I had my first official weigh in at curves yesterday....my starting weight was 271 pounds and my current weight is 267 pounds. I lost 4 pounds, 5 inches, and 3.25 pounds of body fat. My total percent of weight loss is 1.48% (calculate your percentage here.) Its a start. I'm still working on curbing those cravings for fast food and soda. I am proud to say I have not had a soda in 2 days, I'm working on drinking more water - it is the stuff of life - it can have so many affects on your body if you don't have enough. So stop reading right now and go get a glass of water - finish it before you come back. Go on!!
One of my good friends from Pathways is also embarking on a weight loss journey and blogging about it (you can find it here) in his first post he makes a good point about the cost of food and weight loss and the ease of it (its why its so easy to turn to fast food in a pinch. I mean come on, the dollar menu - every fast food place has one - Wendy's McDonald's, Burger King, Sonic, Jack in the Box...and with combo meals, its even harder NOT to avoid them. I used to eat junk food 24/8 (EVERY time I saw one I would stop - well, ok not quite, but just about) I ate it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack (which would end up being more like second dinner). Any food that was 'free' (meaning I didn't have to pay for it) I would gorge myself on - seconds, thirds, sneaking when people weren't looking, it was almost a challenge to see how fast I could scarf something down without anyone noticing and go back for more and more until I was absolutely stuffed. Then somehow an hour later I would be hungry again. I didn't understand it until I started taking a SERIOUS look at the quality of the food I was eating. (I think this was after watching the season 7 finale of biggest loser - first time to watch the show all the way through -- I picked up the show towards the end of season 6) What nutrients did this provide? How much am I really eating? How many calories? What is actually in this (half the stuff I couldn't even pronounce - partially hydrogenated....what does that even mean? see here for a definition/ description ) I was shocked. Then I started think about what my body needs to function - water for organ, blood, kidney and who knows what else, fiber to keep you full, protein to help build muscles, calcium for bones, then I started wondering how the body worked, like what things made it run, what things were essential for prime function and started consuming those things. At the beginning of this year I vowed to eat better and exercise - I started the flat belly diet and didn't even make it a week - not for lack of trying, but for lack of comfort. There was absolutely ZERO fiber in anything I ate which left me a little, umm...backed up for a week. You can imagine the discomfort. So I started to wonder about the rest of the diet I looked in the cook book, about 5 recipes had more than 5 grams of fiber (recommended daily intake is about 25g). Fiber helps you feel fuller longer. I think I could become best friends with fiber so I started looking for those things with more fiber. Then I got on this kick for less salt ( I won't say I'm a convert just yet, but Ms. Dash does go nicely with some food). I've become EXTREMELY interested in the amount of sodium I consume - it adds up to water weight gain. And weight gained is well, not where I want to be. I've read articles, I have um...18 tabs pulled up for weight loss tips, exercises to work on trouble spots and build more strength in upper body and legs (my worst spots by far) I read books (as mentioned in a previous post) and I have started to realize that while all those cooking shows may seem glamorous (or maybe that's just me) the fat content and calories may not be the best. I watched part of Tyler Florence today. I could barely stand it. My mouth was watering, I could almost taste what he was making. After my little experiment with my fast food bill counting, I realized that with as much as I spend on fast food PER month I could spend just as much (if not less) on getting good for me foods with better nutrients. As anyone will tell you after they've 'gone over' you really can tell a difference when you start to eat better. If I had not eaten out so much I could have paid more down on my debt (which sad to say is mostly fast food on them....so I'm paying off a meal that I consumed about 4 years ago - one reason why I'm DONE with credit).
So I'm challenging you this week - examine where your money is REALLY going - count your calories or at least start keeping track of EVERY thing you put in your body whether it be food or drink - use household objects as measurments - for example just now I had one Eskimo Joes cup of water (for you non-Okies, it's 16oz). I had one cereal bowl of cereal this morning and for lunch 3 mini- burritos approximately the size of an iPhone. This gives you a starting ground to see how much you're really eating. I challenge you to do the following eating method after detailing your food and beverage intake for one week...for each time you take a bite, put down your fork and chew your food 20 times (it was featured on Ruby - can't remember what its called). I did it and have tried to do it for the past several meals - you get fuller a LOT faster. For those junk-food junkies like myself, when you just can't seem to get enough, it really makes you focus on how much you are eating, the flavors and textures (the first week I did my food journal I went as far as to detail all the different flavors and textures: spicy, creamy, salty, chewy, soft, crunchy - if you REALLY want to get into it - do it -I think you'll like what you find - you find that a bacon cheeseburger doesn't taste NEARLY as good when you savor it as opposed to when you just wolf it down.) This changed my eating forever. Once I started actually TASTING what I was eating, I began to realize I didn't like what I was eating and I didn't like the way it made me feel afterwards.
Buy an inexpensive small notebook and keep it wherever you go- you'll see where your weaknesses are - we'll talk about that later :)
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