Down 2 Lbs!

I weighed in at 119 today!! That's 3 lbs down from a week ago. Hooray!!! I'm pretty excited to be out of the 120's and now I have 4 lbs to lose in the next 5 weeks!

4 lbs = 14000 calories
14000/5 = 2800 calories per week
2800/7 = 400 calories per day
I will burn 150 calories through exercise each day.
400-150 = 250 calories less to eat
I burn 1600 calories a day just by living my sedentary lifestyle.
1600 - 250 = 1350 calories I need to consume per day.

And in reverse....

So... does the reverse math work?
1600+150 = 1750 calories burned in a day
1750-1350 = 400 calories lost each day
I need to lose 400 calories per day to lose the weight by my goal, so yes, it works! Hooray! I love it when math works.

So now I only need to burn 150 calories a day through exercise, which is much easier to maintain! And if I burn more, then I'll just lose it quicker, but I'm not tied to 350 calorie exercise a day. That's wonderful!

Feeling yucky...

Yesterday I felt pretty yucky after my flu shot. So, unfortunately, I didn't get any exercise in. But I didn't get all my calories in, either, so it's probably a wash. I'm feeling better today, so things should be back to normal!

MUFA

So... the MUFA post. I really thought I already wrote one, but I can't find it, so maybe it was just in my head!!

MUFA stands for MonoUnsaturated FAts. Supposedly "good" fats. The rumor is that if you eat a MUFA rich food with every meal (at least 4 each day) it will somehow magically help take the fat off your midsection. I'm skeptical about it, but it really can't hurt I guess. I'm still keeping my calorie levels the same, I'm just making sure to have a MUFA with every meal or snack. There are 5 sources of MUFA:

1. Avocado
2. Nuts and Seeds
3. Dark Chocolate
4. Vegetable Oils
5. Olives

I'm not big on avocado, but it's pretty easy for me to incorporate olives, chocolate chips, nuts, and olive oil into my diet. They're higher calorie foods, so you do have to compensate for them, but for me that pretty much means I just need to eat more vegetables. Not a bad thing!

So that's the scoop on MUFA. I'm giving it a try. Like I said, I'm skeptical (perhaps I should measure my midsection now and 6 weeks from now, as well as other areas to compare?) but so far (in the 2 days I've been doing this) I have noticed that when I eat a MUFA with every meal, the meal tends to stay with me longer and I'm not as hungry as soon. So, if nothing else, it's good for staying power.

I'll keep you updated on how the MUFA diet goes, but that's at least a general overview and enough to keep you in the know of what I mean by MUFA!

Back on track!

Well, I didn't do much today. I was pretty lazy, as I didn't leave the house until late this afternoon when we went to get our flu shots. I went to dinner at Mackenzie River with a friend and by the time I left the house at 6:15 for that I hadn't done any exercise or anything. We got the thin crust Thai Pie pizza and each had a salad. I love their salad! I was good and only put about 1 T. of dressing on (though I counted it as 2 on SP just in case it was more - kind of hard to judge when you're pouring out of a little cup) even though I absolutely LOVE their dressing. Then I ate two slices of pizza. I counted it as 2 medium slices of Pizza Hut thin crust pepperoni, and I think that's fair. Pepperoni is usually some of the fattiest pizza you can get, especially from Pizza Hut, so that's what I usually count pizza as on SP. It was a great dinner out and time with a friend (without kids!) and it's so nice to be able to do that without eating a ton of calories!

So because I didn't exercise before dinner, I knew I'd have to after dinner. I couldn't go two days in a row without exercise!!! Especially not my first week back to exercising and calorie counting! So I put on a movie from hulu.com (Bring it On - a cheerleading movie with peppy music. Peppy music is always good when you're exercising!) and I got on the treadmill and walked at 3.4 mph and an incline of 3-5 for most of the movie. I walked for 90 minutes and finally got off to watch the last 15 minutes of the movie in a chair. =D I figure that was PLENTY of walking. I ended up burning 675 calories in that time, too, so I guess I got my 350 in for today! Made up for yesterday, too!

I don't know what tomorrow holds. We'll have to see how Ellie is doing with her flu shot. Last year she was pretty miserable the day after. If she's that way tomorrow we'll stay home. Otherwise we'll go to playgroup!!

Pretty sure I went over my calories tonight....

I didn't mean to, but I think I did. By maybe a hundred calories or two. Nothing too terrible, but it's 10:00 and I haven't exercised yet.

We went to Over the Tapas for dinner and split an entree and two sides. Well, we split one side, I ate one side, and Leif ate the entree (the teeny tiny entree!). He wasn't a big fan of the creamy potatoes, which I love, but I was expecting to eat only half of them when I ordered them. Instead I ended up eating a whole bowl of the cream laden potatoes, which is where a lot of my calories for the night went. Ack! I went into dinner having 900 calories or so to spare, and I guess it wasn't enough! Sigh. But it's okay. We had a GREAT night out and I got some MUFA in with my dinner. (Have I posted on MUFA yet? If not, that sentence probably sounded naughtier than it was intended, LOL!) If I haven't written a MUFA post yet, I will. I'm giving it a try. But that's beside the point.

Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get some extra exercise in. If I get myself organized I can put Ellie in the stroller and walk over to Bible study. That will be something, at least.

Oh, we did walk around downtown (we parked at Over the Tapas, ate, then walked down to T. Charbonneau's and back the other direction to the Co-op, then back to our car, so however far that is...) so I think that should count as exercise for the evening. =D Maybe I'll still do some DDR if Leif will play with me, but we're both pretty beat, so I don't know. And it IS 10:30 at night already... maybe I'll just go to bed.

Date Night

Tonight we are going out on a date. I don't know where we're going, so it's hard to plan my calories. But I will be in town for a good portion of the morning and early afternoon, so I'm hoping that will make it easier for me to conserve calories. But I'm going to pack myself a bento and take it with me so I don't have to eat while I'm in town and that should help.

The hard part may be getting exercise (that doesn't use my already sore muscles!!) in today, but I'm going to do my best!

Oh, and I'm down a lb today! Hooooray!! 121 it is!

Wiiiiii!

I did housework pretty much ALL day today. I don't know if that counts as exercise or not, but I'm sure I burned more calories than sitting on my bum all day! We had a girls' night tonight, so I saved up my dinner calories and decided to eat dinner there. Because 3 of the 4 of us are working on losing weight (before our 30th, 40th, and 50th birthdays this year!) most of the food was healthy. That made it a little easier tonight! It also was good that I went into the evening with about 650 calories to spare... =D

Because I hadn't done any real exercise today and I didn't think I'd have the energy to once I got home (you know how it goes...) I decided to head downstairs and play some DDR on the Wii quickly to see how many calories I could knock out in the 25 or so minutes I had to spare before I needed to leave. I got about 215 burned, which meant I only had to burn 150 when I came home. Hooray! When I got home Leif was in the hot tub, so I changed and joined him for a bit, relaxing in the warm water and talking. Then he suggested we go play DDR, so I took the opportunity to burn those last calories of the day and maintain my goal. Little did I know that we would have so much fun and play for so long.... I ended up burning a total of 550 calories playing DDR today!!

Hopefully that will encourage the scale to move!!

Fleeting moderation

I'm struggling with moderation today. Just a little here and a little there... but it all eats up calories!! I'm going to a girls' night tonight, so I might just skip dinner until I get there. I don't remember if we're having real dinner food or not, but there will be calories there for sure! I'm bringing yummy hot chocolate fixins, and I'd hate not to be able to enjoy them just because I couldn't resist eating a handful of sprinkles earlier in the day!

So... I've got 2 hours to get through without indulging before I go tonight. I need help!

(and really, I should be exercising for a good portion of one of those hours!)

Treadmill time...

Just walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes and burned 365 calories. I've got just under 300 calories left to consume today. And right now? I'm pretty tired... I think I'll make some Christmas cards, drink some hot chocolate, watch a show, clean the kitchen, then go to bed and actually get 8 hours of sleep. It'll be good.

Rethinking the numbers....

Given the new goal of 7 lbs in 6 weeks, it occurs to me that I might need to rethink my numbers. So here it goes...

7 lbs = 24500 calories
24500/6 = 4083 calories per week
4083/7 = 583 calories per day
I will burn 350 calories through exercise each day.
583-350 = 233 calories less to eat
I burn 1600 calories a day just by living my sedentary lifestyle.
1600 - 233 = 1367 calories I need to consume per day.

Interestingly, 1350 calories is my basal metabolic rate, which sort of makes sense. So.... I think I will aim to keep doing the exercise and just eat a little more to keep my body going and still lose at the rate that I want to. According to the numbers, it should still work. =D

So... does the reverse math work?
1600+350 = 1950 calories burned in a day
1950-1350 = 600 calories lost each day
I need to lose 583 calories per day to lose the weight by my goal, so yes, it works! Hooray! I love it when math works.

So the new goal is to lose 7 lbs in 6 weeks by exercising to burn 350 calories a day and consuming 1350 calories. That sound MUCH better!

It has started...

Last night after I wrote out my new goal I decided that it had to start THEN, not sometime in the future. So... I got up and exercised!! I burned 400 calories playing DDR on the Wii for 40 minutes. It is really quite a good way to get some exercise in!

I've been counting calories for a few days now and starting to exercise, so I decided to weigh myself this morning... and I'm at 122! I know it could be standard weight fluctuation, but it's still encouraging to see myself down 2 lbs.... it makes my holiday goal a little more manageable! Now I need to lose 7 lbs in 6 weeks!

A goal!

