I have started walking on a park path. It feels sooo good : )

I don’t know what my problem is but it has been there all of my life. I DREAD EXERCISE!! I am not proud of it. It just is.

Last summer I walked the path once with a friend and told myself that I would start my exercise program right there. Last week I tried it for the first time and actually enjoyed it. It is a beautiful path and thanks to my IPOD, by the time I got trough the first few chapters of Sarah Silverman’s new book it was over.

I enjoy my walks because they are solitary. I feel like I am completely alone (besides the occasional dog walker or jogger). I enjoy the breeze, the pond, ducks, birds, flowers and trees.

I am so glad that I have found something that I am enjoying. I am only doin about 1.5 miles right now but my goal is to be walking the 5k by the end of summer. I feel like Lance Armstrong LOL!

On a sour note, my blood pressure has been elevated over the past week. I am very upset over it :(. I am now watching my sodium like a hawk and really taking the walks seriously. Fingers crossed, my blood pressure will go down. I do not want to be on pills I am generally healthy beyond my weight but am terrified at the prospect of an ongoing medical condition. sigh . . .

I also am officially down 30lbs according to my doctor. I was last there in September ‘09 and have gone down exactly 30 YEA!!! It’s slow but hopefully a lifetime change.

This month I’m down 1.5. By my math, I have lost 34 lbs since November 2009. Not as much as I’d like but this month will be better . . . Right?

I am becoming to get diappointed with the slow progress : ( I am a logical person and I know that unless I do some extreme diet and exercise program I will not lose quickly. But I also know that I must commit to maintainable changes that will improve my eating and exercising habits for the rest of my life. However, I am also type A and impatient. I WANT MAJOR CHANGE YESTERDAY!!!

Because unreasonable expectations have caused me trouble in the past I am making an effort to confront myself when I have these feelings. I have corrected my unreasonable thoughts and logging EVERYTHING I eat.

Yesterday I made low fat alfredo with artichoke and roasted red pepper. It was delicious. I ate the remainder for lunch today. I have put breakfast on auto-pilot and have been eating Jimmy Dean Delights every morning for two weeks. Next week I am switching back to my turkey roll-up with greek yogurt. The roll up has way less additives and is YUMMY!!! Not to mention about 1/2 the sodium and calories. Although the breakfast muffins are delicious : )

I have been slipping back into lunch out every weekday. Although, I am making slightly better lunch choices. I have been hounded by thoughts of greasy breaded chicken over fried rice–but I have not given in to it. This week I am shooting for at most a salad out and at best bringing my own lunches.

I have one thing to be proud of today. Although I used the rain as an excuse yesterday and put off my walk. Today I wore a cap and a sweatshirt and told myself if it rains I might get wet. It did not rain!!! My goal for the week is to walk every day after work. I’m only doing about 1.5 miles but it’s a start.

I am also committing myself to blogging more. Ideally every day. I initially was of the mind that a weekly update is sufficient. But who am I updating? Even on days and weeks where there is no weight loss to pat myself on the back for other things happen. Most important, writing it down makes it real to me and I notice a sense of relief after I have written.

Whew, that felt good.

The first two weeks of the month I was very bothered by my increasing weight. I actually went up about 7 lbs I don’t know exactly how my body weight works but I was too happy to see that I was a lb down this week.

I did have White Castles this weekend but, I budgeted for it and only ate one burger and one order of fries–way better that my usual three with a sack : )

I have not yet worked he exercise in but I am okay because I know that it will come. I am just working to keep things under control in food world. I am so happy that I don’t feel the desire to eat as much as I used to. Even when something tastes great I have been enjoying until I am no longer hungry and stopping. Prime example–I am perfectly satisfied with 4 fish sticks. I know I should not be eating fish sticks. But when my family is having fried catfish oven baked fish sticks at 190 calories is not so bad ; )

Here’s hoping I feel this way for the next year!! Good luck all!

I was talking to a friend about weightloss and he suggested that dividing your calorie intake for the day by 12 gives you a rough estimate of the weight that calorie level can sustain. For example, 1800 calories can sustain a weight of about 150lbs which is my goal weight. I know the numbers aren’t perfect and it can’t account for the in metabolism but it does tend to follow the calculations I have been given by weightloss calculators.

I have been watching my sodium but not really finding an easy way to cut it down. I am still trying to up my water and have been getting in at least 3 bottles which is technically the recommended daily allowance but I feel like I need more. I have not done a single bit of exercise beyond walking around the home show (if that counts). I’m not proud of my definace but feel an obligation to be honest to myself. The last thing I want to do is act as if I am doing EVERYTHING I can and am still loosing less than a pound a week.

I am satisfied with my slow progress considering that I am never hungry and do not feel deprived.

I made a yummy pasta dish with chard this week and bought another bunch with plans of making another chard dish. I have discovered a yummy breakfast frittata with red pepper and artichoke. My plan for the week is to make the frittata with one egg and one egg white or maybe with just a single egg. It is a great breakfast but the cholesterol is high.

As far as weight loss, it appears that I have lost about 2.5lbs this month and am averaging about a pound a week. In the beginning I thought that a pound a week would be too slow but considering that I don’t have to carry Rolaids around with me and I feel much better a pound a week is okay.

Also I am noticing that I can’t eat as much as I used to. Not in an extreme way but I find myself getting full after eating about half of a turkey burger. I am sill struggleing with being able to put down the turkey burger when I have had enough . . .

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 . . .

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.

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!!!!

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 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!!

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!!!!