Well hello there, me.

I'm ba-ack!

So I lost my first ten pounds by the end of May, bringing me to 159. Have been stagnant ever since, but I joined Weight Watchers three weeks ago and I have been slowly, I mean SO SLOWLY, begun to lose again. I'm talking 156 on a good day.

I am watching Chris Powell guest hosting on Dr. Oz, and he says that a weight loss goal should be SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-sensitive (urgency!).

He says you should divide your current weight and divide by 100 to get the number of pounds you should be able to lose each week. That is 1.5 pounds a week, so I guess I am doing ok.

I'm not exercising right now. I got rid of my gym membership in favor of the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. It was ok, but now I am burnt out on it and want to get a real gym membership with child care.

Chris Powell is also saying that you should alternate high carb days with low carb days. On high carb days, a meal should have one protein, one carb and as many vegetables as you can eat during a high carb day. Then on low carb days, you still have a high-carb breakfast. On the high carb day, you are boosting metabolism, then on the low carb day you are burning fat. On the seventh day you eat whatever you want! There's a sabbath day to this whole thing.

He said only eat junk outside your house. Don't keep it around.

We just went to visit my parents and I did do a lot of mindless eating, so now I am trying to get back working toward good habits like I was before.

So here are my SMART goals:

Get back to 139 pounds and be able to run 3 miles without stopping before my birthday.

That's 17 pounds to go.

no weight loss in week 2.

well, despite being better about working out this past week, i didn't lose any weight. in fact i am 166.4 when last week i was 166.2.

i was prepared for this and i'm not upset. i know that a consistent effort over time will get me where i need to be.

i did a pretty good job at journaling my eating last week, but i wasn't counting calories at all. just kind of "eye-balling" it and allowing myself lots of little things here and there that really add up.

to reach my goal weight by october 1, which i really want to do so by the holidays i'm in maintenance mode and not still trying to lose, i'll need to start losing 2 pounds each week and sticking to right about 1200 calories a day. this is an intense daily calorie goal that will require creativity and super-mega discipline. i will need to become the girl who says no to treats even if it's kind of socially awkward to do so. i will need to become the girl who says "i already ate" when invited out to eat. it's going to require sneaking in as much exercise as possible. like jillian michaels during nap time AND a solid sweat sesh at the gym later that day.

Calorie Count

i just joined caloriecount.com. it tracks all your calories and key nutrients and has tools to find bmi, bmr, help you track your goals, a place to journal, etc. my mom uses it and really likes it, and so far it seems really helpful.

this is what it says about emotional eating (here):

You use food to affect your mood. This started as a conscious way to motivate yourself when you needed it, but then it became your second nature and turned into an unconscious method of dealing with problems.

Your Eating Habits

You are familiar with sweets, such as cookies, ice cream, cakes, waffles and other carb-loaded diet killers. They somehow creep into your diet whenever you need a little bit of moral support, or when you feel frustrated, unhappy or simply bored. Therefore, those excess calories are not consumed during your regular meals, but in between.

The Solution

Emotional cravings are easily confused with hunger and are therefore difficult to identify. In most cases, emotional eating patterns only become evident when they have already taken place. Therefore, emotional eaters should plan their meals ahead, and always have a clear idea how much they want to consume. This makes any deviations clearly recognizable and allows the user to find alternate and non-food related methods for dealing with emotions.

I love the solution it offers. this is something i can work into the organized life i am trying to have. this is something i have already been trying to do, too, as far as giving myself a little pep talk before eating, where i talk to myself about how much i should eat and strategies for not blowing my goals.

one thing i am trying to figure out

ok, i'm trying to figure out a lot of things. obviously.

but, one thing that really bugs me about myself is my tendency to binge when i'm unhappy with my weight loss progress.

it's seems so counter intuitive, right? "i'm not losing weight fast enough so i'm going to eat more crap food."

*sigh*

i do this more than i'd like to admit.

i got the itch again today. i wanted to go out an get a cupcake. i drive by the cupcake place on my way to the gym every day and today i was thinking if i was good all day, i could go get a cupcake in the afternoon.

well. then i weighed myself and i haven't lost any weight since monday. i know that was only two days ago, but for some reason this made me furious and i wanted to eat everything. in. sight.

luckily i had the presence of mind to stop myself, but why did i want to do that?

is it just because i'm thinking, "well i obviously am incapable of losing weight so i might as well eat what i like."

or does the letdown of my slow progress make me reach for the junk food because the short rush of sugar makes me feel happy, if only for a minute?

i honestly don't know. i don't know if it is just a psychological reaction or part of a chemical addiction to food.

i think a lot of women have these tendencies, but i don't think we ALL do. and i don't think we HAVE to.

i don't have an answer right now. just something i have noticed and have been thinking about lately.

720 calories in an hour.

Oh baby, I've still got it!

I got on the treadmill last night with my usual goal of 600 calories in an hour. I noticed when I kicked up the incline a little, I would exceed my goal.

So what did I do? I kicked it up a little more to make my goal an even 700. By the time 60 minutes was up, I had burned about 710, then I needed a little cool down because I was REALLY booking it. that brought me to 720.

I play a little game with myself on the treadmill. 10 calories a minute is "on schedule." So after 15 minutes, I should burn 150 calories to stay on schedule. Anything more than that is just a bonus.

I'm going tonight again and I want to burn 720 in the 60 minutes. Notch it up a bit each time.

Things are going pretty well with my food journal. I think I'm ready to go beyond just writing things down, to cleaning up my diet a little bit. My diet isn't terrible, but I have room to improve.

via

workout setback

so i mentioned last week how excited i am to be back at the gym. last monday i went for the first time and could tell i got a little blister but didn't think much of it.

i went again on tuesday and when i got home, the whole heel of my sock was soaked in blood.

it hurt so bad!

i tried to work out on it on thursday but it hurt so bad, i only got about 20 minutes of cardio in. so frustrating. i had told tiffany that i'd want her to watch jameson on friday and i cancelled. i felt like a failure and that i was making excuses. it was disappointing.

bought new shoes, ended up being too big, so i took them and exchanged them today...here's hoping to a better workout week! my blister is good enough healed and i think my new shoes will work. yay!