Going to Lose: My Weightloss Journey!

Hi All,

So I weighed in the morning and guess what!? 220.8!!! I’m so excited! I realized how much a weekly weigh in and mini goal can keep me motivated! I think there are a couple of reasons for my couple pound loss this week!

1) last week when i weighed in, it was at night, so my actual weight last night might have been lower

2) even though i still have slip ups, im still eating much less than i was eating in the past.

So, anyways, I’m SO SO excited, and I realized that having a mini goal is something I never had before and now I realize how useful they can be. I also think weekly weigh ins are really helpful because they really keep me on track, and even if I go up, it makes me more cautious, and if I go down, it makes me want to stick to my plan, because I know its working!

So, YAY ME!

OK food journal for the day:

Breakfast: Activa yogurt (70 cal) and half a banana

Lunch: Chicken Souvlaki, Lettuce, Rice, some Pita

Snack: SBD bar (140 calories)

Dinner:Some grilled chicken and couscous/brown rice (not sure what it was?) and salad (just lettuce),1 piece of chocolate covered banana slice and 1 slice of apple, half covered in banana.

Snacks:  1 small chocolate almond cluster, 1 sugar free jello cup (10 cal), 1 piece of wheat bread (45 cal) with some FF cream cheese (30), and a handful of popcorn (40?)

I’m pleased cuz even though my snacking looks like a lot, it is quite low call. I feel good overall about today, but i’m REALLY looking forward to working out again next week. just gotta get completely better this weekend.

No exercise today except biking to and from class, etc. I’m still sick and its super rainy out. But I’m starting to feel better, and if I stay lowkey this weekend, I should be back to 100% and be able to go on my full exercise plan on Monday. Excellent.

BYE!

im still sick today which sucks. ive been trying to stay on my food plan, but havent been exercising much except going to and from class (biking)

today i had a bigger breakfast than usual because i knew it would be a while till lunch

breakfast: 1 airborne drink (5 cal) , 1 lower sugar oatmeal packet (120), one piece of wheat bread (45), a dab of fat free cream cheese (30), and some proscuitto (no clue), kinda a lot, i know

lunch: some turkey noodle soup, a few spoons of mac and cheese (eek i know, baddd), a few bites of a hot dog (not even half), and (gasppp!, seriousily im mad) some french fries. and 2 small slices of water melon.  this is the problem with a dining hall! since you can take little bits of things, i end up getting bites of bad things. i can exhibit total control when im ordering from any place, but once im at the dining hall, sometimes my control goes out the window.  its something im REALLY gonna have to work on.  maybe thats a mini goal i can have; to really exhibit control in the dining halls.

for dinner i had some spinach and lettuce salad with some candied walnuts and feta cheese, no dressing, and i had 1.5 small pieces of cheese-less pizza, so basically bread with light tomato sauce.

snack: one campbells on the go 70 calorie soup.

ok well i think i would have done fine for  today if it hadnt been for the bad choices at the dining hall. ive really got to work on that.

i get frusterated, because when i look at other people’s food journals, they seem to be exerting so much control, and eating such small portions, and counting calories so exactly, which i cant do in a dining hall setting, and its frustrating because so many women are cooking and having success, which i just cant do because im just not in a situation where i can cook.

but i guess the point is that i have to work with the situation im in, so all i can do at this point is exert good self control and make healthy decisions.

also, i havent worked out properly at the gym yet cuz im still sick.

and tomorrow is weigh in day, and im really not expecting the scale to go down, but i guess im just hoping it doesnt go up too much.  at this point i jsut have to hope that i can get better from this stupid cold so i can start up with my full plan next week and be on my regular work out sched, etc.

argh…alright–night

Hi All,

After a weekend back home, I’m back at school with a cold!  which sucks. cuz i ate well today, but i didnt go to the gym! boo!

well, even though i was at some big family events this weekend.  i think i did quite well!

ok FJ for today:

breakfast: 1 lower sugar oatmeal and one tangerine, and one airborne (5 cals)

lunch: some chicken (broilled i think?), lettuce, pita and rice–not the smallest portion…oops

Dinner: salad with egg whites, and all greens and balsamic vinegar, and a tiny bit of olive oil. brown rice and tofu.  tiny bit of froyo.

