Day Ten TSFL

I think today was another success story.  We had a party this evening with all of the summer staff and I  planned ahead and decided to eat my salmon at lunch time and then eat veggies with one of my medifast meals while at the event. I was tempted by the food but once again surprised by how much I wasn't really hungry while we were eating. My tummy is grumbling right now a bit before going to bed but I think that's just because I just had my last meal and I'm processing it or something.  I also probably didn't have enough veggies.  Today was my first "official" day of exercise. I lifted weights for my arms today because I know I need to build up muscle. Muscle helps burn fat :) Plus I figured I wouldn't be nearly as exhausted afterwards as I would be with cardio in case I was working out too early into this transition. Afterwards I felt GREAT! I'm hoping to start incorporating more structured exercise daily. Especially on office days where I'm not out doing manual labor or working programs. 

Day Nine TSFL

If there's one word I could use for today and how I feel I'd have to say, "exhausted".  I spent 80% of my day out on the ropes course mulching.  Essentially I was the spreader of the mulch while others helped to move the mulch from point A to point B using a Bobcat.  Lots of bug bites but the ropes  course looks good.  It was a little hard to try to keep up with when I can meals but I think I did pretty well overall.  

One of my reasons for doing TSFL is so days like this get better and I can keep up with those college kids of mine.  I could tell everyone was tired but I want to be able to keep up with my job and not feel like I'm a burden to others.  To be a leader in the job role I'm in I have to be fit and able to do physical things on a daily basis. One of the many reasons I am determined to make this a life change.

Day Eight TSFL

Today I weighed in and I was 158.8! That's down from 164.6 in one week.  Overall that's encouraging for me!  This means I also met my goal and I can now go get my eyebrows waxed lol.  Had a delicious lean and green meal that consisted of salmon and a salad. I might have added a bit more dressings and such because i didn't measure things out but I still went very light on everything so overall I think I did well. Worked a low course program all afternoon and evening so plenty of walking. Tomorrow I'll be out mulching the high ropes course which will probably ware me out - I'll be sure to drink lots of water!

Short post due to long day!  

Day Seven TSFL

Today was another good day - there are definitely times when I want to eat more food or snack on something but then I think to myself... Why? I'm not even hungry?!   I won't lie I'm still tempted by lots of food and thoughts of eating things but it's my hope that after a few weeks these cravings and thoughts will get far and few between. It kind of reminds me of giving up Diet Coke. I remember that for about a solid two to three weeks I would crave diet coke but then all of a sudden I realized I no longer thought about it.  It was truly an addiction. I'm hoping that this will be the same for some of my random cravings I have throughout the day.

I feel bad for my fiance. He hasn't eaten all day and because I'm on the diet we can't really eat the same things anymore. I am about to go and pick him up a pizza from La Rosa's though which makes me happy because I still want him to feel like he can eat around me and such.  Due to the fact I'm doing lean and green during my lunches it really just leaves my medifast meals for when I'm home. HE has been very supportive though which is fantastic. I just know he feels bad because he sometimes wants to socially eat with me and I'm really trying to stick to this.  Fortunately it's only been a week so once again maybe we'll just get used to this routine together.  I do love him so much!

I'm trying to be proactive regarding tomorrow's lean and green. Unfortunately I work 1230p-930p with a 40 minute commute.  On top of that I have programming from 115p-415p and then again 6p-930p. I don't mind snacking on medifast meals while I'm with a group especially since they're so quick and easy.  I'm not sure when I'll sneak in my lean and green... Hm...

8a wake up

830 medifast

11a eat lean a green?

1p eat medifast

4p eat medifast

6p eat medifast

9 eat medifast

Sounds like a plan to me!  I think I will have one of my salmon's for lean and green tomorrow and maybe mix up a little salad or something for the side.   After I pick up LaRosa's i'm going to be taking a bubble bath since it's one of the things I earned by dropping below 165.  Hoping I can make it to the salon sometime this week because I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be less than 160 which means I can get my eye brows waxed. Woo-hoo!  Lol  

165 Bubble Bath

160 Eye Brow Wax

155 Pedicure 

Day Six TSFL

I don't expect today's post to be very long.  Had my best friend from kindergarden come up to visit me today which was an absolute blast. We went to IKEA and Jungle Jims.  At IKEA I had my lean and green I was nervous about it because this is the first time I just had to find something that was healthy outside of cooking it myself.  I was so nervous about whether I made the right choice that I took a picture and sent it to my health coach. She approved so I went on and enjoyed the rest of my day. 

