How Many Calories...?

So as you all know I have been slacking in the calorie counting category. I am still watching what i eat and still losing weight but just not tracking how many calories I am taking in each day. This past week I just another .6 of a pound. Although I am happy that the scale went down instead of up that is really unacceptable since i hope to lose at least 15 pounds by my cruise vacation on May 17th.

Previously i was focusing on 1300 calories per day but knew that after i had lost 10 pounds i would need to lower that amount to continue the weight loss. 1300 calories was hard enough to stay under but with some discipline and lots of water i know i can do it! So here is the new scale that i looked up (source: Biggest Loser):

To lose weight:
Weight - Calories
150lbs - 1,050
160lbs - 1,120
170lbs - 1,190
180lbs - 1,260
190lbs - 1,330
200lbs - 1,400

In my non-educated opinion i think these seem a little low since I was told by several other sources that I needed to take in 1300 calories to lose weight and according to the scale above that would have put me at weighing about 185 and that is not true! I'm not going to tell you how much I started weighing until i lose tons of weight and I can use the number for bragging but I can assure you it was not 185! So I decided to take a mixture of a couple of different sources and this is what i came up with (Sources: Biggest Loser, Slimfast, Livestrong):

To lose weight:
Weight - Calories
150lbs - 1,100
160lbs - 1,200
170lbs - 1,300
180lbs - 1,350
190lbs - 1,400
200lbs - 1,500

It wasn't a big change, basically a little padding and some rounding. Also i dont know if this is correct or not but it worked when i was losing 2-3 pounds a week... I took the above numbers as a "no activity" day goal. If i did exercise i could add a little. For example, when my goal was 1300 if i ran i added 100 calories. (An 8 min mile burns about 110 calories) These extra calories aren't enough to allow for an apple pie but they cover the extra snacks used to fuel my workout. This is what my ideal day looks like:

(Note: Intake amounts are MAXIMUMS)
7:30am Breakfast: 300 calories
10:00am Snack: 100 calories
12:00pm Lunch: 400 calories
3:30pm Snack: 100 calories
5:30pm pre workout snack: 100 calories
6pm-7pm Workout: Burn at least 200 calories
7:30pm Dinner: 500 calories

Total Intake: 1500
Total Burned: 200
Net Calories: 1300 - goal met!

On days when i didn't workout i wouldn't have the 5:30 snack and would either cut lunch to 300 or dinner to 400 depending my groceries on hand. Like I said, this is method is not supported by any articles or research that i have found but it worked for me and my body.

Now that I am dropping to 1200 calories I plan to cut 50 calories from each lunch and dinner. When I drop to 1100 calories at the end I will probably cut another 50 from EITHER lunch or dinner (depending on my planned meals for that week) and then cut the other 50 from the snack between breakfast and lunch. I'm not usually that hungry between there anyways, i just eat the snack to keep my metabolism going.

Now, here comes the good part! There is no doubt that shaving calories sucks and I imagine that when i get to the 1100 range that i will run out of meal and snack options pretty darn quick. Honestly, i'd say the biggest challenge I currently face is not hunger (drinking the right amount of water takes care of that for me) but actually finding a variety of meals that fit together to meet the calorie goal! I end up repeating the same plans every two weeks and as a result i get bored with my food. You are probably wondering "where is that 'good part' you mentioned?!" Well, the Biggest Loser also has a chart for how many calories you can eat and maintain your current weight! Here is their scale:

Goal Weight
155lbs - 1,900 calories to maintain
145lbs - 1,800 calories to maintain
135lbs - 1,700 calories to maintain

Unfortunately for you tiny people it doesn't go below 135lbs in this article (i think you can see more on the website if you register). My goal weight is somewhere between 125 - 135. I actually haven't decided on an exact number yet. I think 125 would be awesome but I think i would be perfectly happy with 135 too. So i'm kind of waiting until i get closer to 135 and then see how my clothes fit and how i feel to determine if i want to go down to 125. Regardless, i think 135 will be my maximum weight and 125 will be my minimum. I weighed 118 once right after high school and was starting to get too skinny for my frame (in my opinion).

