[DEDIKAYTED]

Originally Posted by joyfulloser

I used to suffer with terible insomnia. Melatonin..3 mgs/1/2 hour before you want to sleep. It's natural, it really works...and no side effects. Google it.

BTW, love your enthusiasm...keep up the good work!

Joyful,

You are so right! The Melatonin works... well it depends on the brand though. I do take pills called Sleep n Restore. It has 3mg of melatonin, vitamin e, and glutamine. I had ran out of them and just re-up'd a few days ago. The only time they dont work is when I take them and then dont lay my behind down! I guess your body will fight if it it has to. The thing I love about the Sleep n Restore is that you dont wake up groggy at all. Even if you only got 5 or 6 hours of sleep! I will let you know how it goes tonight. I actually took 1 and a piece of another one. I swear, I just want to sleep well. I feel bad for my body when I push it in the gym and then dont sleep well for recovery.

Thank you so much for your compliment! I try to stay as positive as possible. I feel a lot better this time around. I just want to keep doing what I am doing. I have learned alot from issues that I had before with my hip, knee, and back problems.

OH!!! I swear, I think another thing that keeps me up too is the fact that I havent been allowing myself to eat too close to bed time. I actually didnt get home until late tonight so my last meal will end up being closer than I want to bed time, and I am totally ok with it because I kknow my body needs to rest. I felt very tired at work today. I was going to push through anyway and still get a work out in but I officially called it a rest day when my friend told me that he could fix my ipod for me. My poor lil ipod konked out the other day and I have no idea why. 2000 songs and tons of tv shows.. gone. Its the weirdest thing. Anyway, I can workout without it because I can look at tv shows in the gym, but WHAT I DO NEED IT FOR IS ---RUNNING! I dont want to use the word "CAN'T", but I can't run for a long time without listening to music. Sprint - yes, run for long duration - no. Its just too boring and I just find it challenging to keep my mind focused.

Sorry, I am all over the place. I really should have started a new post for my recap of the day I guess..

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Anyway meals for the day ( more meals on my recovery day.. "refeed")

9am - 1/2 cup oats w/ 1/2 cup cottage cheese
1230 - 6 oz tilapia with parm herb mashed cauliflower
330 - nasty flax gluten free "****" chips w/spinach caserole
715pm - 6 oz tilapia with parm herb mashed cauliflower
815 - 1 peach & 1 low carb yogurt

There you have it!! I told you guys I end up with more calories when I start my breakfast early morning. lol. But that's ok. Its all good. I think I may have been a little hungrier too because of not getting enough rest. Your body needs to recharge somehow -- -and since I haven't got enuf sleep, it wanted the next best thing. I just thank God that I didnt take a 2nd look at any of the holiday cakes, cookies, pies that they had out on the table. I have to say - my will power is off the charts!

I froze the rest of the smashed cauliflower. I like to save things and not let them go to waste if I can help it. I didnt want to eat more of it tomorrow since tomorrow's calories would be a little less/ meals probably wont be as frequent either. I have no more fish. So back to my normal meals---spinach caserole, oatmeal... OH --and I have more of the left over chili in there. I can't believe I allowed myself to run out of yogurt but somehow I did, so I will have to go and get some more of that soon. I like it better when I am sticking more to the basic meals that I dont mind having everyday (for now) that way its much easier to keep track of exactly how much I am getting (as far as calories are concerned).

I guess I have talked enough for now.. Hopefully the Sleep N Restore will kick in soon.



P.S. Thanks again Joy for stopping thru.

Sorry I am so random but its late.

[DEDIKAYTED]

Soo.. yes, I did sleep pretty good last night. Fell asleep AS SOON as I got off the internet which makes me sure that the not eating close to bed time has an effect on my sleeping. If I eat something – I can fall asleep.

No, this doesn’t mean that I am going to start having a snack. No! My body will have to learn to adjust. Yes, I may make sure my meals are not too far from bed time whereas I am hungry, but I definitely am not going back to having a small snack around bed time. This is one of the changes that has made a big effect on my weightloss. There is no turning back now!!

On to today.

[DEDIKAYTED]

Today.

Coffee

11am
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup cottage cheese
*just the right amount

8 gluten free flax chips

215pm -
1 packet of 100 calorie sugar free oatmeal
1/2 cup cottage cheese
apple


4:45 - GYM
75 minutes of cardio

630 -
spinach caserole. 2 good servings.

