Measurements

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I was recently watching a show on tv about obesity and found out some interesting/disturbing things about myself. I did the test to find out if I am considered apple or pear shaped.  Turns out that I’m apple, which is the worse of the two to be.  I know that it’s worse to carry extra weight around your middle than your bum or thighs, but I didn’t realize that I fell under the danger category.  I’m a bit boxy around the middle, but I kind of attributed that to not having very wide hips (in terms of bone structure- this is certainly not to say that I can’t stand to lose some inches off my hips!) Anyway, the magic formula is waist divided by hip.  A result of 0.8 and below means you are pear shaped.  0.8 and above means you are apple shaped. According to health specialists, this waist-to-hip ratio is actually better than waist measurments alone, or even BMI measurments in terms of determining health. Anything above 0.8 is undesirable, and the further away you get from 0.8, the higher your risk for heart disease, cancer, and a host of other illnesses becomes. I figured it was time to face the music and re-do my measurements. Here goes:

Weight: 174

Waist: 39 (yikes)

Thighs: L-24.5, R-24.5

Arms: L- 12.25, R- 11.5

Hips: 42

Bust: 39

Neck: 14

BMI: 30

I still can’t believe that I wear size 32 jeans and my actual waist size is currently 39.  Vanity sizing much?  Anyway, my waist-to-hip ratio works out to 0.92.  Red Flag! I really need to work on reducing this number.  I’ll be adding this to my numbers to monitor as I lose my weight.

I’m having one of those weeks where the scale is NOT budging.  Not really sure what’s going on, because I’ve been eating really well. I think I just need to step up the exercise.  I know the next couple weeks will be difficult because I’ll have guests for 15 days solid. I guess I’ll just try to get as much walking in as possible.

Off to do my turbo jam, even though I’d rather take a nap…I’m thinking of starting the C25K program again…getting back into running would probably really help my weight loss.  Maybe that will be my goal for October.

Weigh-In, Week 2

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As I suspected I had a much smaller loss this week- BUT- I had a loss, so I’m not complaining!

I lost 1 lb this week, and that’s 1 lb closer to my goal. Meeting was great today- I had coffee with a really nice lady from my group after. She reached her goal last week, and she is very inspirational!  I am missing my WW buddy (she no longer lives in the same province as me) and so it’s nice to make some other connections with people who are doing the program.

I have been really good with working out this week. I did cardio party for the past 4 days in a row, and ab jam every day except last night.  I was hurting last night- i had a long day at school, and then I watched the premiere of The Biggest Loser, so my workout didn’t happen until midnight, but I still did it!  I’m really proud of myself, and I feel like I’m getting back into the groove.  The food is easy for me- I love cooking and I don’t usually get junk cravings.  It’s the workouts that I really have to make an effort to get into. I find that once I’ve done it for a few days, though, it becomes much easier. Today my leader told me that she’s running her SECOND marathon in Hawaii at Christmas….and she’s 60 YEARS OLD!! It’s pathetic that she’s in better shape than basically everyone I know (including me). She’s so inspirational…it makes me want to start running again! We have a treadmill in our building, so maybe I’ll give it a whirl this winter. It really has been the best exercise for me when it comes to losing weight. I’m just a bit hesitant to do it again because of the impact on my back…but I suppose I’ll just have to start slow.  But isn’t that amazing? Overweight to running marathons at 60. I want to be like her when I grow up.

So, here’s the sum up for the week: My current weight is 174, which is 13 lbs down from my original start weight and 3.8 lbs since re-starting WW 2 weeks ago. As I mentioned last post, my new goal is 6.2 lbs a month, which would allow me to reach my goal before I leave to go home.  That means I need to lose 2.4 more lbs this month.  Hope I can do it!!

49 lbs to go!

P.S. I’ve updated the some of the other tabs on my blog (my workouts, i can’t wait to…, etc.) so check it out! :)

Day 2 of the battle…

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Good news!  I managed to get my act together enough to work out again today.  I did cardio AND abs. Yay me! The only bad news is that i’m paying for my months of lethargy- my body is KILLING me!! I can barely move! Oh well-at least it’s a good pain. C’est la vie. My Greece Bikini Body isn’t going to come easily, but I know I can do it. Can’t wait for that day!