Snack: some proscuitto and one tiny hostess cake (33 cal)

ok no workout today, cuz i was sick. going to bed now so i can get better. night all.

hi all,

sorry ive been out for  a couple of days. these past few days have been so hectic and non stop.  i was in a meeting on tuesday from 4pm until midnight! it was nuts!

ok well a few things.  i did my weigh in yesterday and i was at 225.4! so a loss of 1.6 lbs.  nothing huge, but i still lost!

also, i realized that as much as I would love to specifically calorie count all of my foods, on things like fitday and the like, i just cant because i dont cook, and dont know the nutrition on most of the foods i eat.  the dining halls do post nutrition information on most of the foods they serve, but not everything, and i also dont really know how to estimate ounces. so as much as i want to exact calorie count, it just isnt really possible.  another thing ive realized is that i am often in situations where i am given a meal as part of a meeting.  and therefore, my choices of what i eat are not as flexible and more about portion control.  which i think ive been pretty good at.

also this weekend i have a huge family function, one with lots of food etc. this will be a true test.

back to complete food journals tomorrow.

ta ta.

OK, So after doing a bit of research online, i’ve realized that my 1000-1200 calorie range for a day is just too low, and could directly promote fat retention.  So I’ve decided to move it up to 1200-1500 range with 1300-1400 being the idea range for one day, but 1500 being acceptable.  The calculator thing says that my extreme weight loss limit would be 1816 Calories/day, but that seems really high to me and says my maintenance calorie limit would be 2918 Calories/day which also seems really high to me.  I think im gonna start with this 1200-1500 range tomorrow because I also think it will be less stressful for me as well.  What are your gals’ experience with counting calories and how low is healthy, but will really promote weight loss.  (if it matters i exercise 6 days a week for at least an hour)

Any responses greatly welcome! thanks!  

ok today was long and tiring especially because i did not sleep well last night at all, and probbaly got 3-4 hours of sleep. definitely trying to fix that tonight.

ok gotta do this fast cuz i have a ton of work:

Breakfast: oatmeal (120), string cheese (70), red bull (10), total 200

Lunch: Spinach Salad with some pine nuts, some green apple, some feta and some bean sprouts w/ rasberry vinagrette dressing. I think it was about 250 calories.

Snack: Kashi Go Lean protein/snack bar 190 calories–>kind of a lot, hard to find low cal protein bars…any suggestions??

Dinner: I got to dinner write before the dining hall closed because I started my workout late.

Small cup of chicken tortilla soup-about 180. Some stir fry rice noodles with some soy sauce, tofu, carrots, broccoli and egg. i dont really know the calorie value but ill put it at 450. argh. thats high. i wish i had gotten to dinner earlier so i had more choice. and 1 sugar free jello, 10 calories, and a few M&Ms, arghh, but not more than 10-15. so thats good. i think ill also have half of a banana tonight so that will be 55 calories. might as well add that now….

Argh, thats a total of 1335 today. i think im gonna definitely have to find lower cal protein bars, and get to dinner earlier so i can get to the brown rice and chicken and salad bar. arg, thas 135 over my max. oh well,these protein bars are just too many cals. anyone know of protein bars that are 100 cals or less?!?

LAST EDIT OF THE NIGHT: ok so my evening snack didnt work. my friend came in and we shared a bag of 100 calorie popcorn, so i had 50 calories of that, but then when she left i had some M&Ms, id say around ~200 cal, which really sucks cuz i was already over my 1200 today. so needless to say im giving the M&Ms to my (super skinny) friend, who happens to be one of those, i dont understand why you are watching your foods type friends and therefore have to change my cals to 1530…ugh, i decided not to have the half of banana now because im so over! that is 330 calories more than my max. that really frusterates me because my weigh in day is in 2 days!!!!!!!!! also tomorrow night i have a meeting we’re im given some unknown dinner, so that already puts some annoying uncertrainty in my day. ugh. ok enough for tonight. hope tomorrow is a new and better day.

