January's results

Two weeks, no blog. Yep it's bad... I don't know why I don't blog when things get "bad" but I do. I know I need to be held accountable to those weeks, but honestly, I don't feel like doing all the number crunching to give you the actual weigh in numbers. Last week I was up 3.4 lb, this week up 1 lb. Total up 4.4 in 2 weeks. AGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!
Of course this coming week we have a birthday party (I will not eat cake, I will not eat cake, I will not eat cake) and Rob and I will be going out on Sunday night for our Anniversary. Needless to say, I am already worried and it's only Monday afternoon!!! I spoke with Jeannine (my WW leader) and asked her if it's cheating to weigh in on Sunday morning so I can enjoy dinner at Portland City Grill Sunday night. She said yes and that she absolved me of the shame I might feel by weighing in a day early. I love that woman! :) So I will be weighing in at (gasp) 7:30 AM Sunday. So 6 days to diet this week.

On a much more positive note, I did my measurements from the beginning of the year today. I was very happy to see I have lost inches, even though my progress the last 2 weeks has been slacking.
Neck- no change
Bicep (R) -.5" (L) -1"
Forearms (R) no change (L) no change
Bra Strap -2.5"
Chest +1"
Waist -2.5"
Hips +1"
Quad (R) -.35" WOW!!!
Calf (R) -.5"
Total inches lost in January 8.5"!!!  
Weight Lost in January 3.4 lb (eh).

So I will try and keep up the positive attitude and keep my mantra in my head: It's a journey not a race.

Muscle gain, yeah, that's it.

Today I weighed in and was up 1 lb (total loss 49.2lb). I am going to attribute it to muscle gain or water retention in the muscles! I was at the gym 3 times last week, doing week 2 of the C25K program, and at Aim High for 3 TKD classes; which I think is the main reason. My body is adjusting to the amount of exercise I am doing. I know it's not what's going in my mouth, since I tracked (really, I did) and was not crazy. I had 1 cheat meal on Saturday for Lucy's 3rd b-day, but that's it.
Here's how the week looked:
Mon: 2,351 cal / 61 P+
Tues: 1,683 cal/ 41 P+
Wed: 1,996 cal/ 44 P+
Thurs: 2,067 cal/ 48 P+
Fri: 1,611 cal/ 48 P+
Sat: 2,468 cal/ 70 P+
Sun: 2,131 cal/ 54P+
I earned 94 Activity Points per WW & burned 3,285 Calories per MFP in 310 minutes of activity!
So I guess the WW Points were high on some days, but that's where I used my weeklies and some activity points. That's what they are for. :)

Tomorrow I start week 3 of the C25K and I am a bit nervous since my knee and shin on my right leg are bothering me. But I think I am out of alignment so I am calling Hector and having an adjustment. Hopefully that will help. If you want to see how I am doing on that training, check the tab above. Thanks for the support! Hopefully next week my body will be adjusted to the new workout routine.

Ground Turkey Pasta Soup

Finished product, although this is with beef.

Ground Turkey Pasta Soup
Makes about 10 cups Serving size: 1 Cup Calories: 147 Fat: 5 Protein: 12 Carb: 14 Fiber: 2 Sodium: 470 Weight Watchers value: 4 pp

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Turkey (I used Shelton's Free Range)
32 oz (1 Qt) of Tomato Juice
32 oz (1 Qt Water) & 1 1/2 T of Better than Bullion Reduced Sodium Beef Base -OR- Fat Free, Low Sodium Beef Broth
4 stalks of Celery Sliced
3 Carrots Sliced
4 oz of small elbow pasta1/2 t Minced Garlic
1 t Minced Onion
1/2 t Johnny's Season Salt
1 Bay Leaf
1/4 t Black pepper

Brown the turkey in a stockpot, adding garlic, onion and season salt. Drain if you need to. Add celery and let cook with turkey for a few minutes to soften.

If you've never tried Better than Bouillon, it's worth it! Cheaper and easy to use!

Simmering on the stove.

Add the tomato Juice, water and bullion (or beef broth), black pepper and bay leaf. Let simmer until celery is a bit tender. Add carrots and simmer until tender.