A small victory…

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I finally got my act together and worked out! I just did 45 minutes of Turbo Jam cardio, plus the 20 minute ab workout. It was hard…not going to lie….I can really feel how much muscle I’ve lost during the time I stopped my workouts.  I always do this- why do I never learn? It’s like starting at square one again. At the very least, at least I didn’t gain ALL of the weight I lost back- only 8 lbs.  After my *almost* 3 lb loss last week, I now only have about 5 lbs to make up.  As some of you know, my body makes no sense. I will do everything right and lose nothing one week, then the next week I’ll eat pizza and lose.  Like last week, I ate sushi and movie popcorn the night before my weigh-in.  Usually I retain water like crazy when I eat salt. So I eat 2 of the saltiest foods known to man and have my biggest loss ever?  Riiigh…that makes perfect sense.

I find that getting mentally ready to do the first workout after a break is the hardest part. Once I get back into it, it becomes just a part of my day. I hope that’s the case this time.

I recently read that people who weigh themselves every day are more successful in keeping weight off. I used to be 100% against this, because I think it makes some people (like my WW buddy) obsessed.  If she gained, she would FREAK out and work out 2x that day. If she lost, she would binge on junk.  Anyway, I recently downloaded an app to my iphone called “Lose it!”.  It’s free, and you can use it to input all your food, exercise, and goals. Since I count points, I don’t use the food/exercise function, but you can use the goal section to record your weight daily.  It’s just been a good way for me to keep focused. I’ve been weighing myself every morning as soon as I wake up. I have a feeling after my big loss last week, I probably won’t lose anything this week. But it does keep me trying!

I’ve been thinking about my goals (mentioned in my last post).  I really desperately want to reach my goal before I move home, because I want my current leader to be here when it happens.  To do that, I would have to lose 6.2 lbs per month. I know that’s not really all that realistic for me, since I lose pretty slowly. But, I’m really going to try my very hardest. My leader has been such a huge inspiration and support for me, I just really want her to be the one to present me with my keychain, or whatever it is you get when you reach goal.  If I can achieve that goal, I can meet my other 3 goals, too.  At that rate, I could be down to about 140 lbs by my cousin’s wedding.  I can’t even imagine it!!  6.2 lbs a month isn’t too outrageous, but it will mean a lot of hard work. I’m up for the challenge. 3.4 lbs to go this month.  Wish me luck!

Week 1 Weigh-In

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I’m confusing myself by starting over at week one again… :S

Today’s weigh in was a success. I lost 2.8 lbs, which is the biggest loss I’ve ever had in a week!  Current weight is 175.

Today’s meeting was about eating out.  We talked about different restaurants that people like to go to, and tactics for maintaining control.  I’ve been trying really hard not to eat out lately, since I’m more successful on the program when I make my own food. The bottom line is that you never know what is in your food when you eat in a restaurant, and it’s just not worth it to me most of the time.

I’ve been really delinquent with exercise this week. I didn’t work out at ALL, so I’m quite surprised that I lost as much as I did. I haven’t been feeling 100%…very tired and headachy. I rarely ever get headaches, so I haven’t been dealing very well.  Usually I am most successful on the program when do approximately 6 exercise points per day, and eat about half of those points.  My goal for this week is to get back into my workout program. I’m still sticking with Turbo Jam, because I find that it’s the program that gives me the best results.

So, my loss to date is back up to 12 lbs.  5 more lbs and I’ll be back where I was before (170 lbs).  29 lbs to lose until I’m at a healthy weight, and 50 lbs to my goal.

Starting fresh- Week 1

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Well, I had to rejoin WW today since I had been away from my regular meeting for so long, so I’m starting fresh!

My weight today was 177.8.  So, up about 8 lbs since my last weigh in, which was at the beginning of July.  It could be worse. I’ll take it. To be fair, I also ate 3 sushi rolls and movie theatre popcorn last night, so I would expect that negatively affected me, too.  Anyway…water under the bridge. I’m excited to get back on track.