Workout today was good. i decided to mix up my plan a bit. ive been reading a bunch of places that cardio is not a very good fat/weight burner. so ive decided to try 45 min of cardio a day, and 35 of weight training a day which is what i did. does anyone have any opinion or thoughts on the idea that cardio does or doesnt help weight loss? or which type of exercise does? thanks!

ok off to do so much work before such a busy day tomorrow. i really hope to stick to the plan tomorrow! really gonna try to keep it under 1200!

Hello hello! It’s already 4:40 on Sunday afternoon which is disconcerting because I just havent been very productive with schoolwork this weekend.

I realized it may be very hard to write consistent entries on the weekends because I am always so busy running around doing errands, seeing friends, trying to do schoolwork etc. But while I probably wasnt as good foodwise this weekend as I was during the week, I definitely stayed more or less on plan and ate much better than I would have previously. I went to the gym on friday, but not on saturday because it was my rest day. But i did go to the gym today and did over an hour of elliptical, abs, and a few weights. Now its already almost 5 and I still have to shower and do so much work. Well, I guess along with my weight managament I should figure out time management.

Anyways, back to getting on schedule with the food and exercise journals:

Today/Sunday

Breakfast: One Packet of Lower Sugar Oatmeal (120 cal), and one low fat string cheese (70). half a sugar free redbull (5)

Lunch: 6inch subway turkey sandwhich on honey oat with provolone and veggies. other half of the sugar free redbull (5). after doing a bit of math and looking at the (excellent) subway foods nutrition site, I realized that my subway sandwich was more calories than I would have liked or thought. a 6 inch turkey sandwich is 280 calories, on WHEAT bread, but i didnt realize it and when I put it on honey oat bread, that adds another 50 calories to the sandwich, then my provolene cheese added 50 calories, and the oil vinegar mix added 45 calories. which makes what i thought was my low cal subway sandwich 425 calories. i might as well be eating fastfood! obviously thats not true, but it was certainly over the amount of calories i had hoped for.

so now i am trying to decide what i want to eat for dinner. i definitely dont want to go to the dining hall, because i think i would go overboard there. so im currently deciding between eating: a low cal (under 100 cal) soup and a protein bar, under 200 cal, or an activa yogurt (70 cal) and a soup, or what exactly. i know that later on i want to have a green apple as a snack and i may be going for a light coffee later, so im trying to prepare for that. anyways. im sure ill figure it out soon, and then i’ll post it. anyways, i just want to keep my dinner under 300 calories today because my lunch was so many.

Dinner:Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup (90 cal), Activa (70 cal) dinner total = 160 cal

Snacks: Iced Grande Non-Fat Sugar Free Vanilla Latte -Starbucks(80 Cal) 1 green apple (60 cal) about 1/4 of a 100 calorie bag of popcorn (30 cal (to be safe)) about 1 handful of trailmx (i dont know the calorie content, wish i did, ill say about 75)

Total Calories for Today: 1030! I feel really good that I was able to recover from my lunch mistake.

Workout: 1 hour and a few minutes on the elliptical, ab work out, weights, and stretching.

so i read someones post about fitday and i decided to try it.  even though i thought i ate well today, with the acception of one or two slip ups, i realized i ate approximately 1540 calories which is shocking and semi horrifying to me as im trying to keep my calorie level at about 1000-1200 per day.  but when i look at my meals i cant quite figure out whats wrong.  also, according to fit day, tofu is much fattier than a grilled chicken breast, so i think ill drop the tofu from now on and just stick to the chicken breast.  other than that i guess i will watch the portion control, but im still not quite sure what i did wrong.  unfortunately its the weekend coming up which is always the worst food time for me, since its more unscheduled and more eating out.  nonetheless im really gonna try keeping up my workout and food plans this weekend. ill try fitday for a few more days to see what’s what, but if it gets too discouraging, i might just stop and start just judging my own food journals.

if anyone happens upon this, i have some questions:

-do you use fitday?  if so do you find it accurate and helpful?