I always weigh pasta. This is what 4 oz looks like (2 servings).

Add pasta and cook 8-10 until done but still firm. Cool in fridge and freeze or eat right away, add some shredded or grated Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Finished ground turkey pasta soup

A huge goal met!

50 lb lost charm from WW! Took 53 weeks!

Today I hit a major goal! I have lost 50.2 lb since Jan 2, 2011! I am thrilled! I know last week when I blogged about everything, I was going to hit it this week! And sure enough I lost 4.2 lb this weigh in!

This last week, I have really changed up my outlook on this "diet." I knew things needed to change, and so I changed them-for the better! I tracked all week! I didn't miss a single thing (ok, maybe gum, but dude, it's 5 Kcal). I actually double tracked: WW points plus and calories on Myfitnesspal.com. It was interesting to see. 
Mon: 2,060 cal / 49 P+
Tues: 1,949 cal/ 48 P+
Wed: 1,519 cal/ 38 P+
Thurs: 1,901 cal/ 44 P+
Fri: 1,849 cal/ 53 P+
Sat:1,948 cal/ 44 P+
Sun:1,537 cal/ 40 P+
I earned 66 Activity Points per WW & burned 3,378Calories per MFP in 265 minutes of activity!

I think this is good to see, to be able to reflect on the effects of training 6 of 7 days last week. This week I plan on adding weight lifting to the mix.
Mon, Wed, Sat: TKD
Mon & Wed: Weights
Tues, Thurs, Sun: C25k week 2

So there it is, hit 50 lb, feel great about last week's workouts, and how I ate. So hopefully I can continue this trend. New goal is 60 by the end of February.

The Bermuda Triangle!

Today at Weight Watchers we were introduced to the worst thing ever (in diet land), the Bermuda Triangle! It's not in the Caribbean either, it's the trifecta of Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas (Winter holidays). Yep, it's here, in Portland, Oregon! Who would have thought to look here. :) So after last weeks disastrous weight gain of 4.6 (thank you fat jeans & taco night on Sunday), this week was better with a loss of 2.0. So I still need to loose 2.6 to get back to my lowest of 40.8 lb lost. Can we say difficult with Halloween coming up next Monday?

This year instead of buying candy a week before the dreaded night, I haven't purchased a single piece. I am sure Rob is missing the opportunity of munch on the junk, and I know Chandler would be trying to sneak it, but oh well! After hearing ideas in our meeting today, I decided I will not buy anything until that afternoon-who cares if all the good stuff is gone?! I don't! But as I was stopping by McDonald's to grab a $1 Large Diet Coke, I saw that they have 12 coupons for $2 to give as treats! Perfect! Nothing to eat!!!! So I grabbed one of those. We had NO kids last year-which sucked-so I am not planning for a huge amount of kids.

The hard part will be not eating what the kids are bringing home that night!
MUST.NOT.TOUCH.ANY.CANDY!
So Weight Watchers, at least our location, is collecting it to send to the troops! How cool is that!? So the kids will get a small baggie, and the rest will be dropped off on Tuesday! Done and gone! :)

This weekend I will be heading to Cannon Beach & Rockaway Beach for the Singing Christmas Tree Retreat! I am very excited to have 2 nights away with just mom and myself. There will be a lot of singing and work to do, but it will be so nice. I am hoping to have some time to do some walking around Cannon Beach, getting in some needed exercise. I am hoping to be able to keep on plan while I am away for the weekend, and keep myself in check. I probably should stay away from Mo's clam chowder! But I'm a sucker for that yummy warm goodness. Moderation!

Goals:
TRACK!
No touching candy!
Walk around the beach while at the retreat
Stay on plan
Map out the week's menu

A goal hit!

A while ago, I made a goal to hit 40 lb. If I hadn't been a slacker in August, I would have hit it in September, but alas, I was. So I hit it today! I am down 40.8 lb since Jan 2! Sweet! I lost 3.4 lb this last week, which was great. I know I haven't really posted much, but I am working on it.

