I have had very slow progress this month. I think I may have lost a lb!!! I am logging everything I eat and noticed that my sodium intake is sometimes double the recommendation.

I was chatting with a friend who described himself as a professional dieter. I complained that I have been eating below my BMR but am not seeing as much change as I sould be on the scale. The first thing he said as how’s your salt! According to him, the 4-5 lb fluctuations could be as a result of sodium intake throughout the day.

My goal for the remainder of the month is to REALLY watch my sodium intake. But, it’s SOOOO hard to cut salt. I cooking for myself and am still having a problem.

I know that my water intake is not what it should be. No matter how I try, I can’t seem to down more than 3 bottles on a good day and one on a bad day–and I love water! I will just have to try to finish a bottle before every meal.

At any rate, I am still trying . . .

I have been gaining and loosing the same 3lbs for what seems like forever (ok, it may only be over the last 2 weeks). At any rate, I was so tempted to forget the plan for a while and have White Castles!

A friend called and asked me to have a drink with him, he needed to talk. I agreed and met him at my regular bar. A GORGEOUS young man, who I had not seen in a few months, came up to me and said “You look like a new woman.” I played dumb because I have had few people notice a change. He said “you look smaller.” I only laughed and said I may be smaller.

It was so encouraging to know that someone who does not know that how hard I am trying noticed a change

I had my allotted 2 beers and made my way home to have my planned cod sandwich. I really needed that bit of encouragement today.

The last week has been pretty good. I am still weighing multiple times a day but only count my morning weight on tickers. I have been doing pretty good in the food department. I have noticed that eating out has slowly crept back into my diet; however, I am doing what I can to make better choices. Lets see . . . this week I had 2 four peice chicken nuggets (only because I worked out of town and did not have time to plan for my food). That was the worst thing I ate out.

I also ate at Applebee’s for lunch but I took my time and looked online for the best option and chose the 360 calorie chicken sandwich with fruit. I was soooo tempted to break down and hit a drive-thru.

I did get 2 you’re loosing weight comments today. One was from my sister, who knows that I am trying. The other one came from my hairdresser, who does not know. So, I guess it must be showing. Also, my neice described me as looking svelt–funny thought, 150 lbs overweight and svelt LOL!

I still have not worked myself up to exercise. I don’t know when it will happen. I will have to set a deadline and just do it!

I have gotten just a bit lax in cooking. I still have been preparing food for myself but I did rely on frozen meals twice in the last week. I quickly discovered that I am less hungry when I eat food I make on my own.

I am hovering around 1lb down over the week. I will not complain considering my sodium intake has been quite high

Oh well, 2 DAYS TILL THE WEEKEND!!!!

This is my 4th month working on my weight. I started strong in November with ediets.com for a few weeks. Of course, I stopped ediets the week of Thanksgiving and slacked for a bit around Christmas. I started January with the idea that I should be able to cook for myself, avoid fast food and make positive changes in my eating habits. I did make some changes, I cut back on fast food but relied heavily on processed diet foods.

I am happy with my choices in the last 2 weeks of February. I eliminated fast food completely, I have cooked every meal that I have eaten–with no processed food short-cuts (unless you count my whole wheat tortillas as processed, I don’t .

As a result, I have lost 6.5 lbs in February and I could not be happier (unless of course it was 7lbs lol). I am so proud of myself!!! I am LOVING eatingwell.com!! I have bought bright colored kitchen tools that I actually look forward to using–and I use them everyday.

Today is a good example. I woke up, made a turkey/goat cheese wrap, ate my yougurt & clementine as a morning snack. For lunch I broght a left-over stuffed chicken breast with millet cakes. I ran to Wendy’s and picked up a side salad (ok, that is fast food but it’s all uncooked veggies). For my afternoon snack I had homemade peanut butter cookies. When I was in line at Wendy’s I was TORTURED by the panko crusted fish sandwich. I didn’t even think about buying it. However, I did stop by Kroger on the way home to pick up whole wheat buns and cod. I had panko crumbs at home. I came home and made my own panko-crusted cod sandwich–it was delicious!

In just the past couple weeks of cooking everything I eat I have realized how much I enjoy cooking. I am definately a food addict and I tend to fixate on what I am eating now, what I just ate or what I will eat later. This works perfectly for me! I have just switched my focus to health foods I can make for myself.

I log my food daily and am estatic with how much my sodium and sugar intake have gone down. The recipies at eatingwell tend to be low in calories and high in fiber. I usually hit my fiber intake goal by lunch time!!

I even fit in a little Wii Fit time last week (literally a little). But, I was close to my calories for the day so I boxed away 110 calories so I could have a beer out with my friends.

I hope I am able to keep this up because it feels so great!!

