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WRITINGBLUEHAWK's Recent Blog Entries
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Saturday, February 12, 2011
Today, I went to the grocery store and picked up one chub of ground beef and another 3lbs package of ground beef. It represented the eight pounds I have lost. I was surprised at how much meat that is.
The drop in weight plus the strength training has put me somewhere between a 16 and a 14. I can pull on 14 pants, but their kinda tight. In the meantime, my size 16W jeans are sagging. Last week, I pulled them down to my ankles without unbuttoning or unzipping them. I think that once I drop another 10 lbs, I will be a solid size 14 pants.
On top, I started out a size 18 or a 1x. Now, the 1x size is not looking quite right, but an XL is still a bit snug. I'm somewhere between misses and women's sizes, or maybe a size 0X. Today, shopping for clothes was kinda fun--not painful at all. I wanted to buy some trendy, casual stuff that wouldn't look crazy on a woman in her 40s.
It's hard for me to shop as a middle-aged woman. I don't want to dress like my 18 year old daughter, but I'm not ready to wear the stuff that my 70 year-old mother wears. I also don't want to be one of those women who is still wearing stone-washed jeans because they looked good in the 80s.
It's also hard to find cute clothes when you are a 40 something woman wearing more than a size 14. Still, I'm not going to let the difficulties get the best of me. One of the things I learned from my daughter is that I should try on stuff I wouldn't ordinarily consider just to see how it looks on me. I might be pleasantly surprised. So today, I hit a massive sale at Steinmart. I must've tried on 10 different items of clothing. It took me nearly an hour of trying on stuff before I settled on four pieces of clothing.
Two of the items are those t-shirts with the built in asymmetrical draped hemline vests. (See the link I added below). They're trendy but not too "teenagery." I will wear them with jeans and my black ankle boots.
Anyway, I'm focused on the next 10 lbs. Losing 10 lbs will put my weight where it was six years ago, when I considered it to be the top of my range. At 20 lbs lost, I'll be a solid 14 and an occasional 12. If I lose more than 20 lbs, I will be at a weight I haven't seen since 2003. To me, 25 lbs seems DOABLE and will put me at what I call my fightin' weight. My biggest obstacle at that point will be to stay motivated to continue losing weight, because I'll be lookin' so cute and fly that my motivation will go out the window, lol.
Onward and downward.
www.6pm.com/michael-stars-asymmetric
al-open-vest-parchment www.6pm.com/open-vest
Friday, February 11, 2011
In January, I lost 6.5 lbs.
For weeks, I've been complaining, saying that I should've lost 10 lbs. The way I figured it, week 1 is 5 lbs of water weight, followed by another five pounds lost in the remaining 3 weeks.
So much for that pipe dream.
I decided to do some math; I reviewed my daily calorie deficits for January. This feature is in the reports section on SP. I took the month’s total calorie deficit and divided it by 3,500 calories. If it showed I should’ve lost 10 lbs, then clearly I’m over reporting my exercise and underreporting my food intake. The result? 7 lbs. And in reality, I dropped 6.5 lbs. In other words, according to my food intake and exercise habits, I lost pretty much what I was supposed to lose. The problem is not with how my body drops weight, it’s with my impatient state of mind.
So given the pattern, I added up my calorie deficit for the 10 days in February. Based on this information, I should have lost 1.67 lbs. So I broke my pledge to stay away from the scale and weighed in this morning. The result? I’m down 1.5 lbs, for a total of 8 lbs lost.
It seems like the results should be bigger and faster, but the facts don’t lie. My daily calorie deficit ranges anywhere from 300 to 1200 calories, but averages out to about 525 calories a day. 525 calories x 10 days is 5,250 calories. 5,250 calories divided by 3,500 lbs is 1.5 lbs.
The reality is that with age, my metabolism has indeed slowed down. My BMR is somewhere around 1900 calories, which is not very high to me. Therefore, the weight is going to come off slowly. Dang! Hard to accept, but it is what it is.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
It's been nearly a week since I decided to quit weighing in so often. I'm finding that my new eating and exercise habits have settled into a series of daily habits and I'm becoming much less obsessive-compulsive about what I weigh. I'm finding that I am focusing more on how my clothes fit, my energy level and how I feel mentally. I was aware of those things before, but was so focused on the scale, that they took a mental back seat.
I feel like I do every year when I drive 13 hours from Kansas City to Austin to visit my family. It's still early in my road trip, but I'm off to a good start and have settled in for the long haul. Maybe its the equivalent of being in Wichita and knowing that in an hour or so I'll be in Oklahoma. I'm not not thinking about Texas just yet, because it's too far away. So I just focus on getting to the Kansas/Oklahoma border. I know I'm headed in the right direction. All the signs say I-35 south. I know if there's trouble that I've got a cellphone, map or GPS, spare tire, carjack and the Kansas Highway Patrol. I've got enough money for gas, food, an overnight stay at a hotel (if needed) and turnpike fees. Now, it's just about the drive, being patient and finding ways to stay occupied until I arrive at my destination.
I'm in this for the long haul. Now, I just need to settle in, do what I need to do to keep my mind occupied during this journey and stay patient.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Now, that I don't have to think about the scale, I seem to have settled down a bit. I'm focusing on making the best food choices possible in a given situation.
One of the Achilles heels of my program is dining out; I eat out quite a bit. Making good food choices in restaurants can be tricky at times, but I do the best that I can. I think that eating consciously and with intention can help my results. For example, yesterday I was craving barbecue. I live in the KC area and for us, barbecue is a fifth food group. Last time, I ate fatty ribs so this time I ordered grilled chicken and vegetables. Before, I would've ordered a slab of pork ribs, potato salad, fries and baked beans. I'm confident that I saved calories with my new choices.
Today, I ate at a chinese buffet. I'm not totally satisfied with my choices, but I am confident that next time, I'll get it right. Today, I ate mongolian chicken and vegetables, steamed shrimp, a TBSP of broccoli/beef, TBSP of mushrooms, and a sparerib. Not bad, but it was probably too much food. Next time, I'll skip the sparerib and the second plate and just stick to the mongolian chicken and veggies. What I like in particular is that you bring the raw food to the cook and can tell him how to prepare it. That gives you control over your food that you don't find at the buffet. On the bright side, I avoided all fried foods.
Before, I would've loaded the following on two plates (one for each trip): one or two eggrolls, stir-fried rice, crab rangoon, kung pau chicken, general tso's chicken, fried chicken wings, beef on a stick, and green beans.
Although I didn't do as well as I'd like, it's certainly better than what I was doing before. For this reason, I'll count this as a win.
Without the pressure of the scale, I can focus on my exercise program, recording my food intake and just doing whatever I need to look and feel my best. I am hopeful that in March, I will see some results.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Starting now, I'm ready to try something different; I am putting the scale away. I have become way too scale-obsessed, whining and wimpering over every 1/2 pound or 3 lb fluctuation. I'm just tired of being frustrated, so I'm putting the scale away until March.
I figure I'm going to focus more on building healthy habits and worry about the scale later. It's the only thing I can think of to do in order to reduce my ongoing frustration and stay on program.
Today, when I went shopping for clothes, I tried on a pair of size 14 Michael Kors (designer) pants and they fit perfectly. In my regular price range for clothes, however, I am still a size 16. Still, it's nice to think that I can wear a size 14 somewhere.
Shopping today wasn't the usual torture for me. The exercise is helping me to feel better about my appearance, so I didn't get upset looking in the mirror because I know I'm working hard to get in shape.
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