Anyways, i am so PUMPED about being able to have between 1700 (for 135lbs) and 1600 (for 125lbs) calories a day once i get to my goal!! After sticking to 1300 - 1100 that will be like a feast! I am so excited. maybe too excited... haha.

(i think i have too many tags on my blog... i'll probably trim those down when i change over to the new blog)

The Future of my Blog

Just a heads up. I have 2 changes in the works for my blog:

1. New style!!
We have a new website in the works that will combine mine and my husband's blog. Currently our plan is to make the Home page a general news area for both of us and then we will have a tab for my blog, james' blog, and one for photos. So far it is looking pretty sleek! I just need James to show me how to operate it...

2. Expand a little.
When i started this blog (this time) I intended for it to solely be a way to track my resolutions and so far I have done just that. But as I look at others' blogs and just as a look over my own I realize I should share other things too. I want to. Even I get tired of reading only about this resolution stuff so i know everyone else must be tired of it too! (if anyone else even reads this still...)

So there ya go. 2 new things to look forward to! (or dread, haha)

2>1>0

I have been a bad (lazy), bad (okay, really lazy) person! Tomorrow would make a whole month without me blogging. Not only have I not been blogging, I have also not been tracking calories or really been working out either! Here's my story:

My week 4 started like any other week and then Tuesday came along and it all went to heck in a hand basket.

Sunday: Worked out like normal
Monday: Normal Rest Day
Tuesday: Skipped Yoga because of Lost Premiere and dinner with friends
Wednesday: Skipped working out - dinner/tasks at Parent's house
Thursday: Skipped Yoga - worked late
Friday: Skipped working out - DnD night!
Saturday: planned to skip workout to go to JC and then ended up helping the MIL all day.

After a week of my workout plans being obliterated I honestly got a little depressed. It was mostly out of my control and i knew i shouldn't have let it get me down but it did. Then I didn't feel like planning a meal plan for week 5 so i didn't and everything just went downhill from there.

Here I am at week 7, by now i should have lost about 14 pounds and instead i have lost 9.2. There is one tiny good thing that has come of this. I seem to understand health eating a little better now. Even though i haven't tracked calories or stuck to my workout schedule for 4 weeks now I have still lost week every week except one and that week i stayed the same. Here is the breakdown:

POUNDS LOST BY WEEK
Week 1 - 3.2
Week 2 - 2.2
Week 3 - 1
Week 4 - .6 (hey every little bit counts! ha!)
Week 5 - .8
Week 6 - 0
Week 7 - 1.4
TOTAL LOST 9.2

So obviously I was a lot more successful when i was tracking and working out but at least, i think, this shows that I understand healthy eating a little better than i used to.

Does this mean I'm just going to wing it from here on out? HELL NO!! I'm getting back on the wagon tomorrow. This is going to be a little different though because James has decided he wants to cook some so I wont have as much control over what i eat for dinner but i told him to keep it under 500 calories if possible. I still have full control over breakfast and lunch though.

As of yesterday my back problems have started up again because I have been skipping yoga. So i HAVE to start going again. I can not afford a chiropractor right now since we found out we OWE taxes this year!! (suck!)

As a little incentive to get back on track to lose weight we booked a cruise for May!! My goal is to lose 15 pounds by our cruise. At a realistic estimate of 2 pounds a week that should be totally obtainable! Yay! Wish me luck! /fingers crossed

Now...I know what you are thinking... "Stacy, i thought this Resolution thing wasn't suppose to be about losing weight. That was just suppose to be an added bonus". Well you are right. That is true. But let's me honest here, I was just trying to trick myself into not getting depressed if my weight loss didn't go as planned and let's face it I proved that didn't work in week 4. I shouldn't have been concerned with the fact that ALL my workouts were canceled in week 4 but I was. I woke up Friday (my weigh in day) dreading the scale and luckily I had still lost .6 pounds but I still felt like a failure because i had done so well the weeks before and i let it affect my motivation. I think that goes to show that this "healthy eating" side of this resolution thing is very much about weight loss and a little bit about being healthier in general (i.e. back issues, endurance, etc).

Speaking of Resolutions... i really need to start working on some of the other ones...