So, starting at 177.8 (let’s just call it 178), my new 10% is 17 lbs (161 lbs) and my new 5% is 8.5 lbs (169.5).  At my last weigh in I was 0.8 lbs away from making my original 10%….crap :(

The plan is as follows:

1) Track, Track, Track.- filling foods, measuring EVERYTHING that goes in my mouth, and getting in all the good health guidelines.

2) Exercise, Exercise, Exercise- I’m getting back at my turbo jam program- cardio EVERY day, and will try to do Abs every day, too.

3) Stay focused on the big goal- losing 62 lbs.  52 to go.

Today I had 2 pieces of ww toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a banana (5 points).  Then I made the Blue cheese/arugula salad from the week 1 book. Delicious. I love that stuff. The goal for this week is to stick to the filling foods and ww recipes as much as possible. I don’t think I’ll be going out at all this week, so that should be easy enough. I’m looking forward to sharing lots of recipes here- as some of you know, I LOVE to cook! I couldn’t be happier to be back in my kitchen.

It was so great to get back to my original meeting today. I was welcomed back by my leader with a big hug- she’s THE CUTEST. Period. I missed her so much! I wish everyone who did WW could have a leader as great as her, but unfortunately I know from experience that’s not the case. I don’t know what I’ll do when I have to go back home permanently! Her support and tips and meetings are what keeps me going.

As I think I have mentioned in previous posts, I have some big events coming up for motivation:

1- My cousin’s wedding in FEB 2010. I’m going to be a bridesmaid, and I’m completely thrilled! It’s a winter wedding, and the colour that she’s chosen for us to wear is “platinum”, so basically a dark grey satin.  I think it will be nice, and hopefully something I can wear again!  Luckily it’s not something like yellow or light pink- light colours + extra weight= DISASTER!! I would really like to be in a size 8 dress by that time, or at least feel more confident in my body. 6 months to meet this goal!

2- My graduation from law school in MAY 2010.  In an ideal world, I would have liked to have met my goal by this time.  I think I may be able to get close, but after gaining and falling off the wagon this summer, I’m not sure it’s realistic.  I want to look good in my grad photos- no fat cheeks!  This summer, I bought a gorgeous magenta satin Diane Von Furstenberg strapless dress. I would love to wear it to my grad. I thought it would fit me now (it’s a size 12 and I’m generally wearing a 10 or 12 these days) but I think it must be mislabelled because I couldn’t even do it up. Further support for this theory is the fact that it is only a *little* big on my mom, who is a size 4-6.  I left it at home, and will try it on at Christmas.  Inspiration! Hopefully I’ll be showing a big loss by then.

3- Trip to Greece with my mom- JULY 2010.  I will be writing my Bar Admission Exam in June 2010 (eek! does that mean I have to be a lawyer soon thereafter?!) and to celebrate the end of my formal education, my mom and I are going to Greece. It’s somewhere we’ve always wanted to go, and it will be nice to have some mother-daughter time.  I want to feel confident in my body by this time so that I can take lots of pictures on the beaches of Santorini! I want to wear a bikini and not look like a beached whale.  That’s my ultimate goal. I’m too young to not feel confident in a bikini!

So, there you have it.  Thanks for reading, and hope all is well with you! I will be updating much more frequently now that I’m home, so check back soon :)

I’m Back!

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I mean it this time..I’m officially home, and ready to go full-throttle on WW again.  I am SO ecstatic to be home- I did a huge grocery shop yesterday, and can’t wait to get cooking again!

I know I’ve gained some weight this summer. It’s really discouraging, but I guess all i can do is get right back at it. I’m going back to my meeting tomorrow, and I’m just going to get right back to basics. Tracking, filling foods, working out, cooking at home…all the things that went by the wayside this summer. I did it before, so I know I can do it again.

Tonight I’m making chicken cacciatore from the week 1 book…yum! I need to pick up a few other food items, then I should be good to get back on track.

I have quite a few visitors coming to stay with me this month, so i will have lots of opportunity to try out new recipes.  Can’t wait!

Wish me luck tomorrow…my last weigh in was 169 lbs…I bet I’m close to 180, if not more. :(