-- I wanted to get in 2 hours of cardio but I was too tired. I guess I had burned all my calories up! I may do some dancing in here tonight as I clean

[joyfulloser]

Glad you finally got a good night's sleep! It's soooo important to our progress (more important than I knew).

I don't think you need to spend alot of money though. I use the walmart brand (I think Spring Valley or something like that). I take 2-3mg about 1/2 hour before I lay down. I used to have terrible insomnia and wouldn't fall asleep sometimes until 4am! I started taking 1 pill and then upped it to 2. You can take up to 10 mgs safely, so if 3mg is not working, try upping it to 6 mgs!!!

Seems your on point/track with your workout and diet. Hope to catch up soon! haha!

[DEDIKAYTED]

Joy,

I am glad you told me I could up it to 6mg! I kept meaning to look up the maximum dosage on that. Sometimes I was already taking 1.5 pills anyway!! haha.

I'm not even going to tell you how many times I get up at night to go pee... That's a whole other story but I will say that I definitely get up a lot less if I get into a DEEP enough sleep! So now I am attempting to treat myself like a little kid and cut my drinks off by 730 or so. Sheesh!!!!... What a woman has to go through!

Loving Life!

[DEDIKAYTED]

Wednesday

Got up this morning with a slight headache. I went to the gym and got 50 minute of cardio in. I wanted to do more but the headache was not letting up. I figured I would go home get something to eat and take some excedrin.

On the way home I had a taste for tuna sandwich on toast. One thing that I love about what I am doing now (as far as my food is conerned) is to eat what I WANT. And since I had a crazy taste for tuna --- TUNA IT IS!!

I stopped at the store to get some gluten free bread. I also found some gluten free wraps as well. Picked up some more yogurt, cottage cheese, black beans, fat free cheese light sourcream, and spray butter. These seem to be my staples these days.

Anyway, I was going to have tuna sandwich and some of my left over veggie chilli on the side, but instead I just had the tuna sandwiches

2 pcs + the 1 hunch back piece of bread.. lol. toasted.
Tuna and 2 pcs of fat free cheese

I took just 2 cans of light tuna and mixed in cut up celery and onion (lot) and fat free mozarella. I ony used 2 tablespoons of light mayo for the entire bowl of tuna, so I was happy about that. Keeps the calories down

So let's see...
70 per slice of bread x 3 = 210 (the end pc of bread was a lot smaller but I'm still counting 70 calories anyway)

100 cals for the tuna (probably less)

35 for the mayo

35 x 2 = 70 for the cheese
============

415... I like rounding, so I will go with 450

The bread really hiked things up... Im cool with it though because I ate what I had a craving for and I'm ok with that. But, thats also why I don't eat bread much... I know they have bread that is way less calories available these days, but unfortunately its not gluten free so... oh well.

OH! But the wraps that I bought are like 140 or so calories and they are large so that will be great for when I want a wrap!

Well my official weigh ins have been on the weekends but I do periodically check on my weight during the week -- still holding at 146.6. Trying my best to see 145 for Christmas

Went back to the gym and bust out 40 minutes on the elliptical.

I had packed a pack of low carb yogurts, 2 peaches and the left over veggie bean chili to my moms.

I got there and dropped the darn chilli right n the kitchen floor. GRRRR..

Then my baby nephew was over there asking for my yogurt!!! lol. I got about 4.5 ounces out of the 16 ounces. So of course I was hungry.

My mom had some gluten free brown rice cereal so I had that but I wasn't happy about it. Cold cereal is not one of the things on my "approved weight loss" list. There are certain things that I dont like to have because the just add your calories up but dont put your hunger to sleep... Cold cereal is one of them. I love cereal but NO. Granola is another one.. I love, love, love granola, but 120 calories for 1/4 cup.... uh no.. I had bought of these things because I was spending the night and the only other thing she had was a fried fish platter she had bought.. So no way on that!!!

So -- the best thing is to always always alway pack your food... and maybe a little extra.

[DEDIKAYTED]

Thursday -

Baked a LOAD of spinach caserole this morning. I was geting down to the last small container out of the freezer so I wanted to re-up. I love having my food already prepared and not having to worry about cooking up something when I'm hungry. When I'm hungry, no one wants to come in the way of me and my nourishment! hahaha.

So anyway, I think I probably made enough for at least 2.5 to 3 weeks. Awesome. I usually dont have it more than once a day so yea.. I think the gigantic portion will last me for a little while. I have it all cooling and packed away in tupperware containers so I can freeze most of it.

No workout this morning. Added my extra fiber last night with my meals so I can GO this morning. My workout will be this afternoon around 230 or 3pm. Hopefully for an 2 hour session.