This week, Chandler & I will belt test in Taekwondo. I am hoping to try for a double belt promotion, but only if Chandler will be able to do the same. He's confident he's ready to try, so I let him lead (as well as Master Null). We just need to practice our Korean terminology and Q&A portion of the test. I had a goal (in addition to) to be able to Ax Kick at my head level by this week. I accomplished that goal two weeks ago! Who would have known a 290.4 lb woman could do that! I did! :)

I have been also working on eating more homemade food, less junk. I think I have been doing pretty good with that. A lot of soup and sandwiches for lunch. I will try and put some recipes up this week. I tried a Pasta Fegioli soup from Skinnytaste that was great! And I made some PB Banana Muffins that were good too-needed some mini chocolate chips, though.

Team Warriors 4 Alex, 2011

 The Brown family also participated in the Light the Night walk on Oct. 1. It was a great moment for the Warriors 4 Alex, even though Alex was still at the hospital recovering from his Bone Marrow Transplant.  We had over 60 Warriors walk with us and it was a very moving evening, even with a little bit of a sprinkle. So far our team has raised over $9,300! We have two more fundraisers coming up, Dutch Bros Beaverton on Monday Oct 24, and Zumba at Hardcore Training Studio on Nov 5! If you can come, check out our facebook page www.facebook.com/warriors4alex.

.

The Browns

In the mean time, check out the pages below! More progress and notes!

Progress page
Taekwondo Diary

On track!

The last couple weeks have been tough to get back on track. But I did! Last week (post Labor Day) I was really ready to get back on track, and go figure I did! I was down 3.8 lb! So almost all the damage I did for the [whole] month of August was undone last week. I am now 1 lb up from my lowest point. So as of this week, I am down 36.0 lb total. I am still using my body bugg, but frankly their interface for entering food SUCKS! So I am now using My Fitness Pal for tracking and I am much happier. And the app for Android seems to be awesome! Woot!


As far as a brief update on the Taekwondo exercise! This is awesome! I am loving it. I cannot.get.enough! I am a yellow w/ green stripe belt. I plan on testing for my green belt in about a month, along with Chandler. We will also be going to Sisters, forr for a tournament! I think Chandler and I will both be competing in Forms, most likely doing Taeguek 3, Sam Jang. And I might compete in board breaking. We'll see about the latter. :)

Over the course of the summer though I have been doing some recipe exploring and plan on sharing with you soon! Until then, cheers!

Recommitting!

This summer has been tough on the diet, I've maintained (within 2 lb) of where I was down the most (37 lb). But I need to get back on the bandwagon. Summer break is (essentially) over and it's time to get my head into the game.

Today I went into Weight Watchers and weighed in, surprisingly I was down .2 lb. One thing I am proud to say, even though I knew the scale wouldn't be happy, I still went to my weigh in. Period, no cheating! I would tell myself, that I need to know the number and it was my own doing. Today I even mentioned that to the person who was weighing me in, and she said that was 1/2 the battle. Woo!

Today my leader, Jeannine, spoke about getting un-stuck! Talk about a perfect meeting for me. Why, Melissa, are you not loosing, you might ask? Well, I am not tracking, working out as much as I should, eating crap food that I shouldn't be eating, not measuring my portions, and not tracking! Oh wait I said that already, well, it's that damn important, so I hear.

Today I tracked all that I ate (Calorie wise). I should enter it into WW and see what the points come in at, just for shits and giggles. I'd be curious. I also did my exercise, 45 minutes of Taekwondo and 27 minutes of Walking (at home with Leslie). So I can check off the 2 goals I had for today.
Today's Calorie intake: 1829 (goal 1800)
Fat: 38 g
Protein: 115 g
Carbs: 232 g
Fiber: 19 g

Weight Watchers info:
 Daily Pts+: 45 allowed
Weekly Pts+: 45 (43 left)
Pts+ used: 47 (2 WPs used)
Activity Points earned: 12


Don't be surprised, if I blog every day this week, just to get back on track. Track(ing) right, must track! LOL. Until next time (and maybe I'll share some Taekwondo and biking goodies),

10%, woo!

