Monday, February 28, 2011

Bouncing Ball

I'm like a bouncing ball with all these weight loss efforts that start off good and then quickly fizz out. Even almost immediately after they are started.

The no calorie counting wasn't working, as evidenced by the scale this morning.

So, I'm back to using the BodyBugg and tracking my calories.

Didn't get to the gym this morning, but I did get on the treadmill for 45 minutes, with 20 of those minutes being spent jogging. I don't know how much I burned, but better than nothing. I got a good sweat out of it, at any rate.

Calories eaten for the day: 1446

That includes three meals and two snacks. Got my water in, too.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

New Goal

Trying to get myself back into the habit of blogging. Although I've tried to "keep my head in the game" of losing weight, I've decided to give calorie counting a break. Hubby is currently using my BodyBugg and I've stopped using the SparkPeople website to track foods I've eaten and exercises I've done. I've decided to just focus on eating healthily and getting some form of exercise every day.

However, although this is working out okay, I want to give myself some clear goals to keep my motivation up. I've always enjoyed tracking my workouts and SparkPeople was good for this as far as getting points for minutes spent exercising and tracking fitness goals. So, I've decided I want to walk/run 500 miles this year. So by December 31st of this year, I will have walked or run 500 miles. This is in addition to my workout classes at the gym, which I'm supposed to be attending four days a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday are aerobics and Thursday is Pilates). So I don't want to over-commit. To do 500 miles by the end of the year roughly calculates to 11.1 miles per week. That should be totally doable. Also, I want to try my 100 days of exercise again. I haven't attempted it in months and last time I made it to 50+ days. I can do this!

I am going to revise the 100 days of exercise, though. I'm going to require only 10 minutes of exercise each day, minimum, rather than 20. Most days I will easily do more than 10 minutes, but if I'm having a bad day or don't feel well, even sick I should be able to walk for 10 minutes, if nothing else.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Wow, time does fly

I can't believe I haven't updated my blog in 6 months! Not that I've had much to update about. I've been tossing the same few pounds up and down on the scale since we moved back to California in September. I do well for a few weeks and then fall back on bad habits, with enough exercise thrown in to keep me from gaining more than a few pounds. I've joined a gym here (LA Fitness), which isn't nearly as nice as the 24 Hour Fitness was in Washington, but the classes suffice.

So, I'm so tired of my lack of progress, with my weight and my writing, that I've started a new blog to document my pledge to change. I'm tired of thinking that eventually I will learn to do the things I want to do; that eventually I will get motivated and self-disciplined; that eventually I will regain control of myself. You know what? eventually will never happen if I wait for it to happen. So, I've made the decision to make it happen. And I'm going to write about my efforts.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Changes

We've recently relocated back to California. That's 3 moves in 2 1/2 years, two of them being long distance. Suffice it to say, I am TIRED of moving! Hopefully we'll stay put for at least a couple years. I'm not thrilled to be back to point A, but I can live with it.

Since the decision was made at the beginning of August to relocate, I haven't maintained my exercise regime. As a result, I've lost all my muscle tone. My weight dropped several pounds, through lack of exercise and eating about the same number of calories as I was burning, so I'm now wearing pretty much the same size clothes but I'm softer, with less energy and more aches and pains. I've tried at least walking a bit, but that's about it. I definitely need to re-start my exercising!

I have joined a walking/running group and have my first meetup tonight. Its kinda farther than I wanted to have to drive, about 12 miles away, but not so far as to make it not worthwhile. We'll see how it goes.

Monday, July 26, 2010

No Longer Obese!!!

I can finally say I am no longer considered obese!!!! It's just a number, I know, but it still feels great. This morning, after returning from a week's vacation no less, I weighed in at 137.4. Woohoo!!! Getting so close to my goal weight. Well, I still have 27 pounds to go, but still! The bodybugg is my new best friend and so is exercise. I'm adding a morning routine of Pilates, just 15 minutes worth. I'm also going shopping next weekend to buy some new clothes! I'm offically a size 8 and while I've bought a couple pairs of pants, I really want to get a couple nice shirts and even a pair of sexy heels. I haven't worn heels in years and I think it's time! I want to feel feminine and sexy. I also want to get some new perfume. I'm ready for a new me.

We're planning on moving back to California - I'm VERY excited to go back. Washington is beautiful but it rains too damned much and I miss my family.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Day 57 and BMI and Weigh-In

Firstly, my weight this morning was 138.6. That was my goal before I went on vacation - so yay me!! I was all excited, thinking I was finally UNDER the obesity range. However, when I did the calculation, my BMI is 30.0. Another 0.2 pound loss and I would be merely overweight today rather than still obese. Frustrating, but really meaningless, right? I mean, I'm doing great so that would be a stupid thing to get caught up in. And by tomorrow I could be under the 30. So, whatev, I'm happy with my progress! 28 pounds to go.

I'm on Day 57 of my 100 days of exercise goal. It's weird because now I feel off if I don't exercise. It really is true that it becomes habit forming. Yesterday I had done only 30 minutes of strength training and usually would follow that up with at least a walk in the evening, if not a jog or an aerobics class. But I just didn't have time with getting ready for vacation, so I skipped the aerobic portion of my workout. I had a really hard time getting to sleep and I felt like I was missing something. I plan on squeezing in a jog before I hit the road today, though. Getting my daily exercise will be a challenge on the road, but we'll figure it out. I have a gym membership to 24 hour fitness, so I can always stop at any one of those along the way.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Bodybugg

So, after several weeks of being on plan and really kicking butt with my exercise, but not seeing any real changes, I bought the bodybugg. I just wanted to know my calorie burn in reality, not an estimate based on my weight, age and height. I am extremely short so I often fall so far from the bell curve that averages can be quite off for me.

It has been an EXCELLENT tool! I weighed in at 139.2 this morning. In the two weeks I've had the Bodybugg, I've lost 4 pounds. I've learned that if I hardly do any exercise in a day and spend all day on my bum working, I burn about 1400 - 1500 calories. If I spend 30 to 60 minutes exercising moderately, I burn 1900 - 2100 calories. If I spend at least an hour exercising AND am active all day, I can burn anywhere from 2100 - 3000 calories. I am now able to ensure that I am eating less that I burn no matter what kind of day I'm having. I now see that when I was always aiming for 1200 - 1500 calories a day in consumption, and sometimes going a little over that, on the days I wasn't really active I was either breaking even or eating more than I was burning, even though the website I was using to track my calories always said I was under my calorie burn.

I would highly recommend this tool to anyone wanting to be more exact in their calculations for eating. You do have to track calories, but I was doing this anyway. It also helps to see how many calories you are burning, even the burn per minute. When I'm working at my desk, I'm burning about 1.4 to 1.9 calories per minute, depending on how often I'm getting up from my seat. When I work out, I can burn anywhere from 2 calories per minute to 10 calories per minute. I watch that burn and push myself harder on my workouts so I can get a higher burn. I also use it to try to hit a calorie burn of 2100 calories a day. Knowing how few calories I burn when I'm working all day, I've started taking breaks from work to jump rope, jog in place or other exercises to get my heart going and increase my burn by the end of the day. Or if it is getting late and I'm nowhere near my goal, I'll go for a walk or do some house cleaning to get my burn up. It's really helped to keep me motivated in moving.

Anyway, not to try to sell a product, but it has been great for me. I'm almost under 30 on my BMI! YAY!