I feel like I could have worked out today. I did spend all day walking around shopping with Lisa. I'm a bit tired right now but I'm also not hungry at all. I'm almost forcing myself to eat every three hours one of the snacks.  I wonder if this is common... 

I work the next six days - so hopefully I'll continue to be successful. Next Saturday there's a wedding reception and the next weekend an entire wedding weekend!  Just trying to make good choices.  Monday is my weigh in - I'll be sure to post an update. 

Day 5 TSFL

Day Five - if you would have asked me this morning how I felt I'd say awake, alert, but not as prepared as I wished.  If it weren't for the TSFL motivation I probably could have easily faltered. Mostly this is because I didn't prepare my meals as best as I should have Thursday night.  I woke up and I was very flustered but took the time to actually put everything together.  I have to find an alternative for my lean and green while at work. I have decided that I can't keep eating tuna every day (I'll get bored) and I definitely need to purchase some more veggies.  My veggies are running out quickly... Right now I only have celery and broccoli - both don't sound very good to me right now. I'm thinking I might bring the celery tomorrow when I'm canoeing with my best friend Lisa.  I think I need very specific ideas like go to Meijer and purchase "blank". I don't know..... I want to be successful!  I'm not sure about the lean and green meal. I'm thinking I might try to make her something for the afternoon as we go out.  I'm just going to stick to the Medifast meals while on the water and then eat my lean and green for dinner.  

I need to start researching and seeing if I can start brining other meat items with me for lunch.  For instance, if I could just pack cut up turkey - something nice and easy that would be great. I have a feeling all turkey that is easy to pack up I could find at the store is not going to be 95-97% lean. Unfortunately with a 40 minute drive I need to quickly figure out some lunches that I can bring with me for work for, well, the rest of my life!  I want to have healthy meals that I can bring with me.  Even if it requires some meal preparation on the weekend or in the evenings.  My biggest struggle right now is just lack of knowledge and experience.  

Shoot - as I'm reviewing my QuickStart guide for the 100th time I realized that I've been off plan. I've been eating a 5-oz portion of tuna for lunch and adding 2 healthy fat servings.  Apparently tuna falls under the "Lean" category which doesn't allow for any healthy fat servings... I'm still making progress but something good to find out earlier on I guess. Although I'm confused because on Healthy Fats page it says that I need at least two servings... Ugh - good question for Theresa I guess.

Tomorrow is going to start my days of exercise with hopefully an 8 mile canoe trip.  Sunday & Monday I'm doing ropes course programming so there will be lots of walking around and work related exercise. Much more activity then I've had around the office this week. Although I have made conscious efforts to take the stairs multiple times and walk through the recreation center to fill up my water bottle.  *Something I need to continue to get better at. 

Day Four: TSFL

Today was a great day. I woke up with energy and wanted to spend most of my time at my desk standing and walking around as opposed to just sitting on my butt.  According to my coach I'm in the fat burning stage.  I'm still getting slightly hungry before my allotted eating time but then at other times I have to remind myself to eat because it's been three hours.  

I have discovered that I do not like the eggs, smoothies (love the shakes though), parmesan cheese things, and soup.  I have one more day of trying new meals and then I can work on only ordering the foods I like.  

Although my good spirits were tested as I came home this evening and found the garbage scattered across the floor. Apparently when Chris marinated his chicken last night Bubba could smell it out. He decided to dumb the entire trash can and him and Peach had a feast while Chris and I were at work... Grrrr - not fun coming home to is all I can say. 

Day Four of TSFL - Lean and Green Meal

Starting off today's post with a pic of my lean and green meal I made for lunch.  Cut up cucumber and am putting tuna on top of cucumbers and eating at once.  In the tuna I put two tsp of Olive Oil and 1 tsp of Rosemary. I believe this is all within my allowed standards for the lean and green.

and the verdict is... pretty good!  yesterday when I had my tuna I felt it was way too dry (didn't add anything). So, hopefully by combining with the cucumber to eat it will all be a good option.

Day Three of TSFL

I've decided that I need to stop calling this a diet.  I'm not doing a "diet" I'm changing how I eat and know what I'm putting in my body. I'm not going to lie -there are a ton of bad habits that I have that I know need to change for me to be healthy/happy in the long term.  Surprisingly I do not feel that this transition has been that difficult. I've done weight watchers before and when I first started that out I remember being SO hungry the first few days as my stomach shrunk.  The only side effect I've seen is my head really hurting.  Although - this could be from the crazy weather we have had and be a sinus headache.  It's not pleasant but it's manageable.  I also have had a bit less energy but nothing too crazy.