Jeannine and I with my 10% ring!

Today was a great day, and it's only noon! On Friday I did my weigh in at Weight Watchers to find out that I had already hit 10%, loosing 3.8 lb since Monday. So today when I went in, I was hoping last night's dinner at John's didn't kill that 3.8 lb that I had already lost. It didn't! Today I was down 5.2 lb, for a total loss of 34.6 lb!

A few things helped in getting me to this point this week. I didn't step on the scale at home. I only stepped on the WW scale and my doctor's scale last week. I counted and tracked! I made wise choices, salad with chicken instead of pasta at Ernesto's, and at John's, I went with salad first then had the pizza... Filled up on the healthy, before the "junk." And I used Sharon's advice, trying Walk of the Pounds DVD. I did it 4 times last week, and man was covered in sweat. In 15 minutes, I burned 300 calories, just walking in place (some sideways, forward & backwards included)! I was sold. So I moved! Plus I didn't sit on my butt as much! I was busy doing things, gearing up for Linc's birthday party on Sunday (gasp).

Bodybugg Stats:
Calories burned: 3314
Calorie Consumed: 1870
Calorie Deficit: 1444
Activity time: 1 hr 7 min
Steps taken: 6861
Hours slept: 7 hrs 39 minutes

Not too bad! Goal for this coming week, continue with the Walk off the Pounds DVDs, track, and try one new recipe (Skinnytaste.com has some that I am going to try), and be good on Linc's birthday!

Here's a picture of Jean

Have a great week! Much love,

Ugh...This sucks!

Today was weigh in day, and I should have stayed home... I thought I was doing well, I wasn't sitting on my ass like I tend to, I walked 3.5 miles wednesday, cleaned the heck out of the garage on Thursday, but I guess I just wasn't active enough. I even tracked! And I am up 1.8 this week. I am devistated about it. Really feel like I am hitting a wall.

Yesterday I think I finally figured out what the hell my deal is. I am scared. The things on my mind:

• Fear of loosing so much weight and looking like a saggy piece of shit.
• Fear of loosing the layers that have protected me (all mental). 
• Fear of not being happy when it's gone.
• Cannot get to the gym like I'd like to. 
• Chandler getting out of school and messing up the routine I am in. 
• Lincoln needing to learn to potty train so he can go to school next year and thus give me 2 hrs alone twice a week.

And I think the first thing that is blocking me (mentally) is getting into the 200's. I mean that's a HUGE step! To step on the scale and see 299... And then to hit 298 and be at 10%. I think I have been mentally sabotaging myself because I am nervous about hitting that step. I mean really 30 lb is awesome and all, but the first real hurdle was getting to the 200's. And now that I am knocking on the door, I can't fucking get through the door.


I am so frustrated!!!! I just want to do this. I HAVE to do this, not only for myself, but for my family! And I feel like I am letting them down. I know the kids have *no* clue what I am doing and why (although Chandler created a recipe for a Banana Split shake and it was "only 14 calories, Mom!"-Honey, I wish). But I just need to figure this out. I am tempted to call my old therapist and ask for help. I know a lot of this is self esteem related and fear. I am ready to loose it, and I can't let my head screw it up.

So this week, I am only going to step on the scale at WW (Today & Friday). Not doing it at home! My goal is to track (I did ok last week-5 days), and to loose .5 lb. That's what my leader suggested at my meeting today. Don't get hung up on the numbers. So there it is. Thanks for reading this week's novel. I will reward you with a recipe in a couple minutes. It was dinner tonight, and yummy. Thanks for the support. Much love,

Busted?!

I hit WW this morning to do a mid week weigh in... Good news, down 1.8 so far this week! Woot!!!

So that was great! Yesterday I walked my own 5K! I had driven the route to see if it would work, milage wise, and it did!! So I loaded Lincoln into the jogger and we walked Chandler to the bus stop. Once he was on his merry way to school, Lincoln and I were off on our 3.1 mile walk. I was very happy, and I am sore today. The hamstrings are a bit tight, as are my calves. No worries. I'll be back to normal in no time. But I was very proud of my acomplishment. I had a goal to do a 5K by May 21st, and I did it! Even if it wasn't an "official" 5K that you have to pay $20-50 to do, it still counts in my book. Now to keep it up!