I already ate some spinach caserole this morning around 930. I probably wont be eating again before the gym... If so, I'll update.

[DEDIKAYTED]

GYM

I am about to get dressed for the gym and its funny because I remembered that I have been meaning to write about something... lol

The gym. Now, I know this is what I MUST do to get where I want to be, but please don't think that I am different than anyone else. The last few times that I have been on the machines at the gym, I curse the machines out in my head.. hahahaha. Oh yes, sometimes, I just dont want to be there. A LOT of times. Don't get me wrong, I always try to be highly energetic and motivating for others, but darn it, yes sometimes I wish that I was one of those people who could just lose the weight with minimal exercise and eating right.. But oh well. I am who I am. I need exercise and I WILL DO IT. Funny thing is -- I have 1.3 days to go Christmas shopping and most people at this point would go ahead and take a little break to get things done..but me ?? I will get the exercise done first, and then I'll run around town getting the gifts. The exercise is a priority - like brushing my teeth, bathing, eating. It just has to be done.

The time that I enjoy exercise the most??? -- When I'm leaving the gym! Its the best feeling

Alright.. well let me go and get dressed now. But I had to post this quickly but its funny as I pump those hours out in the gym, I think about my journal here at 3FC and just want to scream my head off and say - CAN SOMEONE FINISH THIS LAST FREAKIN 40 minutes FOR ME?

OK. I'm calm now.

Let's get 'er done!
=======================
Final Update:

Around 1 ate a gluten free wrap with the left over tuna and fat free cheese.

Gym - 1 hour elliptical & 1 hour treadmill

went shopping afterward until I got hungry. I came home and ate 3/4 cup oatmeal and cottage cheese for din din


So total eats for today.

Spinach Caserole this morning
Large Tuna wrap
Oatmeal & cottage cheese

[DEDIKAYTED]

Plan to get up tomorrow morning and get the last minute shopping done... Then meet my friend at the gym around 9. I would call it the last chance workout before Christmas, but if its up to me... uh... I will workout Christmas morning. My gym is 24/7 and I have access to get in even tho there will be no staff there..

Now, its about 11pm and I need to finish cleaning so I guess I will do that now!

[DEDIKAYTED]

FRIDAY - DEC 24th

Got up this morning and pumped out 60 minutes of cardio. I wanted to do more but a back spasm that I had from last night was still there. So elliptical, stretching, and done!

Shopping and more shopping. Back home by 12:00, then had my first meal ( I did have my coffee this morning though).



Meal 1 - coffee w/diet hot chocolate (my version of a mocha)

Meal 2 - oatmeal - 3/4 cup and approx 3/4 cup cottage cheese
**glass of blueberry wine with mom and sister

Meal 3 - spicy shrimp & 1 pc gluten free toast

Thats all for today. Just finished wrapping gifts and guess what ??? I'M SLEEPY!!! ME! On my own! I'm freaking sleepy... no melatonin pills either. Wow!




Merry Christmas

[DEDIKAYTED]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I WAS 2 OUNCES AWAY FROM MY CHRISTMAS GOAL OF 145.X. My scale flickered but the final weigh in was 146. I was ok with that.

Ok - Christmas recap.. Bust out my cardio in the gym yesterday morning. I was happy to be in there by myself. Had some bean "muffin" for breakfast and then "throw down" at my moms. Ate whatever I wanted. It was fine but still stomach so stuffed last night it could have burst. ---Yea -- calling the colon cleansers! hahahaha!

Anyway, trying to detox myself today. Getting the water in and retraining my taste buds to let go of the "rich" food taste. I'm craving it this mornng! Umm..mac and cheese... ?? Lord.

My man has 2 plates stashed in the fridge but I am REBUKING those damn things. I hear them calling my name. Stuffing and mac and cheese. Waah!

Anyway.. one day of splurging is ok --- more than 1? --NOT. Sorry. Its not worth undoing all my hard work this month. I enjoyed that pumpkin loaf las night & ice cream.. but no more. Sorry.

Back to my oatmeal, veggies, yogurt, and the usual. I wont weight for a while.. well at least until I feel "normal" meaning I have cleaned out my digestive system of all the garbage and I feel light again.

I was going to call today and official rest day but my man is supposed to be taking me to a running store today to get some new running shoes, so I may be itching to go workout by this evening. If so, I am totally OK with that I wouldn't mind busting out 60-90 minutes to just help the detox process along.

We'll see.

