!). I severely went off the plan but not in the worst way. I didn’t cheat at all. I didn’t eat anything that went against the plan. I just simply didn’t eat much. My appetite went away completely. Eating every two hours was simply not an option. I managed to get my morning shake in everyday and one other Medifast meal. For dinner I had to eat something because by that time at night the Dayquil/Nyquil was making me nauseous and giving me the shakes. I scrambled up three eggs and no green serving. Choked it down and called it good. I also would throw in a sugar free popsicle sometimes at night to help soothe my throat and give me some extra calories. I also found sugar free cough drops too. With the extra calories of the cold medicine (yep you heard me!) I wasn’t really as high on my intake as I needed to be but I that is how I managed. So far I am only a few days back on my schedule and no issues. I thought this might mess me up a bit and planned on gaining back a few of the pounds I shed but so far no gain. I will keep you posted as I keep up with my regular intake. Guess being sick didn’t affect it as much as I imagined.

Another first for me this weekend was an overnight trip and my first dining out experience. I was pretty worried about having to be a little picky about where we could go out to eat. I brought a variety of food just in case I got a craving for a certain Medifast meal. I continued with my morning shake each day and found it to be easier to live off the bars mostly. On the go it’s a little difficult to have oatmeal or some soup although not impossible. I just found the bars and honey mustard pretzels to be the most practical.

I found eating out to be rather easy and nice change to my previous restaurant habits. The breakfast skillets did look delicious, and the honey BBQ boneless wings were hard to stare at. Over all I enjoyed my dinner just as much, than if I had ordered something fattening. Most important lessons:
· It’s okay to be picky. If you see something in a dish you know won’t be good for you, order it on the side or ask them to exclude it.
· Always order any dressings or toppings on the side. This leaves the portion in your control. Normally on my mixed salads I just eat the amount of dressing they top my salad with. This time I knew how much I was drizzling over top and didn’t go overboard. I also knew I was within the right amount of dressing that I should use.
· That crispy fried chicken topper looks so good for a salad. Make it grilled. I promise it will taste just as good!

Keep up the good work. I know I am starting to feel more confident every day about my ability to stick with this. I still have my moments of overstress and anxiety. Let’s all just keep taking it one day at a time.

<3
Tiffany

Monday, September 28, 2009

Staying Positive

Date: 09-28-09
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 198.2
Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 1.7
Total Weight loss: 21.4
Pounds left to lose: 23.2

Biggest Loser weigh in number four. I am happy about the weight loss, more than happy, ecstatic. Frustrated that I can’t just weigh in on my scale at home and take a picture for proof. Lol. My scale seems more eager to drop the pounds. I was fairly confident going in of a three or maybe even four pound loss. On weigh in Mondays I don’t even drink my water until I have weighed in. Somehow in an hour I gained back two pounds that have been off all weekend…. Like I said, I am partial to my scale. (Insert pouty face here).

Today my health coach Jackie emailed me to check up on me. She was just checking in to see if I needed any support or to me answers to any questions I might have. We sent a few emails back and forth just chit chatting about my progress. Although I didn’t say my frustrations I feel a lot better after talking with her. Who cares what the Biggest Loser scale says anyways? I feel like every Monday this common issue keeps popping up. Can’t I learn that although the numbers dropping are the main goal, but they are not the only perk of being on this diet. She also reminded me that I have only been at this for six weeks. 21 pounds is an amazing accomplishment. This shows the importance of having someone who is open ears to listen to your frustrations and celebrations along the way. I am lucky that I have so much support. Otherwise all of the good, the bad, and the ugly thoughts probably would overwhelm me. Find someone to help keep you accountable and hold your hand. There is no need to do this alone.

On the lighter side of things, I love the way I am starting to look. Although I don’t see any remarkable changes I am feeling sexier than I have in ages. Thank god there isn’t a camera in my room to count how many times I am looking at myself in the mirror. Lol. I also just bought two new cocktail dresses for the cruise. I am hoping to slim down a little bit beforehand so that they look perfect. For $20.00 apiece I couldn’t turn them down. I think they look really great too. It was a confidence booster and also a great reward for all of my hard work.

Here's an encouraging quote:
"If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. "
-Mary Pickford

Monday, September 21, 2009

Self Image

Date: 09-21-2009
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 199.9
Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 3.2
Total Weight loss: 19.7
Pounds left to lose: 24.9

Weigh in number three. I am so close to my twenty pound mark it’s driving me crazy. I am so happy to finally be under two hundred. I can’t tell you the last time my weight started with a one. I know that it’s incredibly unhealthy and I am vowing to myself never to let it get back into the two hundreds again. With the exception of if I have kids someday.

I am thinking about my body two years ago and how I let myself get to 265. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I didn’t feel THAT overweight. Sure there were things I wanted to change, but I didn’t feel that I looked that out of shape. I was up to wearing a size 20 dress and jeans. It had a lot to do with living with my ex. He was incredibly thin and ate enough food for an entire football team in one sitting. I guess I got used to over eating. The only problem is he wouldn’t put a pound on and I was gaining for both of us without knowing it. The first 45 pounds I dropped weren’t any huge changes. I simply ate less. I stopped eating when I felt full and it fell off. Small changes can make a big difference. If you aren’t ready to take the full leap, take baby steps. Somewhere down the road you will thank yourself.