Good luck to everyone

I am plugging away. No huge scale news but, I am consistantly eating under 1,800 calories. I have consulted many BMR calculators. I should be loosing 1-3 lbs/week. I don’t think I am but I will keep at it because it will work over time.

I am trying to not be scale obsessed, eat only what I cook myself and drink lots of water. I have done pretty well with the eating what I cook this week. I went out to eat only one time. Of course I ate the fries–and they were great. I did avoid the bread (small victory).

I am very excited about my latest food obsession–pinwheels. I am making them out of whole wheat tortillas, goat cheese, smoked turkey and romaine. THEY ARE DIVINE!!!!

I am also on the tail end of my peanut butter cookies–I have been gleefully eating 3 per day : )

I am not sure what I will do for the next week. The sausage and spinach lasagna was a H-I-T! I am considering another round but I don’t want to get bored with it. I have eaten it every day this week. If not for lunch then for dinner.

I am trying to gather the energy to make tonight pizza night. Eating well has a few pizza dough recipies, I have lots of mushrooms, red pepper and turkey italian sausage in the fridge . . . it just makes sense.

I guess I will whip up the dough while I have the mind to do it!!!

Oh, I think I am down about 22lbs as of today. I am trying not to rush weight loss and commit to this change for the rest of my life!!!

Hope all is well with everyone!!

Ok, I had a couple of irresponsible, no excuse days. For two days I reverted to the old me. I got up, ate my yogurt then proceeded to eat lunch out, have drinks with friends and have a midnight food fest! Oh well, that was Friday and Saturday. On Sunday morning I went to myeatingwell and printed 4 recipes. I cooked all day Sunday and I am SOOOO proud of myself.

I made Savory Breakfast Muffins (diappointing but I will eat em), Chicken & Wild Rice Soup and Rosemary Foccacia Bread. I did not snack while I was cooking, I was on a mission : ) I had my soup for dinner with a peice of foccacia. I also took some to work for lunch had have 3 servings on reserve for lunches down the road.

I intended to make a sausage lasagna on Sunday but forgot the sausage at Kroger. So, despite out severe weather, I went by the grocery store on the way home from work today and bought sausage and extra mushrooms. I also picked up natural peanut butter and chopped nuts–I made healthy peanut butter cookies.

I have eaten only 2 so far but allowed myself enough room for four. They are soooo good. I love that they aren’t too sweet and taste REALLY peanut buttery–and they are hearty because they are made with whole wheat flour. I am so excited about the cookies break-and-bakes I usually buy have 140 calories these have 90

So, today, for the first time since I started working on my eating habits, I only ate healthy foods I prepared myself. I was kind of torn at first because I spent more than ediets costs buying food I have to make–the upside is that I burn extra calories standing up and cooking for 5 hours

I am excited to be back on track after my brief departure!!!!

I have been eating, for the most part, between 1,800 and 2,000 calories per day. I haven’t notice much change in the February :(. Sometimes I wonder if I am looking too closely at my weight. I know that it is going to take me at least a couple of years to resolve and the rest of my life to maintain; but, for some reason, I weigh everytime I go to the bathroom.

I notice that in the morning I typically weigh 3-5lbs less. So, of course, this is what I use as my official weight. The problem is that I can’t help but feel a sharp disappointment when I get on the scale at 5:30 a.m. and I weigh the same as I did the previous morning. The worse is when I am 2 pounds heavier.

I would love to be strong enough to ignore the scale completely! My fear is that I will weigh 6 weeks down the road and see that I have been eating wrong and “wasted” a block of time that I could have been doing the right thing.

It’s kind of strange but maybe people who have struggled with weight will understand. I want to lose as efficiently as I can while I have the mindset to work at it. The bottom line is that I, like a lot of people, have a real fear that this is only a short burst of clarity and that six months from now my blog will be dormant and I will be heavier than when I started 4 months ago.

I can’t say that I am down (emotionally) this week but I am a bit diappointed with my results, or lack thereof.

When I consider that I I have not gained weight this week, I guess it is a good thing. When I consider that I have eaten less artery-clogging fried foods it is a very good thing.

I know that I should focus on consistently doing the right thing and that the right thing does not always mean I will loose weight, it just gets hard sometimes.

The plan for the comming week, I will cut my calories to a 1,400-1600. I want to see if there will be a difference in my monthly results.

Ok, on the bright side, I went down 4lbs in January and am already down 4lbs for this month.

I know I am doing the right thing, it’s just hard because it seems like so many are posting 8 and 10lb losses in a month’s time. Oh well, maybe those people are working harder than I am.

One day at a time . . .

I have been hovering around 17 down for some time. I was so glad when I got on the scale today and saw that I am 23 down!!!

I have been avoiding the fast food and cooking at home now since January 1. I’ve had a couple of slip ups but have not been overeating :). I am an admitted grazer. I want to eat all day long. I have been focusing on meals that are 300 calories or less and trying to space them at 3 hours intervals. It has been working great.

