I went wedding dress shopping last week. No, not for an actual wedding dress. Just for a dress to wear to a wedding. This shopping trip felt a little bit more emotional for me than my usual dressing room drama, mainly because the wedding was for a friend that we went to school with (basically making this a mini high school reunion.) I've said it before, but it still holds true: I need to go shopping more often. Trying on clothes is such an enormous motivation for me to stick to my diet & exercise plan. There were several outfits that looked amazing on the mannequin and then didn't look as great when my curves were inserted into them.
Not everybody knows this, but my husband is my best shopping partner. He has better taste than me and he tells me the truth. Usually, I gravitate to my "safe" items. He scopes out the stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily try on and convinces me to "just try it" and that's typically the stuff that looks the best. When it doesn't he (kindly) says, "Nope, not the right shade of red after all" or "That skirt would look better if it were just an inch and a half or so longer." So, imagine my shock when he tried to tell me that I should go sleeveless! Had he lost his gift? Did he not realize that I had in fact inherited my grandma's arms as my father had warned him? (Thanks, Dad...) There was no way that I was going to face people from high school that I hadn't seen in a decade with flipping cellulite looking flab on my upper arms showing!
Well, turns out that's not true. No way turned into "OKay, fine. Whatever." The little black number flattered EVERYTHING but my arms. That's a fair trade off, right? I almost forgot about my arms too (that is until we were out on the dance floor and the song changed to YMCA and I attempted to do the motions until I got scared that my arm flab swinging around was causing too much air current...) So, now, once again motivated... I want to know two things:
#1. What is your favorite way to tone your arms?
#2. Share your favorite healthy recipe for weight loss!
I'll leave this open for two weeks and then choose my favorite suggestion from both of those. The winner & their exercise / recipe will be put on the side bar for the world to see. (Okay, the 4 or 5 readers, but I can pretend it's the world, can't I?)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Them Bones, Them Bones, Them Lazy Bones...
What. A. Week. I've gotta tell ya... I'm pretty sure there are some slugs out there who've moved more than me this week. Turtles, at least. Maybe sloths... I dunno. It's been bad. I got a really bad kidney infection and ended up in the hospital. Once I got out of there, I attached myself firmly to the couch. I'm surprised I haven't developed bed sores. So... now it's time to get motivated again. Have you noticed that once you spend a few days being lazy it's even harder than usual to force yourself to workout?
This morning when I woke up, the sun was glowing in through my windows and the sky was crystal blue. It was stinking freezing, but gloriously beautiful. So, I threw on my tennis shoes to go out and enjoy it. I made it down the porch steps and then I decided to turn around and go inside (promising myself that I would take a walk in the afternoon when it had warmed up.) Then, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up all I felt like doing was blogging. Which brings me to the question: How many calories do you think it takes to blog? I'm thinking about getting one of those stools that you twist & balance on that works your abs. I could do that while I type. Now that's my kind of workout. Oh yeah, and I have to go bathing suit shopping for a family vacation this weekend. Yikes! That oughta motivate me!
How are you guys doing?
This morning when I woke up, the sun was glowing in through my windows and the sky was crystal blue. It was stinking freezing, but gloriously beautiful. So, I threw on my tennis shoes to go out and enjoy it. I made it down the porch steps and then I decided to turn around and go inside (promising myself that I would take a walk in the afternoon when it had warmed up.) Then, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up all I felt like doing was blogging. Which brings me to the question: How many calories do you think it takes to blog? I'm thinking about getting one of those stools that you twist & balance on that works your abs. I could do that while I type. Now that's my kind of workout. Oh yeah, and I have to go bathing suit shopping for a family vacation this weekend. Yikes! That oughta motivate me!
How are you guys doing?
Monday, January 12, 2009
Commitment Issues
I have a confession to make. I have diet commitment issues. Oddly, my problem isn't the ability to stick to the diet so much as choosing which diet to be faithful to. In this day & age of choices, I'm really at a loss to narrow it down to just one plan. I was pretty sure that sticking to 1200 calories a day (preferably by eating 200 calories 6 times a day) was the best way to go. Then, I started questioning whether that was really enough. I have the book The PH Balance For Miracle Weight Loss. It claims that if my PH balance is off that I won't be able to lose weight. Which makes sense to me. So, what if I'm killing myself on 1200 calories of rabbit food a day and it doesn't work because those 1200 calories weren't alkaline?
My friend Kelly made an excellent suggestion to try the Blood type diet. Only, I keep forgetting to get the book. I did look it up online and it made a ton of sense. I'm gathering from certain traits that I have that I'm in the gatherer group, but I can't remember for sure what my blood type is and so I'm questioning whether I'm really putting myself into the right group or not. I thought about going to the Red Cross blood drive so that they would tell me my blood type, but they won't take my blood since I'm anemic right now... Hmmph. So, for now I've been keeping that in mind as I make food choices and trying to eat somewhat gatherer like while hoping that I actually am a gatherer.
I thought about simplifying things and just going with a pre-packaged plan like Nutrisystem. I truly love built in portion control. Only, I don't love that when I read the ingredient list for several of their entrees there were so many chemicals and additives. Deep down, I have to believe that it's better for my body to eat real food than to eat processed stuff even if it is in the right calorie range. I've always kind of been a whole foods girl at heart. Besides, too much soy and sodium make me feel sick. Same thing for Slim-fast. Love the premeasured readiness of a chocolate can of goodness, but the sugar sends my body on a blood sugar roller coaster which for me = more food cravings, moodiness, and exhaustion. Not the way i like to lose weight.
