brighteyes777's Journal

Member's Journal

Wondering about my weight lossâ€¦
Sep 28 2007 08:28

Typically I don?t put in my new weight until the scale has stayed steady for a few days to a week?on September 20th I reported being down another three pounds?so the loss was actually from a few days prior. After that the scale just seemed to float around within a pound, of the same weight, once I looked it up in my paper journal yesterday I realized I?d been at about the same weight for almost two weeks. Yes it caused me a little frown and inspired a question in the forum. I wasn?t overly excited, mind you. Just wondering what was going on.

Now this morning I hop on the scale at it says 251?making me four pounds lighter since yesterday morning?s weigh in. This isn?t the first time this has happened, I tend to lose it like that. I just don?t understand why, is it water retention? Do I need to drink more water? I?ve been getting 6-8 glasses a day. Again not worked up about it, just kinda wondering.

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This Weeks Goals& Last Weeks Details
Sep 24 2007 08:30

Last weeks daily calorie average was 1606 calories a day. My goal is 1650-1800 so I was almost right on the money. My weekend was a bit on the high side but they were all healthy calories so I?m very satisfied that I met my overall goals last week. This marks the beginning of my 12th week counting calories. My weight loss averages about 2 lbs a week...25 pounds in total...not bad if I do say so myself ~Smiles~ if the trend holds maybe I?ll see 230 by the end of December, though my goal is only 243?mainly because I keep expecting the loss to slow a bit. If it doesn?t great, but if it does then I won?t be disappointed.

This weeks goals

1. Drink at the very least six eight ounce glasses of water a day.

2. Be more active than I was last week.

3. Stay between 1650-1800 calories daily

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The after effects of yesterday....
Sep 21 2007 09:28

Okay, my calories were wayyy too low yesterday 1030 and NO that?s not my norm AT ALL. I actually shoot for somewhere between 1650-1800, last weeks average was 1834 calories a day and the week before that was 1662 calories a day?but I was pretty stressed yesterday so for me that means I was cleaning like a mad woman. This sounds odd I know, but when I?m stressed I clean?and I tend to forget about eating when I?m busy AND stressed.

I?m a social eater, and a restaurant aficionado, so rarely do I have problems eating healthy when I?m at home but I usually get enough? Also at the end of the day I realized I?d only drank ONE 16.9 ounce bottle of water?I try to get at LEAST four of those a day normally :(

I?ve always had a very erratic eating schedule and it seems when things are off I fall right back into it! I have a long running habit of going all day without eating a thing, and then eating whatever all evening long. The plus with eating healthy is when this happens my nighttime eating doesn?t hit me that hard calorie-wise?. now when it happens these tend to be my low days.

Yesterdays food

One Orange 60 Calories

One large bowel of chicken noodle soup (low sodium) 200 Calories

Broccoli& Cheese 150 calories

3 oz roasted potatoes 80 Calories?

5 ounces of cooked mushrooms 40 Calories

3 oz lean beef 240 calories

1-bowl grapes 100 Calories

One-peppermint patty 160 calories (I know, not he best choice but I didn?t have almonds and it was bedtime so I was trying to up my calories )

Upon looking at this, I realize I probably didn?t get enough calcium yesterday and my carbs were most likely too low even with the fruits and veggies. I also seriously doubt I hit my fiber goal of 20 grams.

I WILL do better today.

Going to make breakfast now.

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On a happy note...
Sep 20 2007 13:19

I weigh 255 as of today, so down another 3 pounds---25 pounds in total!

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I have no idea what is wrong with the world today!
Sep 20 2007 11:27

Our car stereo was stolen last night, and we live in a nice little country area?so I?m still flabbergasted that it happened. We?ve lived here for ten years, nobody locks their cars, it?s just that kind of community and this morning my husband goes out to head into work and someone had ripped the stereo right out of the dashboard.

They also took three cases full of CD?s and now I?m stressing because I?m a writer (as in books and short stories some poetry) and I have no idea if I had any backup CD?s in those cases. I still have everything on my computer---I didn?t lose anything----and all my work is © but the idea that someone might have any of my work?is reading it uninvited is as bad as someone reading my personal diaries.

The thing is I always keep a backup copy in the car just in case, I?m paranoid about losing any of my work?even the stuff I never intend to try and publish?so I keep a backup out there as a ?Just in case? thing?I mean if the house ever burns down (god forbid) I wouldn?t lose all that hard work?.and this happens! I don?t even know if there was one, the one in the glove box was still there---but I have had some (in the past) in my CD cases---and if there was one it had to be from a couple years ago but still it?s put me in a foul mood this morning.

