There's Definitely A Problem...

Back on 5.7.12 i started a diet with a pre-determined meal plan in addition to the lifestyle change goals i had in place. The first week went great! Our grocery bill went down, i enjoyed knowing exactly what do fix and what to snack on and the food was good but not overly complicated which was the complaint i had with the Eating Well meal plan. Those recipes all had like 20 ingredients, required every dish in the kitchen be used, and i found myself googling some cooking terms more than once. Anyways, back to point at hand... new plan, nice and simple, going great. The first week i lost 4 pounds! (up to 5 pounds weight lost on the first week of a diet is normal because you lose a lot of water weight). Needless to say i was very excited to weigh in today at the end of week 2. I felt like i had done pretty well with my diet all week and just knew i had lost close to the full 2 pounds.

When i stepped on the scale, i just stared at the flashing number. I was devastated. I hadn't lost even an ounce! My weight was exactly the same as last week, even the .2. I was angry and discouraged. I immediately thought " I've been starving (little dramatic) myself all week and I've been so good and NOTHING! There must be something wrong! I need a Doctor!!" Turns out there is something wrong alright, ME.

Since the beginning of this diet i have been keeping a food journal. Everyday I list:

• Meal plan for that day
• What I actually ate and time
• Exercise and/or activity
• Notes and/or reflection

I'm writing it in a smaller size Moleskine notebook so i can easily carry it around with me. Whenever i eat something i immediately log it so i don't find myself trying to remember what i ate the day before or worse, earlier in the week.

After i had some time to "cool off" after my weigh in this morning but luckily before i called every weight specialist in Knoxville, i started looking back over my logs for the past week. I highlighted any time that i ate something that wasn't on the meal plan for that day and noted when i didn't do any exercise. Turns out i cheated every single flippin' day and only exercised twice! Honestly, I'm just lucky i didn't gain any weight!

It doesn't take a genius to know what my answer is here, i need to stick to the meal plan and exercise 5 days per week. No excuses!

One legitimate issue i have with this meal plan is that some days i am really hungry between meals, even with the 3 snacks. If i continue to be "starving" (again, dramatic) between snacks and meals then I plan to incorporate an extra 100 calorie snack but there will be restrictions. The extra snack is only allowed on days i exercise, it can be no more than 100 calories, and no adding on to portions, it has to be a totally separate snack.

Now, with all the above being said i have a disclaimer - I am going to a cabin this weekend with a group of friends. I do promise to try to pick healthy options to the best of my ability and maintain reasonable portion sizes but I can't really stick to the meal plan until Monday. At least we should have lots of hiking and walking to counter the extra calories. i hope... I really don't want to hulk smash my weight scale.

//Stacy//

Lifestyle Changes - One Month At A Time

We are often told that diets will never work long term and that a lifestyle change is the only true answer. I completely agree with this theory but that doesn't make lifestyle changes any easier. Diets aren't easy either but you can at least tell yourself "I just have to eat this rabbit food until I lose 10 pounds". Lifestyle changes are FOREVER. Nooooooooooo!

But seriously, forever lifestyles changes aren't bad. It doesn't mean you can't ever have chocolate cake again (unlike diets), it just means most of the time you eat fruit or a healthier choice for dessert and only indulge in that chocolate cake occasionally, not every night. The hardest part, at least for me, is breaking habits i've had for 20 something years. It's so easy to grab that muffin for breakfast instead of waking up early enough to fix oatmeal. It's quicker to grab fastfood after a run instead of cooking a healthy dinner at 8 o'clock at night. It is easy to forgot how crappy I feel after a cookies (or 3...) when that first bite is so delicious.

Back in February a friend challenged me to avoid eating fastfood for 1 month. I was successful and I felt good. I did go get a McDonald's hamburger as soon as my month was over but that satisfied my craving and i have't really cared for fastfood since. Here are the new goals for this month:

- Only 1 fastfood per week

- Eat 4 salads per week

- Only 4 "sweets" per week 

Lifestyle changes aren't always about cutting things out, it is also about fitting in things that are better for you, like salads. Last week i found myself ordering a salad for lunch to meet my goal instead of a 1,000 calorie sandwich. Win!

What do i expect out of this? Well, i haven't weighed myself in a while so i dont expect any weight loss, i just expect to be more mindful about what i am eating. Learn to focus on fitting the good stuff in and eating the bad stuff in moderation. Learn to actually look at the salad section at a restaurant instead of going straight for the burgers. Maybe even learn a little discipline (something a need a lot of but that's a story for another day), if i had a dessert on Monday, then i don't need one on Tuesday.

We plan to continue these monthly goals so if anyone has any ideas or want to join in then you are more than welcome. I'd love to hear about what lifestyle changes have worked for you (or haven't) and what made the most impact! 

//Stacy//

No Fastfood and Killer Workouts

Hello!

So, i'd like to say that i haven't been posting because i've just been so busy kicking butt that i haven't had time but quite the opposite is the case. I haven't been focusing on eating healthy at all so there hasn't been anything to post. :(

I guess it was about the end of January that i fell off the "eating healthy wagon" and i didn't just fall off and get a few bruises. I completely forgot to tuck and roll and ended up with some broken bones. I was seriously depressed for a good 2 weeks. Depression of any sort is very unusual for me but i just couldn't shake the feeling. I had just let myself down and i was just completely and utterly disappointed in myself. I have failed at my fair share of diets but this was different. I would be sitting there and consciously telling myself "i shouldn't be eating this" or "i'm full, i should stop here" but i would just keep cramming stuff in my mouth until i was well beyond miserable. I just wanted to cry. I have never been that out of control in my life. It was a weird feeling and honestly kind of scary. I don't know what caused me to constantly binge eat but thankfully it has passed.

I was talking with my very healthy-eating conscious friend, Mat, about how upset i was with myself for continuing to fail and he pointed out that i was trying to go from nothing to SUPER HEALTHY EATER overnight. He suggested i make baby steps and slowly adjust to a healthier eating lifestyle. So, he made me promise to not eat fastfood for a month. A WHOLE month! I reluctantly agreed. Here i am 5 days later and i feel good!! I find that even when i over eat, i don't feel sluggish and just all around crappy like i did after eating fastfood.

The downfalls are that it is more expensive and more time consuming to not eat fastfood. That is true if you eat at home or eat out. I've also had to think outside the box sometimes. On my running days i definitely don't have time to cook and it is often too late to go to a restaurant but Mat pointed out that there is an CO-OP organic Market on my way home that has a hot bar so i can quickly grab something there for dinner instead of going through a drive thru somewhere. One hurdle i see in the distance is taking food over to friend's houses for TV shows. Previously we would grab KFC or Chick-fil-a but now what do we do?? For this first week we are going to take the take-n-bake pizza, Papa Murphy's, but i have no idea what to do for week two? I'll have to talk to my "food coach". haha

To go along with this new fastfoodless lifestyle, my work has started a lunch time workout group to go along with out Biggest Loser contest. So not only am i running 2 days a week but now i will be working out at least 4. I'm pretty excited to have some people to workout with. To keep me motivated and accountable. Today was just day 2 but i am already so sore i can barely walk up stairs. The lead guy really kick our butts. I like it! Bring on the burn! (Am i insane?!)

I'm excited to see how i feel after giving up fastfood for a month and increasing my workouts. Will i even be able to tell a difference? Will i ever go back to fastfood?? Will i survive the stairs?? I'll report back mid-March!

//Stacy//

P.S. Have no fear! I didn't mean i won't post again until mid-March... just meant i will review this subject again at that time. :)