-do you put EVERYTHING in it that you eat?

-what proteins do you find the leanest? (FYI i dont eat fish/seafood) so i have a feeling that answer’s chicken

- any tricks to maintaining a food plan between 1000-1200 calories a day???

much thanks!

breakfast: one lowfat stick of string cheese (7o cal),

one pack of lower sugar oatmeal (120cal),

one sugarfree redbull (10 cal),

1 banana (110 cal)

a few sips of pomegranate juice(35 cal)

= 345 cal for breakfast. that kinda seems like a lot to me, even though before i counted the calories my breakfast seemed light. i guess i didnt realize how caloric bananas were. i think from now own i will just do half a banana, or an apple. how many calories do you guys usually try to keep breakfast under?? im not usually a calorie counter but i guess i will try and figure them out this week and see if it helps me figure out my food choices more.

Lunch:

a few forks of sticky rice, some tofu and broccoli in oyster sauce, a couple bites of hot dog, a few french fries(less than 10), and 2 slices of watermelon. i feel okay-ish about this meal, because obviously the hot dog and fries, even though they are in a small quantity, aren’t great. but, if this had been me 2 months ago, my lunch would have been drastically different, and much more fattening with less portion control, so i feel like im making progress in one way or another. i feel like im gonna do better at dinner.

im about to go to the gym and im trying to decide my snack between sugar free jello or an activa light yogurt. im leaning towards the yogurt because it’s nutritious and will give me some energy for my hour+ workout.

Snack:

activa light yogurt-70 calories

1 rice cracker- 35 calories

Dinner:

Some plain tofu, and some grilled chicken breast with brown rice.  A small salad with mushrooms, corn, beansprouts, lettuce and greenbeans with balsamic vin. a half a cup of rasberry froyo.

Exercise:  1 hour on the elliptical and about 20 minutes of weights and stretching.

today’s a busy day so I hope i can really stay on track. but ive already worked the gym into my sched for later today in the afternoon. im declaring today a NO M&Ms day. lets hope i can keep it.

I feel pretty good about dinner.  I ate after my gym time and I knew that I had just worked so hard that I didnt want to ruin it with dinner, so I stayed totally on track with dinner. im really happy. anyways, gotta clean my room before my friends come over!

also, uh oh, today is senior night which means a bit of drinking, im gonna keep it to a few drinks. nothing too caloric.

ps. any tips on low cal drinks? alcoholic…?

happy thursday all!

So today I’m not having breakfast because I dont have class until 2:15, so I didnt get up in time.

But this morning, I had one 10 calorie Fuze drink, and a few reduced fat wheat thins.

For Lunch: A few forks of a southwest chicken salad and one inari sushi (rice covered in soybean/tofu stuff). I was rushing to class and didnt have time to finish, so I’ll eat the leftovers of my lunch for my dinner. I dont mind though, because it’s quite good and fresh! the guy made the salad right in front of me.

OK IM off to work out! I’ll finish the rest later.

For Dinner: Some more of my southwestern chicken salad and a couple of inari. thats it! yay for a good reasonable dinner

Snacks: Two cakes of a 3 pack hostess 100 calorie pack cake thing.                                      Some dark chocolate M&Ms. (but they’re valentines colors. no excuse…i know!)                       A green apple.

Exercise: I had a FABULOUS work out today. I did 1 hour on the elliptical and about 20 minutes of weight training and abs! go me!

alright thats all for today. overall i felt pretty good about my food and exercise today. im annoyed with the m&ms and frankly i think i should just throw them out after tomorrow if i cant keep a distance from them. im gonna repeat my exercise routine tomorrow which is great. food will be a little different tomorrow since it’s a longer day and i’ll be having breakfast.

ok!!! night !