So far today I have had coffee w/diet hot chocolate and that's about it. Meals - I plan to keep them as light (calorie wise as possible...) this is what you must do after going buck wild with eating!!! haha! ....and the biggest thing -- DONT FALL PREY TO YOUR TASTE BUDS CRAVING MORE JUNK! ...HAHA. LIKE MINE ARE DOING RIGHT NOW!!

[DEDIKAYTED]

Ok. I just wanted to say that I am so glad that I wrote out that I was going to be right back on track... For some reason it made me feel alot better..like empowered that yesterday was ok - but its time to move on. I stopped obsessing about those plates in the fridge and immediately starting planning what I may eat today...



So.. moving on. In order to return to "normal" the fastest. I need to:

1) not eat many carbs/sugar today.
2) eat veggies
3) protein
4) drink plenty of water
5) keep sweet-tasting stuff to a minimum. (even if its artificial sweetner)

So----------- What do I have to eat? Well..... I have some tilapia and shrimp that I made the other day left over in the fridge. I wouldn't mind having that with steamed veggies or with a salad.

The name of the game is -- Get yourself re-grounded ASAP!
Have a plan!
Stick to it!

I know your house may have left overs.. and those cakes and cookies sceam so loud.... BUT its simply not worth it! You have to keep telling yourself this. I am definitely not going to intentionally create more hours tht I need to workout in the gym to get any holiday weight off.. No freakin way.

So -- allow a few days for your body to return to normal.
Sip that water all day long.
Definitely cut your food intake off early....Meaning - GO TO SLEEP A LITTLE HUNGRY. Not starving, but yes - a little hungry is ok.

This is how I will re-invoke the "weightloss mode" ......

TOUGH LOVE FOR MYSELF..

BUT WHEN I WENT OFF PLAN, I SIGNED THE CONTRACT THAT I WOULD DO WHAT I HAD TO DO TO GET RIGHT BACK ON....

DOING WHATEVER I HAVE TO DO!

ITS ON! STAY TUNED

[DEDIKAYTED]

The holiday is officially over.

100% back on plan and ready to roll! The rest of the holiday food should be officially out today! Hahaha. The green bean casserole was sure good. So was the apple sauce cake and butter pecan icecream.. But enough of that.

Who knows when the next splurge will come.. But I can definitely say it will probably be no time soon. New Years is usually not a big deal as far as meals are concerned so I am not worried about anymore cheat days.

Bought my gym clothes today for a really good cardio session this evening. I do plan to continue to keep my cardio high until the New Year and then I will decide what’s going to happen next. I do want to incorporate some circuit training into my program to switch things up a bit. So this will mean cardio mixed with low to moderate weight/high reps. I wanted to keep the cardio high at least until I either couldn’t take it anymore or until I at least was under 145.. Definitely til I am under 145. Like I said before, I will weigh again whenever I get the “small” feeling, but definitely not until I can feel my fat furnace burning strong. May be this weekend, but we’ll see.

I made some more chili yesterday. I am trying to come up with some more things for me to eat during this weightloss journey. Things that I WANT to eat that keep me full but not full of calories.. Although I love my spinach casserole, I know that I will need a break from that soon, so I have to think of something quickly. For now, its chili until I come up with something else.

Oatmeal, fruit, and yogurt will always stay in my menu. I will probably just need to devise a new casserole for me to eat. Most definitely I will figure out something!

I will update as I go later.

====================================
A.M – coffee w/ diet hot chocolate.

9:45 -
1/2 cup oatmeal w/ 1/2 cup cottage cheese
small peach

2:00 - salad w baked onion and champagne pear vinagrette *
small cup veggie chili

**Gym - 90 minutes cardio**

After the gym I went to get my nails and feet done.. Headache! I was starving by the time they got done. I had a low carb yogurt and a small peach in the car so I inhaled that on the way home. My head was hurting sooo bad by then. I came in, made 2 veggie-fake chicken patty thingies (by Quorn)...had 2 sammiches for dinner. Took some ibuprofen. They really need to make gluten free bread that is a little less in calories. 2 slices is 160 calories... Sheesh.. There is bread out here that is 35-45 calories a slice! But oh well. I try to keep my gluten to a minimum so it is what it is.


Hopefully I will wake up with no headache! If so, I think I will go to the gym in the morning to get it out of the way for a change. I am kind of sick of the evening thing.

[DEDIKAYTED]

I gotta see 145 soon. Now granted, I know I am dealing with the holiday splurge, so for me that’s probably at least 3 pounds.. So at my last weigh in I was 146… so let’s go with 148 now.. I need, need, need to see 145 really soon.