Okay... here it goes.... I'm going to set a new goal for myself. I know we're getting into the holidays and that's typically a hard time to lose weight, but if I'm going to lose this weight that I've gained I can't wait until after the holidays! I can't keep making excuses, and I can't postpone making changes just because I'm afraid it will be difficult. The truth is... it WILL be difficult! If it were easy to lose the weight, it wouldn't be here!

So I'd really like to see myself back down to 115 by the end of the year. That gives me 6 weeks to lose 9 lbs! It'll be a challenge, but I think I can do it... So, in my typical fashion, here are some numbers to help me think through this goal of mine....

To lose 9 lbs, I need to rid myself of 31,500 calories.
To do it in 6 weeks I need to rid myself of 5,250 calories per week.
That translates to 750 calories per day.
According to this calculator, my basal metabolic rate is 1342 (1350 for easy calculations)
If I eat 1100-1200 calories a day, that means I automatically lose 150-250 calories per day.
So... I need to burn 500-600 calories a day through activity or exercise.
According to the Harris Benedict Equation, calculating for a sedentary lifestyle, I should burn about 1610 (1600 for easy calculations) per day. Through my daily activity, then, I automatically lose 400-500 calories.
So... calculating conservatively (assuming I eat closer to 1200 calories than 1100) I need to burn 350 calories through exercise every day.

I should be able to do that.

Whew! This is going to take some diligence and effort. I am going to have to exercise EVERY DAY. Even weekends. And I am going to have to burn at least 350 calories every time I exercise.

This is going to be a challenge for me.

Finding the balance

I'm on day 3 of calorie tracking. So far so good, I think. I'm staying in my calorie range and the first two days, which are always the hardest, are over. Thankfully I kept busy with Erika Grinder (scrapping on Thursday and canning yesterday) so I wasn't even tempted to snack. Today I'm home all day, so I will have to be on my guard a little more...

So I'm getting back into the groove of calorie counting. Now I just have to find the balance... the balance of fitting it into my day and not getting sucked into the computer just because I'm entering food into SparkPeople. The balance of getting all the nutrients I need, without too much fat. The balance of feeding my family the food they need while keeping my own dietary goals in mind. So now it's about finding the balance, I guess, and that's what I need to work on.

Moderation is not my strong point.

If it's not the 3 glasses of eggnog in an afternoon (at 440 calories per glass!!) it's the other end of the spectrum with a dearth of calories....

I started calorie counting today. I think I might have hit bottom when I got on the scale and saw it up 10 lbs from what I was just a few months ago! So discouraging! But today I did something about it, and it didn't include comfort food!

I started calorie counting today. And I'd forgotten how hard it was to count calories! Not so hard to do the counting, as how hungry I got when I wasn't shoving food into my face every time I felt like it. I was away from home for most of the day, but I limited my beverage consumption to water and coffee (which is calorie free if I drink it black - and I did!) and so I wasn't snacking all the time like I would have been at home. That was a lifesaver! But I got home and entered everything into Spark People and learned that even after calculating my dinner calories (leftover tortilla soup - and I skipped the cheese on it) I was still only at 500 some calories for the day! Sigh... moderation is not my strong point. If I'm not over eating, I'm under eating. Will I ever learn?

The good news is that I'm now up to 850 calories, so maybe I have a little room for a snack later on. I did drink some full sugar pop with dinner, but I limited it to 8 oz, and I don't feel badly about the calories given the rest of my caloric dearth of a day.

So... 300 or so calories to go tonight. That's not too bad, and I will eat them. I also have 32 oz of water to drink still and something else from the fruit and veggie family to consume. I'm making apple butter tonight (because we're canning tomorrow!) so maybe I'll eat an apple.

Anyway, I'm back on the wagon. It's been too long and too many lbs and now I have 20 lbs to lose instead of 10. So... off to change some habits again and see where that gets me.

Struggling...

... both with weight AND motivation. I stink at losing weight this time of year. I am all about comfort food. And I'm up another lb today. Grrr.

It probably won't help, either, that I've had both ice cream AND a few oreos today. I guess the good news is that the oreos are gone, so I won't be eating may more of them. There were only about 5 there anyway, but I'm grumpy at myself for eating them.

We're having chicken tortilla soup for dinner tonight, so at least that's not terrible for me. But it's a rainy, dreary day, and that always makes me less motivated to exercise.

On the plus side, I did play DDR with my mom a couple nights last week, so that has given me a taste for it again. Hopefully that will encourage me to get down there and do it some by myself! I'd forgotten how fun it was!

yeek!

Maybe I shouldn't have gotten on the scale.... I'm up to 122! Perhaps I should give up my hot chocolate laced with heavy whipping cream with breakfast in the mornings....

.... or maybe I should just get off my booty and do some exercise!

I meant to weigh myself today.

Really, I did. But it didn't happen.

Sigh.