Friday, March 25, 2011

Spark it up!

Sparkpeople that is!
So I went to weigh in this past Monday and was totally disappointed again. I gained back 0.8lbs. Grrrr! I feel like the first week was awesome and then let down after let down. I know that only 4 weeks in an "average" loss of 1 1/2 lbs a week is fantastic by most peoples standards but not for me, my opinion of course. So what to do? be mad and binge eat or try to figure it out? well I'm serious about this endeavor so I reached out to my fellow Weight Watchers.  I knew that they were going to ask me to post a sample of one of my days menu so that they can critique it. I did and said have at it tell me what you see and what you think i should change. Gotta love the Ladies on the Newbie board as they did just that. It was determined that I am eating around 14 servings of mostly fruits and some veggies. That's a lot of fruit. It was my go to grab and munch, a bunch of grapes, a pear, an apple, strawberries. It even sounds good now! You see if you remember WW made fruit and vegetables 0 points plus. The trick here is that it is 0 points but not 0 calories. WW figures that people are sensible and wont eat that much fruit so there isn't too great a risk of it being a problem. I am a foodaholic I can eat a lot of food. That is why I'm so big. So when I was told at the meeting when I asked "how much fruit is too much?" and my leader said "feel free to eat as much as you want" I took her at her word. 
Big Mistake!
So my tried and true WW buddies suggested I put one of my WW menus into Sparkpeople (calorie counting website) and see just how much I was eating in a day, i did. The day I picked turns out I had eaten 2100 calories that day! Yikes! no wonder I gained.  I decided to continue to track my foods both ways on WW and Sparkpeople and see how it all pans out. I have to say that since I'm seeing the caloric intake on a constant basis it has kept me in check when wanting to reach for a piece of fruit because i can. I stop to actually think, do i really need that? Most times I just skip it and wait until I am really hungry not just bored munching. It also brings up the question, do i really need to continue paying WW for a program that I am not particularly finding as beneficial as their previous programs. Well I'm paid up for another month so we'll see if I renew at that time. 
I need ideas can you help?
I have been going to the gym but not for very long workouts. Mind you I didn't really want to go but figured that it's paid for and I am trying to lose weight I should use it, right!? So something is better than nothing, So I have been trying to go at least 4 days a week after work. It's been working out pretty good so far. I am getting on the elliptical because it is the easiest on my knees and boy does that machine get my heart a pumpin, breathin heavy, and pouring out the sweat (now wouldn't it be nice to find a guy who does that to me!). Not to mention I burn 2X the calories on it than any other machine in that gym. Here's the issue, I get so focused on how long it is taking and how fatigued it's making me feel that I am stopping the workout after 12 minutes. Which at the speed I am working at is one mile. I did manage to push through to 15 minutes today though.  I need something to distract my mind. I acquired one of the older model ipod shuffles but i have no idea how to download music or anything else to it, nor do i have an itunes account. My brother in law offered to help me with it but we are having a hard time connecting as we have busy lives and that's cool i totally understand. What I do have, but am not really sure how to use it to its full potential, is my Blackberry curve. Do you know does it download audio books? i think an audio book would be ideal for me. I love to read and holding a book on the elliptical is possible but not preferable. Have any of you tried this? do you like it? What do you do to occupy your mind while working out?
Let the games begin!
So the ladies at work have been listening to me talk of my efforts to lose weight for awhile now. It has inspired them to want to do it too. We decided to have a little competition to see who could lose the most % of weight in  a 2 month time period. Winner gets the pot, I think we agreed to either 10 or 20 bucks to enter. Woo Hoo! I'm excited about it. We have to warn all the Pharmaceutical Rep's to  bring healthy choices when they want to treat us to something. I know most days i can turn down Paradise Bakery but can my coworkers? hmm
That's all for now folks thanks for reading. I will write to you again soon I'm sure or I'll see you on one of my message boards and FB!
still haven't smoked 10 weeks tomorrow!!

3 comments:

  1. I try to enter my food into Sparkle people too just so I know the calories etc. Also I like it to keep track of sodium.

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  2. I like your writing style! And I think an audio book would be great- I love riding the recumbent bike and watching episodes of TV shows- I've actually gotten myself to watch GLEE ONLY on the bike and it's a great guaranteed work out, it may not burn a TON of calories, but its upping my endurance and getting me active while leaving my poor knees alone!! I LOVE SPARKPEOPLE- All my food and exercise is logged right from my phone and it helps me make better choices when i know exactly whats in it!! Good luck! keep us updated!!

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  3. I absolutely HATE working out, and the ipod shuffle really changed my life at the gym. It helps things go by much quicker. Once someone shows you how to load songs, it's so easy! I don't think the shuffle has enough space for audiobook files, but the larger ipods do. I also got a home workout called Turbo Jam which is way more fun for me than the gym, and I'll actually do it too! I highly recommend Zumba as well. Those 2 workouts make an ipod unnecessary anyway! Thanks for continuing this blog, I am in the same boat as you after this baby! 2 pounds a week is my average. At least it's coming off!!

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