I got up this morning and went to the gym and worked out from 6-8. I’m not going to lie, I really have to push when I get to 50 minutes on one machine unless I am watching Law and Order or something.. That helps with the boredom somewhat. I really want to get under 145 soon. I was hoping I would see it before the New Year, but definitely would love to see it by Sunday.. What’s a girl to do? 2.5 pounds or so. My clothes are still fitting but I can still feel a little bloat on me, so I need to keep up the hard work and really push before I change up my program.

I was trying to get some more ideas of things that I could cook to keep me happy with my foods. I like the casserole thing because I can make huge amounts at one time, freeze, and then take it out/thaw as I go. It save me a lot of kitchen / cooking time and I love that.

So anyway – I was thinking last night, and what I’m going to do is – still use my spinach casserole, but I am going to use that as a base for stuffing tomatoes or bell peppers. I will throw some diced tomato / fat free cheese in the peppers and layer with my casserole and then bake. That will spruce my casserole up some and provide a change.

As you can probably see I am totally becoming somewhat of a vegetarian..and I am ok with that. I just have been eating what tastes good to me and it just so happens that I could care less if I eat meat. If I want some – so be it. I am not against eating animals or anything.. I just want to eat what I crave.. and for the most part – its not meat. I just try to make sure that I get my protein in (which I do with the cottage cheese especially) and I’m good. If I ever get the urge that I want to eat some meat – I am ok with that too.

Oh… I forgot to mention, I did have a tomato in the fridge so when I got home from the gym.. I gutted the tomato, threw in the spinach casserole with diced tomato/onion and fat free cheese.. Put under the broiler for a few minutes and then threw SPEED BAKE at 400 degrees on until I got dressed and was ready to go out the door. Stuffed tomato – done. I have some Light Sour cream at work – so I’m set for lunch. I also packed some fixings for a salad, along with my Champagne Pear Vinaigrette dressing (YUM! 45 calories for 2 tbsp)… So I’m good to go….

So back to my goal of seeing 145 soon.
1) Keep up the gym time.
2) No night time eating. A slight sense of hunger is what I am looking for.
3) Shake things up at the gym by maybe doing fasted cardio in the a.m (like this morning)
4) No more cheats/treats (that’s a given)
5) Stay satisfied but not stuffed with my food
6) Continue to track my calories in my head.
7) Keep the calories low.. in check.
8) Keep the fluid intake up.
9) Wine – occasionally. (I swear I think this helps with my fluid retention also)
10) Keep your eye on the prize, and NEVER stop pushing. 1 bite does hurt sometimes.

=========================================
So tracking things for today…

2 hours cardio (burned around 1000 cals)

Coffee w/sf creamer

Stuffed tomato.. 250 (I try to overestimate the cals. This was just hollow tomato with spinach/lil beans/fat free cheese)

chili w/ lite sour cream - 250

yogurt & 2 small peaches 170

Dinner (lil this, lil that) lol
1.5 wrap -195 calories
soy chix patty - 150
.25 cup oatmeal - 85
cottage cheese - 90
sour cream - 50
=================
So dinner was a little under 500 calories

====


That will be all for today. Gym in the morning
Let's keep it going!

OH!!! These rice flour tortillas are 130 cals and 2.5 grams of fat.. They crisp up so well in the pan, I can break em up like little fake doritos and scooop with a fresha salsa. Can you say low fat low cal chips? yaay!

I have been trying my best to be creative with the foods that I allow myself. I am always trying to think outside the box. That little chip treat is a great change.

ok. Well that will be all for now. No more eating tonight. Its 8:30 so if the munchies come along... oh well. Sleep it off. Gym will be from 7 - 9am.

[DEDIKAYTED]

Feeling kind of blue today. But I'm trying to snap the heck out of it immediately... TRYING


Gym this a.m -
1 hour elliptical
30 minutes treadmill
30 minutes bike

Feeling kind of bloated. I cant tell if its from the gluten or pms. I hope its not pms!!!! Anyway...

Logging my meals for the day now.


1.5 wraps w/ fresh salsa (cucumber, tomatoes, cilantro, onion) - 190
2 tb lite sour cream - 40 cals

6 oz yogurt - 90
apple -80

2 small peaches

2 packs of sugar free oatmeal - 200
1/2 cup cottage cheese - 90

spinach caserole - 400 (guess)

That should be all for the day. I will update if anything changes