Back to the Basics of Calorie Counting and other Randomness

Even though I feel like I am still losing (based on comments and my jeans) I think I need to go back to calorie counting. These last 35 lbs or so are going to be difficult and will take a long time so I just need to make sure I'm doing my part in aiding this thing along.

Based on my current weight, current workout schedule, and goal of losing 1 lbs per week, Sparkpeople says I should be eating 1620-1970 calories per day.  I was shocked when I plugged my meals and was about 1200. I had to add some more protein so I'm getting at least 100 grams each day. 

Today is only day #2 of counting again. We shall see how long I can last but I'm going to really try and see if this helps me get back to losing some fat (not necessarily just weight).

I've become addicted to shopping AND finding clearance items. I know for some this is nothing new, but when I had only a few stores to choose from if I like something, I would buy it no matter how much it costs. Why? Because it wasn't often I found something cute.  To find something cute and inexpensive. YEAH RIGHT!  Don't get me started on Lane Bryant and those high a$$ prices (even on the clearance rack full of crap no one wants to wear) Sorry. I just went off a little.

Anywho. I get a rush finding shirts for 5 bucks and $10 dresses. It makes my freakin day.  But I need to chill the hell  out with all this shopping. It's insane that every weekend I look forward to going to Forever 21 and JCP to find bits of pieces of outfits and making something happen.

The joys of weight loss and being able to fit clothes *BIG SMILES*

Here is my latest comparison shots. The first one is in August 2011. The 2nd one is from  yesterday. I see a slight difference. Nothing major though. That's just how SLOW my weight loss is going now. 

Slight changes???

Finally my sister and I got through the whole Plyometrics P90X DVD.  We did much better than last time and I'm definitely not as sore..well my thighs aren't but my calves are BURNING. Ouch!

Have a great Tuesday! :-)

 

Food Log and I need answers!

Sunday morning I woke up sick. The crazy thing is since I've started eating semi-clean I RARELY get sick. No colds, no headaches, no allergies. So when I'm feeling the slightest bit of ill, I'm a wuss. I stayed in bed until noon and work up HUNGRY for pancakes (or a nice belgian waffle) I decided on Culver's (fast food basically) Double cheeseburger, large fries, and a mint chocolate chip concrete (shake) Yep. All that.
It was just ok and I rarely (maybe 4x's a year) eat fast food. 

Monday my stomach was not happy. At all. So in order to recover, I decided to eat only fruits & veggies until dinner.

Breakfast : Coffee, banana, orange

Lunch: Salad, peach, apple

Dinner: Salad, (w/ 1 egg) Spaghetti - (96/4 lean ground beef, whole wheat pasta, Ragu (not clean, I know)


Feeling better today.

Breakfast: Coffee, banana, orange

Lunch: Salad, (w/ 1 egg) Spaghetti

Dinner: Probably the same as lunch. No probably..lol. It will be the same as lunch.

Kind of changing up my breakfast. I need to move into making fruits & veggies my primary foods. The other stuff in smaller amounts.  I know I need to add some type of protein. I was doing tuna last week with wheat thins. Maybe I'll try to do tuna w/o the wheat thins. Again, trying to get myself off of the extra processed foods.

Yes, I'm cutting calories too. I'm experimenting here. I have 35 lbs to lose and it's not moving. On one hand I want to lose the 35lbs (1 lb a week @ at at time) and be done with it. But I'm not feeling skinny fat either, so I want to build muscle as well. So I'm not sure the cutting of calories is the best solution either.

In the comments I was asked if I weight train. With weights? No. But in Title boxing we do lots of body weight training i.e core work, push-ups, squats. Is that enough or do I need to actually lift some weights?

Let me know! I need some answers :-) Right now I can see myself being skinny-fat. People keep telling me I don't need to lose 35 lbs, but I'm looking at myself naked and the flab is too much. I know my body shape. I'm a pear. I will have hips, my butt is big, and thighs to match. But I need it to be toned.

Surgery is looking like an option as well. I like my size, I just don't like the flab.

89 Simple Swaps That Could Change Your Life

From Spark I learned that you cannot do a complete overhaul on your lifestyle. Well, maybe you can, but you will get so overwhelmed by all of the changes, you will probably quit. Instead, try baby steps. Decide on changing healthy habits one at a time.

This is a really good article on simple swaps that will lead you into better health.


http://www.greatist.com/health/89-simple-swaps-that-could-change-your-life/#

Fat Girl Ways

GET THEE BEHIND ME! My Gawd.... 

I worked from home yesterday so no Title boxing.  Well, I could have went. Heck there is one right around the corner but I don't like it and the one I love is 25 minutes from my house. EXCUSE #1.  So I didn't work out yesterday and I have no excuse for that. So there is no #2.

My eating was actually good though. I had the same turkey sausage breakfast as if I was going to work. For lunch I had rotisserie chicken, baked fries, and broccoli. Let's back up and talk about these fries.

I LOVE FRIES. I mean love them to pieces. I don't ever fry them at home. The problem is portion control.  One serving of fries is 3 oz (120 calories) Have you ever weighed 3 oz of fries. Its about the amount you would get in elementary school, served to you on a lunch plate. Not a lot at all. The fat girl in me cooked 2 servings. Now...that's better. O_o

I did a little experiment. I only put half (one serving) on my plate. Well all be damn. It was actually enough.  Oh but ya know I'm not wasting food so I did end up eating the other serving. But I still learned my lesson. Stop fixing 2 servings. One is enough. Ok. Got it.

So all was well with eating..until....dinner. J. Alexanders. YUMMY!  Since I wasn't buying I ordered a whole bunch of food. LOL.

I had the chicken pasta soup (which was filling in itself) Ribeye and loaded mashed potatoes (I know that had to be 6 servings of potatoes, I ate half of my food) and chocolate cake and ice cream (ate less than half and gave it away).

I ate myself into an oblivion. The food was super rich. I could barely move. Now why would I eat that much? *shrug* I don't know.

So yeah. These fat girl ways are so old. I'm over it. But I can't lie, that food was AMAZING :-)

What I'm eating

Back to tracking and calorie counting! I don't have a lot of variety in my meals so here is a typical day for me. I'll post what I'm eating every once in a while though.  I have GOT to learn how to make some tasty, healthy meals this year.

Here's what's on the menu today:

So how'd you do it? - Eating Clean/Calorie Counting

Let's back up a bit and I'll list the things I've tried:

~Slim Fast
~Metabolife
~Cereal diet
~Phentermine (Adipex)'
~Weight Watchers (well not a real attempt, I signed up online for 2 months)
~Lean Cuisines, Smart ones, Healthy Choices etc.
~SouthBeach Diet
~Low Carb
~Eating what I want and trying to work it off with 2-a-day workouts

I think that exhausts my list.  All of the aboves...FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.

Ok, well not total fails. With Southbeach I did lose 25lbs or so and never gained it back and I didn't give WW a whole hearted attempt (my sister is doing very well on WW)

Some of these other ones. CRAZINESS, in my opinion.  I've heard many people say it and this is SO TRUE. Whatever you do to lose the weight is what you will be doing in order to keep it off. Because as soon as you stop doing them, the weight comes back. HELLO. I'm a witness!

How realistic is it to drink a Slim Fast shake for breakfast and lunch for the rest of my life? Not realistic at all. Oh and don't get me started on the Phentermine.  I was up at 2am vacuuming my entire house because I couldn't sleep and had all this energy.

My last attempt at tackling my weight had me in the gym ALL day and night.  I was of the mindset I would eat what I wanted as long as I burned it all off! Ummm, that worked for a while, but life got in the way of my marathon workout sessions.

It's hard for me to discuss weight loss with many people. When they start talking about injecting hormones, eating cabbage all day, and swalling pills my mind starts wandering and I try hard to bite my tongue about why those things don't work in the long term. But aye..who am I? I've been there, done that.

I yo-yo'd so much because I never figured out what really worked. Like I said before, I would get down to 210, then back up to 240, back to 205, back up to 225. It was insane that I never got under 200 lbs. I thought it was really something wrong with me and my body wasn't able to do it. (Yeah, I know I'm insane)

This past holiday season (2010) I'd had enough. I was 240ish lbs again and completely uncomfortable..AGAIN. I thought I had it all together when I got down from 311 lbs to 210 and here I was, miserable.  AGAIN!

As much Sparking as I'd done, I knew my nutrition sucked. I knew I had been trying to win the war without all the necessary artillery, if you will.

During my time off from work during the holidays,  I started really taking a look at "A black Girls Guide to Weight Loss" blog.  I wanted to deny what she {Erika} was saying about counting calories and eating clean, but the Holy Spirit would not allow me to take in all this information and ignore it.  I was moved to admitting my addiction to processed, fatty, sugary food and coming to the realization that I needed to eat clean.

What is eating clean?

In layman's terms, eating clean is eating only whole foods. Foods with little to no ingredients and in their rawest form.  Fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, complex carbs, dairy products. No processed foods (foods processed in a manufacturing plant and passed off as edible. Sorry. Soapbox)

Here are a couple of links about it (that explain it more eloquently than I can)

http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/clean-eating-boot-camp/welcome-to-clean-eating-boot-camp/

http://eatcleandiet.com/what_is_the_eat-clean_diet.aspx

Along with eating clean, I count calories. Though I believe eating whole foods is important, I still can over-eat these foods as well (but not nearly as much as junky processed foods) You can still have too much of a good thing.

Sparkpeople gives me a calorie range based on my weight, goal weight, and the amount of calories I burn with exercise.  This tool has been fundamental in my weight loss (and weight maintenance).  Counting calories is like managing a budget.  When you begin counting you see how many calories your favorite foods have. Like a budget, you start to think about whether the calories of those items are "worth it" or if you can "fit it in".

If I'm feeling really hungry, I eat tons of vegetables for volume using very few of my allowed calories.  You'd be surprised how calories add up!  Every bite, every drink, everything you put in your mouth has a calorie value.  Make them worth it!

Here is a link on calorie counting:

http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/tools-for-weight-loss/understanding-calorie-counting-what-is-it-calorie-counting-defined/

Erika has an awesome series on the importance of calorie counting for weight loss.

So in answer to how I did it (in a way that I can maintain for the rest of my life) my answer is eating clean, and calorie counting. Maybe one day I will get to the point where I can intuitively eat, but until then, I will be logging all my foods.

Tracking...Eating Clean...30 days later....

God is good and I prayed for strength in this aspect of my life. He's all over this one.


I cannot EVEN belive I have tracked my food this long. I've been on Sparks for 3 years now and always start on a Monday...quit on the weekend.

I was very consistent with tracking my workouts. That positive...can't knock a good workout. But my food? NO WAY!

I truly believed I could lose this weight w/o changing the way I ate. Yes I read the articles about the importance of nutrition. But I was 100lbs down and NEVER tracked so I (knew) I could do it. WRONG.

Tracking, Logging, Writing Down....ADMITTING

So last week I secretly decided to start writing down everything I ate. Not even necessarily tracking how many calories. Just getting in the habit of writing it on paper.


Day 1-3 GREAT.

Day 4 (Friday) Morning and Lunch went well. Went out Friday night. I kinda sorta wrote it down but in the midst of fun and drinks I may have skipped some things.

Day 5 (Saturday) Yeah I wrote it down, wasn't pretty. Wasn't pretty at all!

Day 6 (Sunday) I'd rather forget it! ATE WAY WAY TOO MUCH

So there is the trend. M-F when I am at work (a controlled environment) I eat well, stay within my calories, drink my water.

Sat and Sun - I overeat, I indulge, I don't drink water.

The sad part is I won't write it down. As if writing it down makes it official. NO..eating it makes it official. If its already eaten, why NOT write it down. Probably because its a smack in the face. Admitting that I've failed...

As much as I had to admit the reason why I am in a plateau, I already know whats wrong. My eating sucks! I mean I eat whatever I want to. As the weight comes off, I must also lower my calorie intake. What has worked before (as far as eating) does not work any more. OBVIOUSLY.

When will I learn? No wonder I ALWAYS get stuck in this 210 range. This is my comfortable place.

There is no way I can keep up working out 90 minutes a day. I tried to work off the extra calories. No that doesn't work. It takes both diet and exercise to lose weight.

I need to start tracking. I need to stick with my plan. I need to track (at least write down and track later) what I eat on the weekends