Then today I was reading a friend's blog, looking for something to cook for dinner, and I found this funny flow chart on how to find food:

Here's the orignal source of the photo: Funny Flow Chart and here is her blog Cooking Claire
Check out her blog it's got some great recipes. I will be adding it to the blog roll soon! :)

I hope on Monday the weigh in goes well, and I can mark this plateau as BUSTED! Have a great weekend. Hope you get to enjoy the sun!

It's a beautiful day!

Cue the U2 song, as I sit outside on the patio, watching the boys play, while I wear my sunglasses! Ah, spring has finally shown up here in Portland! Whew, and not a moment too soon!!!! This week's weigh was a good one, still a bit surprising, but not really. I was down 3.4 this week. I was pretty impressed with myself for having 2 big weeks in a row (see progress page to the right for week recaps). But I will never complain about a loss! I have learned that lesson.

I wasn't nearly as good this week tracking or even making it to the gym, but did up my water intake, and I believe that's been a new key to this loosing thing! Gotta flush it out! :)

Today I went shopping with mom, Michelle, and the boys for new clothes. I was so proud to say, I am now a 22! I have new pants, shorts and skirt, in addition to some tops. Pics to come as I wear them. I do have one outfit that is begging for a trip to the Keller for Riverdance in a few weeks. But it might show up for the Singing Christmas Tree Auction next week. I feel very blessed. And even more committed to this journey. Thanks for the support!

Facing the music Monday...and it's beautiful!

Last week's weigh in on Monday was not good (up 2.4), but I knew it when I walked into WW that morning. Last week was a difficult week since I lost my laptop (hard drive on Sunday and motherboard on Wednesday), and anyone who knows me, knows that is a very difficult thing to loose!!!! Talk about stress! Thank goodness we have the Geeks (Geeksaknockin) who took care of my hard drive, and Costco for having a 2 year warranty!!! As of this morning it's now fixed, but I am now recovering my data (thank you Carbonite), which will take some time.

But to the weigh in, itself! I went in on Friday (Good Friday to be exact) and jumped on the scale. I was down! I was down 2.6! Woo! Now I knew I had worked out hard, cardio and lifting on my own. It's been hard to make it to group exercise classes as of late, so I am developing my own system using the stuff I learned in Bodypump! Looks like it's working. I made it to the gym 3 times, one of them being Sunday morning before Easter service. I wanted to make sure I was good, and had a good calorie burn since it was not only Easter but my 33rd birthday!

I was good, I didn't measure, but I made good choices. I picked turkey over prime rib, 1/2 of a baked potato, more green beans, less creamed corn (OMG, that was to die for since it was homemade). The birthday cake was homemade too, and it was delish! Ok, I know you all want to know the bottom line!

And that is, I am down 5.4 in 1 week! Holy moly! What a great birthday present! Total loss is 24.

Here is a photo from Saturday night, when we went and saw the 10 Grands concert (Mom and I). Needless to say I was thrilled! And I also did my inches, and I'm down 7" at least since February!

Thanks for all the support! Here's to being down at least 25 next week!


Bodybugg data for the last week:
Calories burned (2800 goal): 3071 Average
Calories consumed (1800 goal): 1754 Average
Calorie deficit (1000 goal): 1317 Average
Physical Activity(45 min goal): 41 min Average
Steps (8000 goal): 5148 Average
BMI: 50

Facing the music Monday

After so many weeks on Plan, I fell off the wagon. But as someone put it on 3fatchicks.com, I put a foot down. Now I need to pull it back up.
Today I wighed in and was up 2.4. This is my second time I've had a gain. I know that I am lucky, but it is NOT cool.