I?m angry and frustrated! I could care less about the CD player, but my work---all I can do is HOPE that I didn?t have a stray backup disk in one of those cases :( and if I did they?ll just pitch it when it doesn?t play in the stereo?the thing is I always write the words ? Writing Back Up and the date??so someone might think to stick it in a computer.

**Bangs Head against wall**

This has NOT been my week *sobs*

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Whatâ€™s going on with me this weekâ€¦
Sep 07 2007 13:01

I tried to write but apparently the muse is not on my side today. I think the three-month stall might have impaired my creativity more than I thought. One thing I?ve found is that I can?t force out the words, no matter how hard I try.

So I think I?m going to take a week off, enjoy the silence around here and then I?ll try and go back to work. It?s weird, I always feel so guilty about doing nothing?and the only person I have to answer to is myself?I guess that makes me an intimidating boss lol.

All in all I think it?s the stress, the girls first couple of weeks at school have been filled with step infections, discussions of class rings and home coming dresses?and transportation for the boyfriend since neither of them are old enough to drive yet, supplies for an advanced math class including a 119$ calculator (the rewards of having a smart kid ~smiles~) ---to top it all off I?ve had a cold and it?s affected my asthma so I can?t walk, or mow the yard as I?d like to.

With luck next week will be better. On the up side, I?m down to 258?so despite the cold and the lack of activity I?ve lost two more pounds.

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A Little About Me...
Sep 07 2007 09:22

I posted this to the forum, but I?m gonna add it here because it says a lot about me.

I grew up in a southern household, and not a healthy one. Huge meals, corn bread, bacon as seasoning in EVERYTHING, heavy on the fat?my parents actually cooked with ?lard? and fried things in bacon grease until I was eight years old and then they switched to Crisco lol!

So basically I grew up not knowing how to cook healthy food. This was later reinforced when my mom went to work and started stocking our house with boxed foods and TV dinners?and the sheer amount of sugared soda pop available in our house on a daily basis would astound you! Their were literally cases of the stuff stacked in a corner. I didn?t know what it was to drink a glass of water until I married my husband.

Strangely enough I was a slender kid, and a slender young woman?I just don?t think I was very healthy. Then I got pregnant?.OMG! I went from 130 pounds to 220 in a nine month period. That was almost the weight of another whole person! I was sooo shocked after I had my daughter?I guess I was hoping she was a 90 pound baby lol! After that I just never changed what I was doing. Bounced around in the 220?s until after my second daughter was born, but I didn?t gain weight with her, so I was pretty dang proud of myself.

The truth is the more well off we became (The more money me and my husband made) the heavier we both got. I kinda attribute this to our love of traveling and restaurants?.and basically the more money we made, the more of this we did.

So over the next few years I steadily put on another 40 pounds or so(I?m guessing at the rate because I didn?t own a scale at the time)?. It was slowly though, not a lot at a time.

Like I said I didn?t own a scale; I didn?t see my doctor yearly, so over all it was pretty easy to ignore. Up until I was hospitalized with the flu a few years ago. Honestly had no idea I was that heavy! Went on a diet lost about 30 pounds?had a doctor put me on meds for PMS?gained that 30 back along with an extra 20?went off the meds but gave up trying to lose till about two months ago.

What changed?

Humm, no big epiphany?I just woke up one morning and thought?who am I kidding?no member of my childhood family lived past 60?My dad died of a heart attack when I was only 16 years old (He was 56) , my mom complications with diabetes when she was 47, my aunt of the same thing at the age of 54 and my grandfather at the age of 60 (also diabetes)?.In short I wanta be around long enough to enjoy being a grandmother, my mom never really got the chance, my oldest daughter was only four when she passed away...my other 7months, neither really remembers her and for me thats a very sad thing. Also I wanta teach my kids about better eating before it?s too latefor them.

Both my daughters are slightly over weight, and I just don?t wanta shave years of their lives because of repeating my parent?s mistakes.

What have I done to change this?

I?m filling a fruit basket every week, I?m only buying whole grain high fiber cereal and bread, I?ve stopped buying the highly sugared snacks, diet soda is all that is available in our house and they have a 1-can limit a day. We buy bottled water by the cases :) I keep cut veggies in the frig for snacks, we?ve switched to 1% milk, low fat cheese, non fat salad dressings, replaced the ice cream with 40 calorie fudge pops and sugar free banana Popsicles. Switched to turkey bacon. We now have baked everything, I fry food rarely and when I do it is in a good non-stick pan with cooking spray or very little oil.

I use light margarine, no sugar added jam, cut up fruit to go with dinner, make extra veggies?I?ve cut the calories in a lot of my recipes by tweaking the way they are prepared. I buy sugar-free pudding and 60-calorie yogurts to keep on hand---100 calorie packs. When I do buy chips, I get baked and I measure out the servings into zip lock bags. I buy dill pickles instead of sweet. I?ve cut back on how much meat I fix. I keep hard boiled eggs in the frig, cans of water packed tuna, veggies, fruits (in their own juice) in the pantry, I make cool-aid with Splenda when I make it---again my kids have a limit.

I?m the one trying to lose weight, but as a side effect of these changes my husband has lost 10 pounds, my oldest daughter 6 pounds and my youngest has lost 5 pounds by doing nothing except eat the food that is now available to them?My youngest likes to walk with me?but my oldest is still a total couch potato.

EDIT: Oh and I should point out that even though the big changes have happened in the last couple of months, we started down this path a year ago when my husband was diagnosed with diabetes?something that totally devastated me for a while having watched this disease kill three members of my family.

Together we overhauled his eating habits, but I kept buying a lot of the bad stuff because he could still eat it (Believe it or not) and keep his sugar levels in the normal range. Mater of fact a year latter his A1C test is 4.6---for those of you who don?t understand this, that is an excellent number!

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Realization
Aug 28 2007 11:22

Okay, after comparing my food choices for the last 10 days or so, with my food choices of the past, I have come to the conclusion that I was simply eating too much protein/badly prepared protein…and therefore to many calories. Now that I know what an actual serving of chicken breast looks like…I can safely tell you I was having four servings at a sitting. The same goes for the rest of my meats…most meat I was easily eating 2-4 servings of…and also it wasn’t unusual for me to eat leftover meat (from dinner the night before) in the mornings.

Everything else in my diet seems to have been in proportion except for that…though I was easily adding in an extra (unneeded) 500-700 calories in protein a day (Sometimes more). The other couple of hundred calories I was getting from the way the meat was prepared…generally fried :( Until recently I didn’t realize how often I fried things in canola oil. But I started writing down how I am preparing each thing differently now than I was then…and I found that I fried food at least 4-5 times a week---either potatoes or meat---and I fried them in a substantial amount of canola oil. I still fry things, but I bought a good non-stick pan, and I now either add no calorie cooking spray (NOT REALLY---read up on that) or one tablespoon of canola oil---and I count those calories.

It sorta annoys me to realize that a few bad cooking habits is most-likely the culprit that got me to my highest weight---it wasn’t endless mounds of junk food---but badly prepared healthy foods that were the cause.

And of course too much protein. I thought that would be a hard habit to kick but truly it’s been the easiest---the eight glasses of water a day, and getting close to 25 grams of fiber---now those have been a struggle.

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Exactly how did I get to 280???
Aug 17 2007 09:33

Okay, so today I?m wondering exactly how I got to 280 (Originally) in the first place?was it a sabotaged metabolism, or simply eating too much??? I?m an avid reader, so when I joined up I read everything on CC that I could get my hands on--- plus many outside sources.

I actually lost weight before, about three years ago. I got down to 226 just by starting to eat three meals a day, exorcize a bit and cutting out some sugar. I didn?t count calories, I just ate better. The weight loss didn?t last thanks to my doctor putting me on meds for PMS?not only was I not in major-bitch mode for a week out of every month but I really didn?t care about anything. Those pills took me from sad-depressed to emotionless in 30 days flat?which I was later told was a different form of depression.

I gave up the meds! And strangely enough the PMS has abated, of course some external stress in my life has been removed. I won?t get into that here, I?ll only say that some people are like poison, and no matter how much you love them they can make you emotionally and physically ill if you let them.

But I?m off my point?I?ve never been a horribly bad eater. Before I started counting calories I had a few bad habits, we had take-out pizza (maybe) once a month, and probably ate out at Ryan?s twice a month (For those of you who don?t know that?s a buffet restaurant. Now at Ryan?s my biggest problem was ?protein? pretty much that?s what the meal consisted of.

When it comes to sweets, once I taste them I can put the fork down because all I really wanta know is what they taste like. I think that goes back to childhood and my grandmother who was easily 350 pounds and a sugar fanatic?she made desserts daily and I tend to associate all those colorful treats with her (And my mother who, though not as bad tended to do Christmas up right lol)

Pretty much all the women in my family have been big girls. At 280 (now 265-ish depending on the scale) I clock in at about the smallest adult weight. My mother, my aunt and my grandmother were all over 300. I?m also the only one living from my childhood family---lost the last member almost four years ago---my aunt---to complications that arose from uncontrolled diabetes.

I tend to believe the extra weight and the problems brought on by it would be the reason why no one in my family made it into their 60?s?or heck even mid-fifties?but again I digress?can you tell I?m a talker lol?

The point is, I?ve never ate that many sweets---heck sometimes I could go months without touching sugar?I couldn?t even get through a small Ice cream cone by myself. I always ate my veggies, the serving size of a starch looks the same now as it always has---the only difference on my dinner plate is half the meat, twice the veggies.

We went out for Chinese food yesterday?I kept track of exactly what I ate and was surprised to learn that the choices I?ve made in the past were also the healthiest?and my overall calories were actually way under the 1200+exorcise I?ve been hearing about. Or daily burn+exorcise (Which yesterday would have been 2,385 calories for me) In fact they were still within my daily limit---which I?m struggling with---apparently I?m supposed to be eating about 1650 calories a day?some days I?m lucky if I make 1300---I tend to average out for the week somewhere around 1450. Yesterday I was right at 1650

In short I?m a little frustrated today, because I can?t figure out what I was doing before that got me to 280?since I am honestly eating more food now than I was then and having a really hard time taking in enough healthy food to make the daily count.

I?m losing weight---that?s not the problem! I?m just a little obsessive and I wanta make sure I?m doing it right, you know?

As I said in my profile,

I?m trying to make sure I get those 8 glasses of water a day (I must have walked around dehydrated 99% of the time because I really drank next to NO liquid in a day---and this has actually been the hardest part of eating better for me---Just trying to drink that daily water allotment

My other problem, just trying to eat regularly. I?m one of those people (Always have been---goes back to childhood) that skipped breakfast and lunch and started eating around 3:30 in the afternoon---didn?t stop till bedtime (10:00 PM). I know, awful habit and I?m trying to retrain myself

So what did I do, wreck my metabolism by not eating enough? By not eating regularly? By not drinking enough liquid---though retaining water couldn?t account for a weight of 280.

Or was I some how eating more than I thought?

I?m honestly confused.

I have always eaten margarine sparsely, been thrifty with the miracle whip?ate plenty of fruit and veggies. I?m not a chip or Ice cream eater by nature. And other than some minor changes the only difference now that I?m losing weight is that I am eating more often and more food. I?ve cut back on the meat (I suspect a lot of my calories were coming from there) but now I?m trying to replace those calories with fruit?s and veggies and it?s hard for me to eat as much food as I?m supposed to in a day.

Not to mention a new problem I?ve noticed?the busier I am (the more active)?the less I tend to eat. For example. The day I push mowed the lawn?.I burned 505 calories but I only consumed 1453 calories for the whole day?and apparently this equals starvation mode!!!!

Yesterday, I walked through stores, tried on clothes, lugged around bags for three hours, burned 735 calories ate a total of 1625?again if the math is correct starvation mode!

I figured my calories on sedentary lifestyle because I don?t regularly shop, or mow yard?I walk for about 20-30 minutes a day?very low impact (strolling) as I have knee problems from a car accident. So I don?t do regular exorcise?and by trade I sit at a computer typing for several hours a day. I do however do all the house cleaning, laundry, food-shopping and so on. I run errands and oddly enough (Since I?m a big girl) I drive a huge 4x4 truck I have to climb in and out of (No step lol) but I don?t see myself as extremely active in general?but then again I also thought I was eating horrible and upon examination I only had to make a few minor changes to put me on the right track?

So?vent over?going to read up some more and try and figure this thing out!

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Checking in...
Aug 14 2007 13:50

So my kids go back to school in a week and I?ll finally have some peace and quiet. I?m looking forward to it so I can get some writing done. It seems like forever since I?ve worked on my latest book. I find that I really miss that outlet when it?s gone but I just can?t manage to get anything written when the kids are home?It?s like a three month induced writers block.

The MI trip went well, I was a little higher on my over all calorie count than I usually am but I still lost one pound, so I?ll call it a success.

One another note I?m still getting used to CC, I don?t log in daily due to my busy schedule and I have a bit of trouble keeping up with posts. Hopefully after the kids go back to school that?ll change.

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