My Journey

Well, I haven’t been here this past week as I have been so off plan, and honestly I just didn’t want to admit it to myself. I took a mini vacation and ever since I have been struggling to get back on track.  Every morning I woke up and told myself that today would be the day I would start over, and then I would slip-up and tell myself, why bother.  I really need to let go of my all or nothing mindset.  I get so down on myself when I am not “perfect” and although I know that attitude will get me nowhere, I seem to keep doing it over and over again.   I have gained 4 pounds and am back to where I was when I started blogging here.  I am fed up and I know I can’t keep doing this to myself. 

So today is the day that I am starting anew.  I am going to go back to counting calories and exercising.  I am not going to beat myself up over any slip-ups, as consistency is the key not perfection.  I just need to keep reminding myself of that. 
I am going to zig zag my calories between 1600 - 1800.  I intend on exercising 5 - 6  days a week, alternating circuit workouts with pure cardio days.

Weight: 200
Calories:
Exercise:  am: 20 minutes on Stairmaster + 10 mins of ab exercises. 
I plan on doing more minutes of exercise tonight.

I was cleaning out some drawers today, and I came accross a book that I bought a few years ago called, The Leanness Lifestyle.  When I followed the plan before I had some nice results, but I became a little obbsessive with it, stressed myself out and gave up.  After skimming through the book again this morning, I have decided to give it another try. 

I have decided that I need to start planning my menu the night before.  I am really struggling with the diet part of this journey.  I am eating a lot better than I was a few months ago, and I am not eating huge portions, but I am not being as strict as I know I need to be if I expect to reach my goals.  I used to plan my menus out, and I had a lot of success doing that, so I am going to do it again.   
I am very happy with the amount of exercise that I have been doing.  I am really enjoying working out and pushing myself. There are days were I don’t feel like doing anything, but after a workout I feel so energized and motivated.  Now I just need to get strict with my diet and I know I can reach my goals.

I can’t believe how fast this year is going!  This month my goals are to be diligent about counting my calories.  Lately, I have been slacking off from logging my foods, and I can tell that I am slowly starting to eat more.  It’s like my mind tells me if I don’t log it, it doesn’t count, which is ridiculous!  I am going to keep a small notepad with me and write down everything I eat and then log it - no excuses. 

I have done my workout for the day so I feel good about that.  I am going to try to go for a walk this afternoon as well.

 Calories:
Exercise:  The Firm’s Complete Body Sculpting.

I am so happy that I got to change my tracker today!!  It seems like it’s been forever since I last changed it.  I am really motivated and determined to have a good week so I can change it again next Tuesday. 
I have been weighing myself everyday, but I am going to rethink doing that.  Maybe I’ll just weigh myself twice a week - Tuesdays and Saturdays. 

Weight:  196.5

Calories:
Exercise:

When I weighed myself this morning I was at 195.5 lbs, (why couldn’t today have been my official weigh-in day, lol).  I have been stuck at 198 lbs for a few weeks so it’s nice to finally see a drop on the scale.  However, I also know that tomorrow I could be right back at 198 lbs.  Either way, I won’t give up!
I got up early and completed my am workout and tonight I’ll do another 20 minutes on the Stairmaster.
I am feeling a lot better so I will start logging my food at thedailyplate.com again.
Weight: 195.5 lbs.
Exercise:  Stairmaster 20 mins + abs 10 mins.
Calories:

This afternoon my youngest son decided that he wanted to workout with me.  Since I still have this nasty cold, I decided to take it easy today and do a quick upper body weight workout.  My son knows that I won’t let him actually lift real weights, so he went and got all his stuffies and used them, lol.  It was so cute!!!

I didn’t weigh myself today and I haven’t logged any foods either.  I am making healthy choices and watching my portions.  Once I get rid of this cold I’ll get back to my regular routine of logging the food I eat. 

Exercise:  Cathe Friedrich’s Low Impact Circuit dvd - just the upper body weight segments & abs.

Yikes, I had no idea I was consuming so much sodium.  I never add salt to anything, and yet almost everyday I am over the recommended maxium daily amount for sodium.  I was surprised to learn that even egg whites, (which I have almost every morning), have so much sodium in them.  So today I am going to go through all the things I normally eat and look at the amount of salt they have. 
I was watching the show, Workout, the other night and Jackie Warner, the personal trainer, took some of her clients to the grocery store and taught them what to look for on nutritional labels.  She recommended that they don’t eat anything with more than 2 grams of sugar per serving.  She said to buy low-fat not no-fat items, as the fat is replaced with sugar in the no-fat products.  Anyways, it really made me think and realize that I shouldn’t just be focussing on my calories like I have been. 

Weight:  197 - down a pound
Calories:
Exercise: 

Last night I started feeling down and very unmotivated about the weight I need to lose. I am so disappointed in myself that I gained all this weight.  Then, I told myself that no matter what, time is going to pass, and one of three things were going to happen:

1. I will stay the same weight.
2. I will gain weight.
3. I will lose weight.

When I thought about it like that, I realized that I will never be happy with options 1 & 2, and therefore I need to do the work, so that number 3 will happen.  So even though I still felt horrible, (bad cold), I got up early and did 20 mins on my Stairmaster.  I plan on doing another 20 mins tonight. 
I need to remind myself of these three options the next time I start feeling down.

What does everyone else do to pick themselves up when they start feeling discouraged?

Weight: 198
Calories:
Exercise: am - 20 mins on Stairmaster.

I woke up this morning and my throat was so sore.  I can tell I am coming down with a cold, (my kid’s had colds last week), but I am not going to let me go off track.  I won’t workout tonight, but I am still going to count my calories and make healthy food choices.  I can’t give in to the thoughts of just starting over again when I am feeling better.  I don’t want to take too many days off from exercising, so I’ll just do light workouts.

Weight: 198
Calories: