I'm not sure how frequently I'll be updating this blog, hence the title of this entry. School has been keeping me really busy, and trying to catch up on commissions for my business has been only less difficult than trying to update this blog.
Yesterday, I weighed in at 208.2 lbs. That puts me roughly 12 lbs closer to my goal weight, but that number isn't the most important to me right now. Last time I entered in my waist measurement, it was off by 2 inches, so it was actually 42". Now, I'm down an inch at roughly 41" (it might have been 40.5", but I wanted to discredit wishful thinking). :D
The belt that I'm wearing right now, I bought just before beginning this journey, and I could only wear it in the very last hole, maybe the second if I strained. Now, I'm comfortably in the fourth hole. That might just be because of the leather relaxing, but I'm still going to take it as a positive result. :)
I was able to update my Noom to Pro after they offered a special $19.99 lifetime membership (it is usually $9.99/month, which is far too much for an app in my mind). I've already had it for one month, so it's halfway paid for itself by that logic. The Noom widget gives you "medals" for how many calories you've burned from exercise during the previous 7 days, and today I upped the ante on my gold medal by reaching 3,000. Of course, then an hour or two passed, and I was back down to the gold 2,500. Still, I was very pleased with myself.
I've made a number of discoveries about myself and my journey to date.
1. Pizza is my weakness. It's always been my favorite food, but now I'm learning how difficult it can be for me to moderate myself with it. Sunday night, I ate an entire frozen cheese pizza, about 1,200 calories, and only 400 less than what I'm allowed per day on my program. I had only intended to eat two pieces (well within my existing limit then), and lost control, putting me about 300 over my daily calorie budget. Now, a lot of people have slips like this and panic, stress out, beat themselves up, and end up destroying their motivation.
2. I learned from that experience that I have greater confidence in myself and my abilities, and strong motivation. Instead of freaking out, I calmly determined what I could do to make up the difference. Since I was unable to get to the gym the next day due to illness, I instead was able to make up the difference by planning for more filling meals and snacks throughout the next day that resulted in making up the caloric difference safely and responsibly.
3. I'm beginning to breathe more easily when I exercise, and my muscles don't strain or become sore as easily as they used to. I've been being careful not to push myself too hard in order to avoid injury, but as I'm learning about the limitations of my body, I'm beginning to really understand how those limitations are becoming less immediate and more difficult to reach. I'm beginning to get that invincible feeling again.
4. If it weren't for my husband and friends supporting me all this time, I'd never be able to do this. They are my team, and they keep me accountable and motivated more than any app or individual program could. Without them, this journey would be incredibly difficult, because my own motivation isn't as strong without their support.
It's been just over a month since I began this journey, and I'm hoping to continue it with the same motivation and a little more self-discipline than I've had to date. :)
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Baseline
I'm going to try to keep my momentum strong by getting something up here daily or as close to daily as school and my business will allow.
Today's topic: Methods
I started this attempt to get healthier shortly before downloading the Noom app. to my Nexus 7 tablet. I know, it sounds ridiculous - "Why on Earth would you seriously trust your health and weight loss to an application that could give you poor advice?!" No one's actually asked me that, but I assume they're thinking it. :P
I use Noom and Restaurant Weight Loss (an app that features the nutritional information of almost every restaurant available in 2 or more states nation-wide) for a few reasons.
Noom gives me notifications, which keeps me accountable when I'm not with friends or family members who are helping to remind me of things. It has a lovely calorie-counting food log system that lets me track my meals and encourages me to split my meals into 5-6 smaller, healthier meals. It lets me log a number of forms of exercise, either in real-time (recording as I do them), or as a Log Previous. It lets me track my weigh-ins, and see on a graph where I am in relation to my goal weight.
Now, these reasons aren't even my favorite ones. Noom also gives you 4 goals every day (3 for me, since one is always "Buy Noom Pro!" which you complete by simply reading the suggestion), and tracks your progress with regards to those goals through a Noom Score. It's a 0-100 point score, and often the challenges will be things like, "Log Your Lunch," or, "Do Your Scheduled Exercise." Often, they will have you weigh-in as a challenge, or even measure your waist-line, emphasizing how unreliable weight alone can be. They also include challenges such as, "Read [Blah] Article," wherein you read an article related to maintaining good health while trying to lose weight. Things like, why variety in your diet is good, why calories matter less than the quality of those calories (milk chocolate vs. dark chocolate), etc. The app informs you and provides you with other sources.
Have a question that you need help with? They have a forum even free users can access, and other users can provide answers for them. I usually don't rely on this unless it's a question about how to log something, or if the responder provides a source for more information.
Anyways, I use those apps to help me track my progress and keep me on task, but they're not as important as my work-out buddies. Two of my friends (unnamed for the time being because I haven't asked their permission) work out with me 4-5 days a week. An important thing to know about me: I love food, and I love sleep. So getting up at 5:45 in the morning to work out was not an appealing prospect. But my friends, being the awesome people that they are, helped me realize that I was making excuses for myself by trying to find ways not to work out with them, and now we're into our second week of scheduled work-outs.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we do Tai Chi and Yoga, and reserve the right to add free weights, ab work-outs, and stationary biking to that list if we decide we want to do more. On Wednesdays and Fridays (so far, though I will likely be joining them on Mondays as well), I meet them at their apartment, we walk to our university's Wellness & Recreation Center (WRC), and do the elliptical, some weight lifting, sometimes walking on the track, and other exercises (Are crunches/sit ups aerobic, anaerobic, calisthenic, etc? We do that stuff, too).
This has let me determine a lot about my body's capabilities right now, which means that I can establish a baseline (encouraged by Noom). For those not familiar with this, a baseline is the minimum amount of exercise you will do in a day/week. This helps keep people from doing a ton of work outs and then quitting because they can't keep up a high intensity and thus lose their drive. You can always do more than your baseline, and it is good to increase your baseline periodically. For example, here is my current baseline:
10 minutes on the elliptical at least twice a week.
Today, I did 15. I have to start at a leisurely pace due to my lungs, so my baseline here will be increased by intensity over time before the amount of time changes. It may also become three times weekly if we do Monday morning WRC visits.
Typical Days: WF
20 minutes of weight lifting at least twice a week.
This also depends on how early we arrive there, since we're students with morning classes. Last Wednesday, we did about 20 minutes, but today was a little bit less than that because we arrived a little late. This may also begin occurring on Mondays, as well as Tuesdays and Thursdays if we decide to switch up our routine.
Typical Days: WF
7 miles of walking a week (or 2 miles of walking 3.5 times a week).
This is the equivalent of walking from my house to campus or back. If it's not a walk to or from campus, I can always walk independently, or to the closest gas station (0.5 miles away from my house, according to Google Maps) twice if needed to meet one of those requirements. We also walk 1.2 miles twice a week to go to the WRC and back, and I intend to try to walk to the Farmer's Market in town (0.5 miles one way) once a week on Saturdays.
Typical Days: TThSa
20 minutes of Yoga at least twice a week.
We use videos, so this is pretty consistent. This will probably increase over time to number of times per week or number of videos per session depending on my work-out buddies, my schedule, and possibly Netflix. :)
Typical Days: TTh
20 minutes of Tai Chi at least twice a week.
We get through the video we're working from right now in closer to 15, but I can do some of the stretches at home when my muscles feel a bit out of sorts.
Typical Days: TTh
If anyone has any advice for a newbie, please link to the source for credibility's sake. :) I'd love to learn more about establishing good habits, both eating and work-out wise.
Today's topic: Methods
I started this attempt to get healthier shortly before downloading the Noom app. to my Nexus 7 tablet. I know, it sounds ridiculous - "Why on Earth would you seriously trust your health and weight loss to an application that could give you poor advice?!" No one's actually asked me that, but I assume they're thinking it. :P
I use Noom and Restaurant Weight Loss (an app that features the nutritional information of almost every restaurant available in 2 or more states nation-wide) for a few reasons.
Noom gives me notifications, which keeps me accountable when I'm not with friends or family members who are helping to remind me of things. It has a lovely calorie-counting food log system that lets me track my meals and encourages me to split my meals into 5-6 smaller, healthier meals. It lets me log a number of forms of exercise, either in real-time (recording as I do them), or as a Log Previous. It lets me track my weigh-ins, and see on a graph where I am in relation to my goal weight.
Now, these reasons aren't even my favorite ones. Noom also gives you 4 goals every day (3 for me, since one is always "Buy Noom Pro!" which you complete by simply reading the suggestion), and tracks your progress with regards to those goals through a Noom Score. It's a 0-100 point score, and often the challenges will be things like, "Log Your Lunch," or, "Do Your Scheduled Exercise." Often, they will have you weigh-in as a challenge, or even measure your waist-line, emphasizing how unreliable weight alone can be. They also include challenges such as, "Read [Blah] Article," wherein you read an article related to maintaining good health while trying to lose weight. Things like, why variety in your diet is good, why calories matter less than the quality of those calories (milk chocolate vs. dark chocolate), etc. The app informs you and provides you with other sources.
Have a question that you need help with? They have a forum even free users can access, and other users can provide answers for them. I usually don't rely on this unless it's a question about how to log something, or if the responder provides a source for more information.
Anyways, I use those apps to help me track my progress and keep me on task, but they're not as important as my work-out buddies. Two of my friends (unnamed for the time being because I haven't asked their permission) work out with me 4-5 days a week. An important thing to know about me: I love food, and I love sleep. So getting up at 5:45 in the morning to work out was not an appealing prospect. But my friends, being the awesome people that they are, helped me realize that I was making excuses for myself by trying to find ways not to work out with them, and now we're into our second week of scheduled work-outs.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we do Tai Chi and Yoga, and reserve the right to add free weights, ab work-outs, and stationary biking to that list if we decide we want to do more. On Wednesdays and Fridays (so far, though I will likely be joining them on Mondays as well), I meet them at their apartment, we walk to our university's Wellness & Recreation Center (WRC), and do the elliptical, some weight lifting, sometimes walking on the track, and other exercises (Are crunches/sit ups aerobic, anaerobic, calisthenic, etc? We do that stuff, too).
This has let me determine a lot about my body's capabilities right now, which means that I can establish a baseline (encouraged by Noom). For those not familiar with this, a baseline is the minimum amount of exercise you will do in a day/week. This helps keep people from doing a ton of work outs and then quitting because they can't keep up a high intensity and thus lose their drive. You can always do more than your baseline, and it is good to increase your baseline periodically. For example, here is my current baseline:
10 minutes on the elliptical at least twice a week.
Today, I did 15. I have to start at a leisurely pace due to my lungs, so my baseline here will be increased by intensity over time before the amount of time changes. It may also become three times weekly if we do Monday morning WRC visits.
Typical Days: WF
20 minutes of weight lifting at least twice a week.
This also depends on how early we arrive there, since we're students with morning classes. Last Wednesday, we did about 20 minutes, but today was a little bit less than that because we arrived a little late. This may also begin occurring on Mondays, as well as Tuesdays and Thursdays if we decide to switch up our routine.
Typical Days: WF
7 miles of walking a week (or 2 miles of walking 3.5 times a week).
This is the equivalent of walking from my house to campus or back. If it's not a walk to or from campus, I can always walk independently, or to the closest gas station (0.5 miles away from my house, according to Google Maps) twice if needed to meet one of those requirements. We also walk 1.2 miles twice a week to go to the WRC and back, and I intend to try to walk to the Farmer's Market in town (0.5 miles one way) once a week on Saturdays.
Typical Days: TThSa
20 minutes of Yoga at least twice a week.
We use videos, so this is pretty consistent. This will probably increase over time to number of times per week or number of videos per session depending on my work-out buddies, my schedule, and possibly Netflix. :)
Typical Days: TTh
20 minutes of Tai Chi at least twice a week.
We get through the video we're working from right now in closer to 15, but I can do some of the stretches at home when my muscles feel a bit out of sorts.
Typical Days: TTh
If anyone has any advice for a newbie, please link to the source for credibility's sake. :) I'd love to learn more about establishing good habits, both eating and work-out wise.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
That New Blog Smell
I'm writing this blog as a means of keeping myself on task with my goals to becoming healthier. That includes my weight-loss goals, my exercise goals, my cooking adventures (someday I will discover the secrets to making a healthy beef stroganoff that tastes like it's bad for you like it should), fun mental health things, and whatever else I decide to post here.
