My First Week of Trying in a While

My first week of actually trying to eat well and workout in a long while went pretty well overall. Earlier this week I got lunch with my retired teacher friend Chris and we exchanged our Christmas presents. I ate pretty well with getting a grilled chicken breast dieter's plate, but I did have a couple of rolls. It is hard to go a meal without carbs!

My healthy meal that I tainted with dinner rolls.

My present from Chris

The rest of the week I've been eating food that I've cooked myself. I cooked a week's worth of food and finished it all up on Saturday. For those of you who know me, I'm not much for cooking. I don't particularly enjoy it, so I usually don't try too hard. I was actually making dinner and some of those pumpkin muffins all at the same time. It made me at least look like I knew how to cook, although it was pretty simple.

Cooking up a storm

This kit was pretty good. It has lower sodium seasoning and 100% whole wheat tortillas.

The tacos were yummy. I had fat free refried beans, taco meat, cheese, taco sauce, and onions on mine.

Baked up the easiest snack to help with a sweet tooth. It is just a box of cake mix with a can of pumpkin.

Turkey burger on whole wheat bread with sweet potato waffle fries. I love sweet potato fries!

I had 1/3 cup egg whites and a piece of 40 calorie cheese on a 100% whole wheat bagel thin with either yogurt or fruit bites for breakfast all this week.

I had this for lunch on Saturday since I ran out of turkey burgers.

Snacking has been a huge part of why I gained so much weight back. This week I worked on transitioning myself off of the sugary, junk food snacks and more towards what I should be eating. I think that once I get this part under control, I will lose the weight quicker. Anyway, for snacks I've been having anything from a doughnut or cinnamon roll to carrots or apples with string cheese.

Red velvet doughnut with cream cheese frosting. Evil!

This was my meal and snack plan for last week.

As for exercise, I went to the gym and did my first workout with a trainer to show me how to do everything. From now on I get to pull out my card and do the exercises on my own (and ask one of the workers there if I have a question). My workout started with five minutes on the treadmill and five minutes on the stair climber along with some stretches to warm-up. Then I used a bunch of different machines to work my legs, arms, shoulders, and back. For the abs, I did some bicycle crunches, crunches on a ball, and three planks. The planks were the one thing I really struggled with. After that I stuck around and did 20 minutes on the treadmill. I felt pretty good when I left the gym, but I woke up the next day feeling sore all over. The second day after the workout my arms and legs were better, but my abs hurt really badly. It hurt to bend, sit up straight, sneeze, cough, and laugh!

Me getting ready for my first workout. Who knew that I'd feel like my face looks the next day and the day after that?

I also went on two long walks around my neighborhood. I prefer to be outside instead of inside on a treadmill. It has been warm and pretty much snow free for winter so far, so I thought I would try to get outside while I can. I have asthma and the cold air bothers me. I wore a scarf one time and that helped me to breathe a little easier. One walk I took a dog with me and the other one I just listed to music while I walked up and down every street in my little section of town.

I used to be pretty good about blogging every day when I'm eating on track and showing pictures of everything I ate. Since I will be working and going back to school, I won't have the time to do that again. I will try to post my meal plan once a week along with a post about what I actually ate with pictures. It will take a little bit of time to figure out what I will be able to do, but my goal is to be more regular with my posts.

Getting Back to Basics

I've decided to give myself a fresh start this week and get back to the basics that worked for me last summer to lose weight (and halfway quickly too). I've been re-reading the Six Week Body Makeover book with a focus on the eating plan. I am also measuring my food again until I get used to the portion sizes again. Here is my generic menu for this week:

Breakfast

• 2-3 egg whites
• 1/2 cup oatmeal (with some kind of flavoring such as stevia, cocoa, or Cinnamon)
• banana

Morning Snack

• 5 slices of lunchmeat
• 1 cup (or more) salad with extra veggies
• light or low-fat dressing

Lunch

• 2 oz. baked chicken breast
• 1/2 cup rice
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of veggies

Afternoon Snack

• 2 oz. canned chicken (low salt, packed in water)
• 1 cup (or more) salad with extra veggies
• light or low-fat dressing

Dinner

• 2 oz. baked chicken breast
• 1 small or medium potato with salsa on top
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of veggies

Evening snack

• 1/2 cup of mixed berries with stevia

I've also decided to up my walking for cardio into doing Couch to 5 K Training (C25K). I've only done week one, day one since it is the beginning of the week. I don't necessarily plan to run a 5K, but wanted to do something extra with a goal in mind since I'm not working and have extra time to workout. The two days I don't walk/jog, I would like to do some strength training. Here is the workout schedule this week:

Monday- C25K
Tuesday- strength training
Wednesday- C25K
Thursday-strength training
Friday- C25K
Weekends- I'm leaving them open to either resting or an activity of my choice.

Here are the stats for today's walk/jog. I'm not going by distance right now to train, but will be going by time. I don't have any fancy equipment, I just used my pedometer from the walking challenge at work.

• 3,464 aerobic steps
• 1.46 miles
• 28 minutes of aerobic activity

Playlist for this week's C25K training:

• Clocks by Coldplay as my 5 minute walking warm-up
• Got to Get You Into My Life by The Beatles
• Can't Get Enough of You Baby by Smash Mouth
• Birthday by the Beatles
• Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker
• Eight Days a Week by The Beatles
• Easy Livin' by Uriah Heep
• Celebrity Skin by Hole
• Hold Me Tight by The Beatles

I don't have a fancy phone for the C25K app, so I decided to make playlists on my iPod to help with the timing. The eight songs after my warm-up song are around 2:30 minutes long. This means that I run for the first minute of each song and then walk the rest of the song. Repeat this pattern with each song and I have over 20 minutes of walking/jogging.

My Fresh Start for March

I'm going to try to forget about all my struggles in January (work, personal life, weight loss, etc.) and work on a fresh start with this new month. It is hard since I do beat myself up a lot when I mess up, but I won't be getting anywhere with my weight loss if I don't try to let things go and stop over thinking things.

When I weighed myself this morning I was back up to 191. I was at 187, so it isn't the worst gain in the world. I would like to get down to or close to 180 by the end of March. In order for this to happen, I must make changes and work on rebuilding good habits starting tomorrow. Here is my game plan:

• Follow my eating plan as outlined on my food plan page.
• Try to get some extra movement in for 30 minutes five days a week. It might be Wii Fit, it might be cleaning the house, but it has to be extra movement that I wouldn't have to do.
• Limit myself to one "unhealthy" snack a day and it can't be a crazy amount of calories either. I could have pumpkin brownies or Who Nu? cookies.
• Try to let things come as they may and not over analyze or beat myself up about things. I found this blog the other day and it is exactly what I need to be doing. It is about not caring about what other people think of you and doing what you need to do. There are some curse words, so I'm giving you a heads up now.
• I have a rough idea of what my meals/snacks will be this week.
• Breakfast- egg whites, fruit, oatmeal
• Snack- fruit and grain bar
• Snack- carrots and lunch meat
• Lunch- soup, crackers, jello
• Snack- nuts and fruit strip
• Dinner- I do have some turkey burgers if I wanna cook or might just get some Subway.
• Snack- my "unhealthy" treat of the day
• I will also try to get back to blogging on a more daily basis. It will be tough this week though since I have a big program coming up this weekend and another one in April.

Also, I have noticed that other people who are working on losing weight have been having trouble recently too. Here is one of my favorite bloggers writing about her struggles.