Today for my lean and green I had tomatoes (huge hit!) and tuna. The tuna was okay but was very dry. Hopefully I can get a recipe of something I can add to it to make it easier to get down. I honestly threw about 1/4 of it away because it was too dry.  I find myself picking at my food a lot more.  One question I have about the 5 to 1 that I need to ask my coach about tonight is the timing of the meals?  I know you're supposed to take 20 minutes to eat a meal but my question is when the actual timing of the next meal occurs. For instance if I start a meal at 7am but finish it at 7:40am do I need to wait another two to three hours after 7am or 740am for my next meal?  So far I've been going by the start time.  Hopefully that's correct.

One thing I cheated at today was I jumped on a scale while at the Rec Center.  I did this around 11am (in between meals) and with all my clothes and everything on.  *Obviously since this scale is on the main floor at the Rec Center and next to an office door I often walk by.  I guess one of the perks and disadvantages of working at a Recreation Sports Center.

i have been consciously taking the stairs more at work instead of the elevator.  I have also been attempting to tell as many people as possible about what I'm doing. Everyone so far has been incredibly supportive. I actually had a meeting in the evening where we met up at local bar for some drinks and conversations. Everyone ordered beer and had some pretzels to munch on. I just drank water the whole time and while I did get a somewhat "why are you doing that" from one colleague the other two were incredibly supportive. *Perk of working with Recreation people.   I later explained how the main reason I started on this was the blood clot that was discovered in my leg in May. It was something that really had my concerned and looking at my health.  Since then I've stopped drinking pop and have decided to invest my money and efforts towards TSFL.  Hoping to see evidence of this paying off on Monday officially since I should be entering the fat burning zone soon.  Other than my headache - feeling fairly positive.  

Wish me luck!

Day Two on TSFL Diet

Today was a good day overall. I believe I made much healthier decisions than I would have if it were not for TSFL.  I am, though, pretty tired and have a mild/severe headache. Although according to my TSFL coach this is incredibly common in the first three days of the diet because of how your body enters into the "fat burn" stage. All I can say is I'm really looking forward to that stage. I don't mind being tired necessarily but I could really do without this headache.  

Today I may have overdone it. First off I had a meeting across campus that I decided to walk to and back.  While this is normally not a bad idea I think it might have been a bit overzealous for the second day of this diet. I was smart enough to grab my mid-afternoon snack and bring it to the meeting though. After the meeting I stopped half-way back at Shriver and ate the rest of the snack and got a large Iced Tea to drink.  This helped carry me onto lunch but I could definitely feel my energy sinking fast!  

We also had an evening reception for HRDBS and all of the new Resident Life Staff. It was great to meet everyone in a social setting. Of course they had lots of tasty foods that looked delicious and punch and sodas, etc. I took one look around and decided I'd put my back to the snack table and opted to get a big glass of water.  Typically in situations like that I find myself nervously eating because I'm uncomfortable with socializing a ton and eating the food makes me feel more at ease - plus it typically is extremely delicious.  It helped me to look around the table and notice that there were some other individuals who were also opting not to go ahead and help themselves to the food, but it was still a conscious decision I had to make to stay away.  Towards the end of the hour I was surprised by how little I was really still thinking about it.  

I did rush home to eat my lean and green meal today. I think today went better because I opted to just throw a grilled chicken breast into the microwave and have been munching on celery. Yesterday I did not do a good job of eating enough vegetables so I'm trying to make sure I eat all of the celery. I've never really been a veggies person to be honest. Although i did notice that tomatoes are on the approved list of veggies to eat which makes me very happy since we are growing some tomatoes in our garden and I love them!  That may be my "go to" veggie.  

Chris (my fiancé) is at the grocery store. I tried to load him up with as many of the healthy options as possible. Particularly tuna!  I think it's going to work out better if I'm able to do my lean/green meal during lunch and then use the evenings to have the 5 TSFL meal choices.  I think this would be better simply because by the time I get home I really don't feel like cooking a ton after working a full day and would rather just do something quickly/easily.  I think that's what got me in trouble in the past. Mostly because my quick/easy was going out to get something to eat, or cooking too much food because I was so hungry.  A lot of times though I would easily get full by simply having a bowl of cereal which I love and hope that I'll be able to eat again some day after I get back down to my desired weigh. 