For a long time, I debated whether or not to keep this blog public, or to make it private. I will be sharing my weight, my waist measurements, etc; on here, and that's startling enough without trolls on the internet finding a blog like this. However, this is an experience that's all about being brave and trying new things, so I can ignore the trolls and work on developing better internet health as well. ;)
That all said, allow me to introduce myself and my current goals.
My name is Callie. I am 23 years old, 5'6.5" tall, and I weigh 215 pounds. I am currently down 5 pounds from two weeks ago, when I weighed 220. As of August 26th, my waistline was 40". My goal weight is about 160 pounds, but I'm not as worried about pushing to that weight as I am getting my body to a healthy point in which I'm at my peak physical condition. If that point is 160 pounds, then all the better. :)
I follow another Blogger called Yeti, and she discusses that one of the first things one should do is to outline WHY they want to lose weight or become healthier. It's not enough to simply want to lose weight or to simply want to be healthier. If we don't have specific reasons to motivate us, then we make excuses and no progress can be made. If we're not willing to put forth the effort, then we don't really want to lose weight or become healthier, do we?
Here are my reasons, in complete honesty, and in no particular ranking:
1. I want to increase my lung capacity and give myself the chance to outgrow my asthma, the way my doctor says that I can. I'm tired of feeling weak and worrying whether or not a simple cold or flu will set off some horrible attack that will require an ER visit. I'm tired of feeling like I'm handicapped by my asthma when there are people out there with real handicaps who are more capable at a very large number of things than I am. I look to those individuals as an inspiration in this regard; if they can overcome the real challenges that they face, then I can overcome the significantly, comparatively smaller challenges that I face, too. I'm done using my asthma as an excuse to not take care of myself.
2. A few years ago, I took a half-semester of capoiera at my university. The same winter I was in the class, my friend's car stalled out in the parking lot of her apartment, and I single-handedly pushed that car across the parking lot, back into a parking space. When I was done, my lungs felt great (my asthma is usually worse in the winter), my muscles didn't have a touch of fatigue, and I felt INVINCIBLE. I want that feeling back. I want that feeling every day. I want to feel like my body is on my team, not against me.
3. I've had a number of people over the last few years go out of their way to make me feel like dirt, to make me feel like I was worthless compared to them. Why? A few were probably their own self-esteem issues. Others were probably selfishness, and I don't doubt that one of them was simply out of pure mean-spiritedness. When my weight was involved, some of these individuals lashed out in the most hurtful ways, and I'll be honest with you: I want to rub it in their faces. I want them to see the woman they insulted, that they belittled, and realize that their insults might make them feel better in the short-term, but in the long-term, those insults won't make them feel nearly as good as I do just being healthy and in charge of my life. No one but me can tell me what I am not capable of, and I'm going to prove it.
4. It would be ridiculous of me not to acknowledge the shallow side of myself; yes, I want to look amazing. I want to drop the weight that I don't need to be healthy, and look gorgeous. I hate society's ideals of the perfect woman being a size 0 (or 4 or 6 or whatever), but this is my culture, and there's part of me that wants to strive towards that ideal. I just intend to be smart about it and focus less on the weight itself and more on the health.
5. I want to feel more comfortable in my own skin, and to feel more confident. Largely, I'm doing this for me. I hate feeling uncomfortable because a dress that I want isn't made in my size, or because going up to the fourth floor for class makes me sweatier than anyone else. I want to feel good about myself as close to all the time as I can get. I want to stop being afraid of wearing certain styles of clothing on the grounds that I have a muffin top and it would look awkward. I want to tackle each day confidently, and meeting my goals will help me as much as anything else.
6. I own my own business, and it focuses on drawing and crochet. I sit down a lot. I sit and work a lot. I like to sit and play video games or play Facebook games or whatever a LOT. My lifestyle when I relax is not very active at all, and so I need to keep myself in good health. As a professional artist, it is very easy to lead a sedentary lifestyle, and that's dangerous for a number of reasons. This ties into the previous one a lot; I want to be healthy for me, in part because I'm an artist and I work at a drawing board a lot. I'm not on my feet all the time like others, so I don't get to lose weight while at work. Once I figure out how to do that, though, you can bet I'll be incorporating it into my plan!