So I am going to go and get back on track; hitting the gym (which I haven't done in over a week) and tracking. I need to sync my bodybugg which will be a bit hard since my laptop has become a brick. Once it is fixed I will see how my burn has been-I am sure it sucked. Honesty, right? Thanks for the support and reading. :-)

Weigh in Monday

Today I was dreading the weigh in... Honestly I hadn't been too good (or on plan) the last week. But I pay for WW for a reason, to hold me accountable! So I reminded my self that gains are normal and to be expected in the course of a long journey.
So when I weighed in this morning, I was prepping for the worst! But I didn't have to prep myself at all! Some how in the last week that included more birthday cake and pizza (3 times-yikes), I lost 1.8! Which brings me to my newest star, 20 lb lost! Holy cow!

Needless to say I was very excited, but very cautious. After a big loss last week, I was not expecting a big loss this week.

This week in our meeting we spoke about the upcoming Weight Watchers Walk-It Challenge, coming up in 6 weeks on May 22nd. It will be a 5k walk. I cannot remember when I voluntarily walked 5k (I mean we did the Light the Night walk in October, but it was more like a stroll). So in 6 weeks I will be doing my first 5k (walk, maybe a run in a year). I am going to be asking (read: begging) friends to come along with me. So if you are interested, let me know!!! You don't have to be doing WW to come along. It will be in Beaverton, near Cedar Hills Crossing.

So the stats for the last week off the Bodybugg:
Avg. calories burned: 3126 (2800 goal)
Avg. calories consumed: 1693 (1800 goal)
Avg. calorie deficit: 1433 (1000 goal)
Avg. physical Activity: 36 min (45 min goal)
Avg. steps: 4604 (8000 goal) Need to bump this up for the walk!
BMI: 50.1 (started at 53.5)

I've been using the BB for 4.5 weeks now, and my goal was 2.0 lb loss (maintaining the 1000 calorie deficit). I can say I've been loosing on average 2.0 a week! Woo! Hopefully I can keep that up for the next 6 weeks. If I do, I'll hit my 10% goal on the weigh in post 5k!

Weigh in Monday!

I feel like I did good this week, considering it was Chandler's big birthday weekend (yes, they tend to last more than one day). I did my mid week weigh in and was down unofficially 2.8 as of Friday. The official weigh in is today, and that number is.... Loss of 3.4!!!!! Which means total weight loss of 19 lb, which means 5% lost! Can I get a woot woot?

I am still shocked how awesome I did for Chandler's birthday! But I need to step it up even more! I would love to get a trainer just to push myself a bit more... But they are way to expensive. Maybe that would be a good b-day present! ;-) I have a goal of 20 lb down by Easter/33rd Birthday (April 24) and I think I will hit that next week, 3 weeks early!

Bodybugg output for the week March 21-27:
Calories Burned: Average 3129 (Goal 2800)
Calories Consumed: Average 1920 (Goal 1800)
Meals logged: 5.1 a day
Calorie Balance: Average 1209 (goal 1000, to equal 2 lb loss)
Physical Activity: Average 37 minutes (Goal 45 minutes)
Steps: Average 4465 (Goal 8000)
Sleep Duration: 5hr 11min (Goal 8 hrs-can you tell 1: I have kids & 2: it was spring break? LOL)

I think the bodybugg is really helping me hit my weigh in goals! I plan on doing another mid week weigh in this week, but I don't expect a big number since I had such a big one this week. But I'd be happy with 1.5 lb next week! Until then, have a great week!

A great surprise!

Besides today being Chandler's 6th birthday, I had a great surprise! I decided to go weigh in mid week (today) to see how I was doing before the cake tomorrow for his party. So I went in, actually say my leader, and jumped (figuratively of course) on the scale. Boy was I shocked when it showed me DOWN 2.8 since Monday!

Just to show how shocked I was, last night I was *bad* and had a whole CPK BBQ Chicken pizza. Yeah, 1100 calories, bad! And I was still down.

So today, Chandler has requested, for dinner, steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots. But we cannot forget the cake! So I am going to be doing a diet chocolate cake made with diet soda!

I'll be posting about it as well as the apple bread this afternoon. I need to get work done first, and work out. I really want to maintain that 2.8 for Monday's official weigh in!

Weigh in Day (a day late)!