A lot of my friends have been having great success with Weight Watchers. While I understand what they mean when they say they prefer to count points, I just don't like counting points myself. Why I don't know. Somehow to me, checking the calories, carbs, and/or glycemic index is fine but counting points is annoying. Weird, I know. I also have several friends that are seeing a registered dietitian. This, I'm strongly considering. If I could only get past the $$$ shock part I would go to her in a heart beat. Sure, the fact that you have to strip down and get measured at every visit sends me into an anxiety attack, but I'm sure it's worth it. If only for the fact that she would be giving me precise instructions to follow as to what to eat and how to work out. Maybe that would take the difficulty out of making a commitment to a diet plan?
For now, (this week) I'm committing to the low carb thing. Basically just because it was something that I had the ingredients for on hand. Also, I want something that will give me rapid results (I have to step on the scale at the Dr. 11 days from now, after all.) I know that as long as I COMMIT to a low carb plan that I'll drop a decent amount of weight. Right now, I'm desperately craving refined carbs and cheese. For some reason, a tuna melt sounded awesome, only I just had the tuna and pouted over the bread. And don't get me started on how bad I want Taco Bell's fully loaded nachos. What is it with these cheesy things that's calling my name? I was way too excited when I read the nutrition info on the back of my lunch meat package and found out that there are 0 carbs & that I could have some. Here I was sad because I thought it was honey ham and would be off limits and it turned out I'd actually bought smoked turkey after all! I'll tell you what, there's nothing like depriving yourself to make you appreciate some strange stuff. Never before in my life would I have cheered about lunch meat.
Maybe after a couple weeks of ketosis, I'll branch out to the PH Balance diet or something. We'll see. I do have commitment issues, after all. With so many choices, I just don't know which one to choose! All I know is that I have to actually stick with one long enough to get the desired effect but I'm hoping that doing a little of each is better than not doing any diet at all. Maybe they'll have some sort of cumulative effect? What is your favorite way to diet?
My friend Kelly made an excellent suggestion to try the Blood type diet. Only, I keep forgetting to get the book. I did look it up online and it made a ton of sense. I'm gathering from certain traits that I have that I'm in the gatherer group, but I can't remember for sure what my blood type is and so I'm questioning whether I'm really putting myself into the right group or not. I thought about going to the Red Cross blood drive so that they would tell me my blood type, but they won't take my blood since I'm anemic right now... Hmmph. So, for now I've been keeping that in mind as I make food choices and trying to eat somewhat gatherer like while hoping that I actually am a gatherer.
I thought about simplifying things and just going with a pre-packaged plan like Nutrisystem. I truly love built in portion control. Only, I don't love that when I read the ingredient list for several of their entrees there were so many chemicals and additives. Deep down, I have to believe that it's better for my body to eat real food than to eat processed stuff even if it is in the right calorie range. I've always kind of been a whole foods girl at heart. Besides, too much soy and sodium make me feel sick. Same thing for Slim-fast. Love the premeasured readiness of a chocolate can of goodness, but the sugar sends my body on a blood sugar roller coaster which for me = more food cravings, moodiness, and exhaustion. Not the way i like to lose weight.
A lot of my friends have been having great success with Weight Watchers. While I understand what they mean when they say they prefer to count points, I just don't like counting points myself. Why I don't know. Somehow to me, checking the calories, carbs, and/or glycemic index is fine but counting points is annoying. Weird, I know. I also have several friends that are seeing a registered dietitian. This, I'm strongly considering. If I could only get past the $$$ shock part I would go to her in a heart beat. Sure, the fact that you have to strip down and get measured at every visit sends me into an anxiety attack, but I'm sure it's worth it. If only for the fact that she would be giving me precise instructions to follow as to what to eat and how to work out. Maybe that would take the difficulty out of making a commitment to a diet plan?
For now, (this week) I'm committing to the low carb thing. Basically just because it was something that I had the ingredients for on hand. Also, I want something that will give me rapid results (I have to step on the scale at the Dr. 11 days from now, after all.) I know that as long as I COMMIT to a low carb plan that I'll drop a decent amount of weight. Right now, I'm desperately craving refined carbs and cheese. For some reason, a tuna melt sounded awesome, only I just had the tuna and pouted over the bread. And don't get me started on how bad I want Taco Bell's fully loaded nachos. What is it with these cheesy things that's calling my name? I was way too excited when I read the nutrition info on the back of my lunch meat package and found out that there are 0 carbs & that I could have some. Here I was sad because I thought it was honey ham and would be off limits and it turned out I'd actually bought smoked turkey after all! I'll tell you what, there's nothing like depriving yourself to make you appreciate some strange stuff. Never before in my life would I have cheered about lunch meat.
Maybe after a couple weeks of ketosis, I'll branch out to the PH Balance diet or something. We'll see. I do have commitment issues, after all. With so many choices, I just don't know which one to choose! All I know is that I have to actually stick with one long enough to get the desired effect but I'm hoping that doing a little of each is better than not doing any diet at all. Maybe they'll have some sort of cumulative effect? What is your favorite way to diet?
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