I am tempted to jump on the scale right now but I am purposefully going to wait until Monday to re-weigh myself. I think a lot of times my impatience leads to me giving up on diets. Therefore, I'm going to try to be patient and just weigh in once a week as recommended.  I do have different prizes I'm giving myself for every 5lbs lost. I've posted these prizes on my fridge at home and in my office to remind myself that there are perks to following through with what I'm trying to do.  

168 start weight

165 Bubble Bath

160 Eye brow wax

155 Pedicure

150 Highlights/haircut

145 New Climbing Shoes

140 New dress

135 Raincoat

130 Ideas?  I want it to be something big that I can celebrate with and obviously something that is not associated with food in any way. (Goal Weight)

Oh well - I think I might share this link with TSFL group but will wait to post for everyone else to see after I've lost at least some weight.  I don't mind this being public - I just want to be successful. Maybe some day I'll coach like Theresa mentioned but I have to prove to myself that I can do this for life first. 

Day One on TSFL Diet

Today is supposed to be a very challenging day for me since it's Day 1 of my weight loss program. I'm really not picky so I haven't found too many issues with the food or the plan so far. Cooking my lean and green meal is really what stresses me out.  Apparently you're not supposed to put aluminum in the microwave when you don't have clear plastic wrap.. oops!  

This morning I weighed in at 164.6.  I am fairly happy with that because a couple of weeks ago I weight around 168.  After I had food poisoning I was down to 162 but I figure at least two lbs of water could account for why it came up.  Right now is really the only time I've felt particularly hungry.  I have decided that I need to wait another hour before I allow myself to eat anything again but that's still sticking with the plan.  I think the majority of my weight gain is from lack of planning and possibly lack of eating. 

One thing I did today was try on my bridesmaid's dress for my best friend's Katy's wedding.  I cannot even come close to saying how disappointed I am in my body in that dress.  Although it is a beautiful dress, I just don't like how I look in it.  It makes me really wish I would have started this process a lot sooner rather than waiting.  Oh well - hopefully I'll be in good dress shape by April 26th 2013 and continue it for the rest of my life!

As I went throughout the day I realized that a lot of my issue with weight comes not from being a foody of some sort where I really treasure how things taste but a lack of patience and of convenience. I also tend to wait and ignore hunger for so long that when I'm hungry I just want to eat as much as I can so I don't waste time eating again in the future. One thing I need to continue to get better at is spending more time eating my meals. Even as a kid our whole family would wolf down our food.  This has been a habit that has carried over onto adulthood that I realize forces me to continue to eat even after I am actually full. 

Chris (my fiance) is sitting here now so I figure I should get going.  About to call and talk to my health coach through TSFL, Theresa Trella.   Wish me luck on this journey!

Tomorrow is Day One of my TSFL diet

Tomorrow is the first day of my Take Shape For Life (TSFL) diet.  I'm nervous. I'm hesitant, but I'm also very excited.  I'm really excited to one day weight 130 lbs.  I have not weighed that since middle school - although I was very close to that weight when I was a sophomore in college I got down to 135. Overall this will be a journey to lose about 35lbs altogether but make a change once and for all.  The diet calls for me to eat a designated meal from TSFL every two to three hours a day plus one lean and healthy meal. The meals are obviously reduced calorie snacks/meals.  I am supposed to feel weak(ish) for up to three weeks.  

I plan to really struggle the first bit and hope I will be able to overcome my issues by keeping a motto that I once heard uttered by a woman I respect greatly (Pat Kopf) "Eat to live don't live to eat", and by being wishful for a future where I am healthier, have more energy, more self-confidence, etc. 

Upcoming challenges I know that will be facing my way are the numerous weddings that are coming up that I am participating in. I plan to stick to my diet as strictly as possible except when directly involved in the wedding.  I think it's important to still participate and not be that person who won't eat anything because it's without the diet. I will be sure to make conscientious choices though that are healthy and in line with my goals. 

Wish me luck!

Weight Loss Journey

Today I decided to start a blog. I want to do this to keep myself accountable but also to be honest about the program itself that I have decided to take part in.  I am essentially working with a health coach and will be following a 5 to 1 plan. I have ordered pre meals and will begin my weight loss journey a week from Monday.  There is a delay in starting this program because the first three weeks they ask that participants in the program decrease their amount of exercise. 

Right now I need to lose about 35lbs. I'm nervous to fail in this journey and know the first few days couple of weeks will be difficult. One of the main motivations is my upcoming wedding but also my future health. 

As I prepare for this journey I have already begun to make better decisions.