This is the first post in what will be a few this week (most having to do with crafting or Chandler's birthday or both). :)

Yesterday I did my Monday weigh in, and I was down .8 lb! Woo. I was very happy with that. I officially hit 15 lb down, so here's my awesome new star!

I was having issues with my hip, and so I had that adjusted today, go figure, my pelvis was rotated and some bone in my butt was out of whack. So now my hip shouldn't bother me when I do the elliptical! That will be great.Hector was thrilled with my weight loss, and he even could tell I was toning up (under the jiggly tummy)! Makes me happy since I can't tell, LOL.

Anyway, back to this weeks weigh in: I missed tracking for 2.5 days, so I know that was part of the "low" number. But I spoke to my leader and asked if I could weigh in on Thursday or Friday in prep for my Chandler's 6th (gasp) b-day party on Saturday.

I am going to attempt to do the cauliflower mashed potatoes this week. And I have a stack of recipes that I'd like to try. I am going to make a soda cake (well cupcakes), which should make cake a bit easier to swallow (calorie and points+ wise). Also next week I am going to try Jicama, at the suggestion of a woman in my meeting. Little steps. Until next time (which won't be long)!
Mel

Weigh in Monday!

Today's weight in was a bit of a surprise. I was bad over the weekend, and was dreading Monday morning. But I went, needing to be accountable for my actions, no matter how bad they could have been. This week I was down 1.8; total loss of 14.8! I am .2 from the 15 lb mark and 2.4 from my 5% goal!

So this was a good morning! Plus I didn't have to bring Lincoln with me, which was a HUGE bonus. Next week is spring break, Chandler will be coming along, which is fun since I know there is another woman who has kids the same age as mine, and they'll be there! :)

I need to work on getting into the gym more, I was only in twice last week, and that's not ok. Plus I was really bad about tracking my food. I know in my head I was close to the 1800 calories I aim for, but I know I blew it when I caved and hit Sonic with the family. So other goal is to get better at tracking the food. I am still wearing the Bodybugg so there isn't a reason NOT to track.

Also a goal is to try 2 new things this week.

I'll be posting later this week about Chandler's room renovation. It's been a fun project. Oh and speaking about project, I have a new crochet project to post on! It's been a fun project too.

Weekly weigh in!

After some thought and determination, I decided I needed to do some adjustments. I got my Bodybugg out and started using it to see how many calories I am actually burning. I love WW, but I am thinking that it's a great guideline, but not "fast enough" for my taste. I'd like to loose 2-3 lb a week, not their recommended 1-2 lb a week. Sorry, but when you have this much to loose, 1 lb a week is 52 lb a year... Much better. Does that mean I am going to hit 2-3 every week, NO (look below)! But I can work toward that goal and feel like I am doing a bit better. I am going to keep going to meetings, since I get a lot out of the meetings right now. It's nice to have the "official weigh in day/time" that's not at home. :)

Now I am going to start posting my weekly calorie burn and intake instead of points. It's a much better gauge to see how many lbs I should be loosing. Math Alert: For every lb of fat it takes 3,500 calories to burn. So if you are in a 3,500 calorie deficit (500 a day), you should loose 1 lb. For me, my goal is to be in a 1,000-1,500 calorie deficit a day. I am eating about 1,800 calories, so I need to burn 2,800-3,300 a day. I didn't enter points this week, but I logged all my food in the Body Media site, so I will be going back to see how many points I did eat. And since I didn't really start this until Tuesday afternoon, I think some of my data below could be skewed a bit. But it's worth looking at. :)

Week of: March 1 (Tues)-March 6 (Sun)
Calories Burned (Avg): 3778
Calories Consumed (Avg): 1908
Calorie Balance (Avg): -1870 a day (woo!)
Physical Activity (Avg): 1 hr 6 min
Steps (Avg): 7504

Weight Lost: 1.6 lb
Total Lost: 13.0 lb

Conclusion for the week: Keep it up! 1.6 is great, it's a loss! Goal is to get back into the gym. I burn a lot more calories doing the elliptical than lifting weights, but I love both. Going to hit Zumba tomorrow to see what kind of burn Gina can give me!