For a long time, I debated whether or not to keep this blog public, or to make it private. I will be sharing my weight, my waist measurements, etc; on here, and that's startling enough without trolls on the internet finding a blog like this. However, this is an experience that's all about being brave and trying new things, so I can ignore the trolls and work on developing better internet health as well. ;)
That all said, allow me to introduce myself and my current goals.
My name is Callie. I am 23 years old, 5'6.5" tall, and I weigh 215 pounds. I am currently down 5 pounds from two weeks ago, when I weighed 220. As of August 26th, my waistline was 40". My goal weight is about 160 pounds, but I'm not as worried about pushing to that weight as I am getting my body to a healthy point in which I'm at my peak physical condition. If that point is 160 pounds, then all the better. :)
I follow another Blogger called Yeti, and she discusses that one of the first things one should do is to outline WHY they want to lose weight or become healthier. It's not enough to simply want to lose weight or to simply want to be healthier. If we don't have specific reasons to motivate us, then we make excuses and no progress can be made. If we're not willing to put forth the effort, then we don't really want to lose weight or become healthier, do we?
Here are my reasons, in complete honesty, and in no particular ranking:
1. I want to increase my lung capacity and give myself the chance to outgrow my asthma, the way my doctor says that I can. I'm tired of feeling weak and worrying whether or not a simple cold or flu will set off some horrible attack that will require an ER visit. I'm tired of feeling like I'm handicapped by my asthma when there are people out there with real handicaps who are more capable at a very large number of things than I am. I look to those individuals as an inspiration in this regard; if they can overcome the real challenges that they face, then I can overcome the significantly, comparatively smaller challenges that I face, too. I'm done using my asthma as an excuse to not take care of myself.
2. A few years ago, I took a half-semester of capoiera at my university. The same winter I was in the class, my friend's car stalled out in the parking lot of her apartment, and I single-handedly pushed that car across the parking lot, back into a parking space. When I was done, my lungs felt great (my asthma is usually worse in the winter), my muscles didn't have a touch of fatigue, and I felt INVINCIBLE. I want that feeling back. I want that feeling every day. I want to feel like my body is on my team, not against me.
3. I've had a number of people over the last few years go out of their way to make me feel like dirt, to make me feel like I was worthless compared to them. Why? A few were probably their own self-esteem issues. Others were probably selfishness, and I don't doubt that one of them was simply out of pure mean-spiritedness. When my weight was involved, some of these individuals lashed out in the most hurtful ways, and I'll be honest with you: I want to rub it in their faces. I want them to see the woman they insulted, that they belittled, and realize that their insults might make them feel better in the short-term, but in the long-term, those insults won't make them feel nearly as good as I do just being healthy and in charge of my life. No one but me can tell me what I am not capable of, and I'm going to prove it.
4. It would be ridiculous of me not to acknowledge the shallow side of myself; yes, I want to look amazing. I want to drop the weight that I don't need to be healthy, and look gorgeous. I hate society's ideals of the perfect woman being a size 0 (or 4 or 6 or whatever), but this is my culture, and there's part of me that wants to strive towards that ideal. I just intend to be smart about it and focus less on the weight itself and more on the health.
5. I want to feel more comfortable in my own skin, and to feel more confident. Largely, I'm doing this for me. I hate feeling uncomfortable because a dress that I want isn't made in my size, or because going up to the fourth floor for class makes me sweatier than anyone else. I want to feel good about myself as close to all the time as I can get. I want to stop being afraid of wearing certain styles of clothing on the grounds that I have a muffin top and it would look awkward. I want to tackle each day confidently, and meeting my goals will help me as much as anything else.
6. I own my own business, and it focuses on drawing and crochet. I sit down a lot. I sit and work a lot. I like to sit and play video games or play Facebook games or whatever a LOT. My lifestyle when I relax is not very active at all, and so I need to keep myself in good health. As a professional artist, it is very easy to lead a sedentary lifestyle, and that's dangerous for a number of reasons. This ties into the previous one a lot; I want to be healthy for me, in part because I'm an artist and I work at a drawing board a lot. I'm not on my feet all the time like others, so I don't get to lose weight while at work. Once I figure out how to do that, though, you can bet I'll be incorporating it into my plan!
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