Sometime when I feel a little more comfortable in my own skin I will post some pictures of myself from those times and compare to how I am now. Friends that weren’t around for that time in my life say that I look like a completely different person. I have to agree. It’s nice to laugh and be able to smile and know that I have come a long ways even before I started my new diet. The main reason I started in August was because I noticed my patterns were starting to be like they used to be and slowly but surely I was putting weight back on pound by pound. I refused to wake up one morning and be back in that place.

My current diet is chugging along great. I haven’t really put in that much exercise. In the next coming weeks I am hoping for my leg pain to be less and then I can add a little walk up some of the steeper hills by my house. Probably three times a week to start. Along with dropping the pounds I need to start getting back into shape too! My goal for this week, is to start eatting my meals a little slower. As this diet turns into habit, I notice myself just keeping with the schedule but I missing an important peice. A main componet of this diet is learning to pace yourself while eating and knowing proportions. I am going to work on those goals, to help better my success after I am done with Medifast.

This weekend when I finally dropped below the 200 mark, was the first time I looked in the mirror and thought to myself “you look beautiful today.” As women I really feel that we should feel and tell ourselves that every day. No matter how bloated, chubby, or grumpy we feel. If we don’t appreciate our bodies, how can we expect a man or anyone else for that matter to appreciate us? I am finally feeling like I don’t need a husband or a date to validate my self worth.
Keep up the good work everyone! A quote for the deeply poetic:

“A better self-image doesn't pay the rent or cook supper or prevent nuclear war. Feeling better about ourselves doesn't change the world by itself, but it can give us energy to do what we want and to work for change.”
-Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Big Picture

Date: 09-14-09
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 203.1Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 1.8
Total Weight loss: 16.5
Pounds left to lose: 28.1

Biggest Loser weigh-in number 2. I can’t say I am not disappointed. Thinking about it you are supposed to average a loss 3-5 pounds a week. I only lost 1.8 pounds since last Tuesday. I guess if you want to get into technicalities it hasn’t been a whole week. I seriously doubt a 2 pound loss or more tonight. I guess this weekend added to the disappointment. On Friday I was the “sober driver” for my friends to a house party and outing in Long Beach. I didn’t have one sip of alcohol or any of the 4 cheese ziti and garlic bread everyone had for dinner. I just waited to drive up there until I ate my chicken cesar salad. Then, Saturday was the fireman’s ball. Again I was the good girl. Although the strict rule is: beer and blackjack, you can’t have one without the other.

I am trying to look at the big picture here. Three more days and I have been on my diet for a month. I can’t believe how fast it has gone by and hasn’t been that hard to stick to. 4 more pounds until my 20 pound a month goal. I don’t know if I will make it in the next three days. I feel so frustrated at times, although my main goal is 175. I can’t wait to get out of the two hundreds. I feel desperate for it. Lastly I feel like it’s this impossible hump to get over and it’s just dangling there.

It’s so hard to see the progress I have made. It’s right in front of me! I have clothes that are baggy on me. Co-workers that are daily complementing me on my dedication to this diet and how they can tell I am losing weight. I just can’t see it. I know this blog might seem like a constant complaint line. I am just trying to shed some light that although it isn’t easy, keep up the good work. If I can work on filling my glass to half full, anyone can.

I am making steady process. This past year (and three months) has been nothing but me learning to love myself, because someone showed me I wasn’t worth love. Man, that is a hard wall to put back up, after it’s been broken down. I think that’s why this journey has been even harder for me.

The new me. The new me. The new me. Here I come!
<3 Tiffany

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Call me queen of the losers.

Date: 09-08-09
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 204.9
Goal Weight: 175
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 4
Total Weight loss: 14.7
Pounds left to lose: 29.9

Okay queen might be tooting my own horn a bit much. I will take princess loser instead. Week one for the biggest loser competition is going good. I decided for Mondays weigh ins (Tuesday today because of the holiday) I would change up my routine a bit. Instead of drinking my normal 2 cups of water when I get ready in the morning, plus whatever I can sip off my huge Providence mug of ice water. I will only have my Medifast shake until I can weigh in at 8 o’clock. That way I am not carrying around a bunch of water with me for weigh ins. Every other day I will succumb to my fish like need for water bright and early.

Today I stepped on the scale and I felt good. This weekend I did pretty well and knew that going in. I thought that the scale gods might not be on my side (cup half empty mentality my mother hates). I took my shoes and my work jacket off just in case. I hear they weigh at least 20 pounds each. lol. And walla! I lost 6 pounds (per their scales) since last weigh in. I think I have a good chance for the prizes this week. Six pounds is a lot of weight for one week. I think this will probably be my last weigh in at that high of a number. In one of the previous competitions, a contestant lost over 60 pounds. I won’t probably be having that good of a turn out in three months, but I am okay with that. You never know how your competition is doing. The good thing is people are getting out there and being healthier in small steps or big ones as long as you are inching toward that finish line of a healthy life. Sometimes it’s not that fun but I want to be around to live a long and healthy life for my family’s sake.

I will update with the results of who wins the prizes this week. So far I am glad I signed up, but it is a bit more pressure than usual. My health coach Jackie also sent out a great “chain” type of email for a healthy recipe swap. Hopefully it turns out and I can get some great new things to try!

Tonight is also a long work meeting; they are supplying everyone with yummy Subway because we will be there through dinner. I will have to go home after work and make my dinner ahead of time so I can bring it. Subway is not on my menu unfortunately. Hopefully it won’t be too torturous of an hour and a half. Oh did I mention cookies, chips, and pop as well? I may need to bust out the serenity prayer to keep my food addiction at bay (I kid, I kid).