I have been snacking a lot but my snacks are usually a cheese stick or yogurt with trail mix. As for the meals, I allow myself one frozen diet meal a day (sodium is too high to have more than one a day). I also have been fitting in a light hot dog here and there. Also, a love the Green Giant veggies (only 100 calories per box).

My goal is to move some of the processed foods out of my diet and ultimately focus on fresh veggies and lean meats. But, for right now, this is working.

I have been struggling with exercise avoidance. I don’t know exactly why but I have been completely ignoring exercise–even simple walking. My sister invited me to use her treadmill after work. So, my goal for the coming week is to stop by and walk at least 30 minutes 3xs a week.

I have discovered that I love Luna Bars. I have only tried the Peanut Butter Cookie but I bought 3 kinds of bars to try as snacks this week.

I feel good about the changes on the scale so far. I just took a waist measurment so I can begin to track non-scale changes as well. I am 1.5 lbs from the weight I was at when I joined Weight Watcher’s in 2000. Soon I will be at my lowest weight as an adult–that’s kinda scary becuase it is a considerably high number but I gotta start somewhere.

Hope all is well with everyone!!!

I have been eating well for the past 7 days. I have not gone over 2,000 calories and have tried to be closer to 1,800. I feel good, I am satisfied after my meals and am not feeling deprived at all. I hope that I am able to keep up the momentum long enough to see some real results! So far I am down about 20lbs–the most weight I have ever lost in my life.

Around 2000 I joined weight watchers and worked with a trainer for about 6 months. The most I lost was about 12lbs. Although I worked out well I did not eat the way I should have after the first 2 months. I believe that this time I am taking it more seriously. I am keeping track of everything I eat and planning ahead (something weight watcher’s teaches but I never did).

I did my shopping for the next 3 days today. I cannot believe how much food I can eat while staying within my 1,800 - 2,000 calorie range. For example today I am having
Breakfast Tacos-350
Peanut Butter Cookie Luna Bar-180
Turkey Sandwich with Lt Mayo & Colby-200
Baked Potato with Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese-250
2 Peanut Butter Cookies-200

This is only 1,180 calories and its already 5:30! I know that I need to fit in about 700 more caloies before the end of the day but I haven’t even eaten the baked potato yet! I think it’s because I went shopping with a friend who had the bypass and he does not eat. We were together for about 6 hours yesterday (I didn’t eat during that time) and we were together for about 5 hours today and, again, because he didn’t eat all I had was a Luna Bar. Before his bypass we would have gone out for a calorie packed lunch (and I would have loved it). Instead we walked a lot around the mall shopping.

Oh well, I won’t get too obsessed on days when I am a few hundred under my calorie goals. There will be day when I am over.

I don’t know why but I have that feeling that something good is around the corner. I don’t know that it is related to my weight journey or if it is something else–I just love that feeling!!!

I have been eating on plan, about 2,000 calories a day. No fried foods or fast foods. I have eaten out at a sit down place a couple of times but refused to finish my meal (even the fries). My normal routine was to eat the fries first because they get cold and I hate cold fries. The last time I went out I made a point to eat part of the sandwich first and pick at the fries until they got cold. I can’t wait until I can say “hold the fries” or “I will have the spring veggies.” Baby steps . . .

I have been treating myself to baked tater tots, which I know is not the best food choice; however, it does keep me from feeling deprived. I also bought a pack of break & bake Simply Peanut Butter Cookies. Aunt Flow is here and she loves peanut butter! All I can say is that last month I had a fudge sundae with an oversized peanut butter cookie. This month, no sundae, next month . . . a smaller cookie :)!

My weight has been up and down buy about 4lbs. I don’t really pay attention during this time of month but I am hoping for an encouraging number next week.

I joined the 3fat chicks 2010 weight loss challenge. It’s just a side challenge where members log in weight changes monthly and add up to a final number for the year. I logged 4lbs in January–not bad considering I had 2 no holds barred bar nights (ok, I have been avoiding the drive-through post bar which has helped).

My hope for February is to go down at least 6lbs. I have been kind of enjoying calorie counting, it’s like a game for me right now. I have really cut back on the red meats too. I made my own salad dressing a couple weeks ago and it was quite good I even sneaked chili dogs into my calorie count. It’s about 300 calories for a light hot dog, bun and 1/4c of chilli. Also not the best food but it fits the bill when I feel like eating dirty!

Some of my goals for the coming week are to work in some whole grains and up the veggies! I am just not getting enough. Although I am not eating out I am begining to lean on pre-packaged veggies (which are yummy) and soups. I need to get away from those and focus on making my own stir fries. As for the grains, I want to try steel cut oats–they are supposed to stick to your ribs and we need that in the winter.

I will post weight change next week. Good luck all