Blogging 2 lose weight

Well, being sick really helped. Everything tasted like cardboard, so I didn't eat as much as I normally would.

The result?

I am down to 191.84 pounds! This is a loss of almost 0,5 pounds. Not much, but I will take it!

Here were my goals for the week:

* Must have at least 6 glasses of water each day - DONE!

* Must have 2 cups of coffee & 2 cups of tea per day - DONE!

* Must have 2 fruits per day - DONE!

* Must have at least 3 veggies per day - DONE!

* Must do exercise at least 2 times for at least 20 minutes per time - NONE:-(

Had some bad news over the weekend. The gym I like to go to will be closing for 3 months for renovations. I am really happy about the renovations, but will have to sort something out for exercising!

As far as my eating was concerned, I think I did much better than the week before. I had less biscuits and chocolate and when I had them the portions were much smaller. BUT it is still something I need to work on! Exercise is definitely one of the goals I need to work on the most!

On friday the flu bug got a hold of me. I was sneezing and had a runny nose and a throat that was on fire. I left work early, took some meds and slept.


When I woke up, I felt a bit better. Saturday we had a farewell dinner at a friend's. I really didn't want to go, but since I will not see her again, I decided to just make the most of it and go. It was nice, I even felt better saturday night.

Yesterday morning when I woke up, I felt pretty good. In my mind, I was thinking that I had fought the flu bug without any help from the doctor. BUT Murphy's laws don't exist for no reason - yesterday afternoon a tickle started in my throat and by last night I had this ugly little cough.

This morning my nose felt fine, but my throat not. I have made an appointment with the doctor for later today.

I didn't track what I ate, but I didn't eat as much as I normally would have. And I drank loads of liquids.

I weighed in again, a bit worried about the previous day's gain, but apparently it had been water weight. I was down to 192,28 pounds again. Phew! What a relief!

Eating went quite well for the day:

• Breakfast: Bran cereal with milk
• Morning snack: banana
• Lunch: Sardines and a green salad
• Afternoon snack: banana
• Supper: one piece chicken, potato chips and a burger (wasn't feeling well, bought something on the way home).
• Evening snack: small piece of chocolate, a biscuit and a glass of milk

I have a really sore throat, am sneezing my lungs out and my menses started later than normal. I am not feeling well at all. Lucky the weekend is almost here.

For the past few days things have been hectic both at work and at home. I didn't even have a chance to log what I ate, I just tried to keep track mentally.

Monday's eating was not bad, but Tuesday I went to see a client who provided lunch for us. Unfortunately very fatty and unhealthy, with the result that when I weighed in yesterday morning I was up almost a pound.

Yesterday's eating was exceptionally good.

The worst thing of this past week is not going to the gym. I had plans to get my gym ball out for a nice home workout, but simply did not have the time for it.

One thing I am proud of though is sticking to my goals for the week. Everyday of this week I had more than 6 glasses of water, ate more than 2 fruits and more than 3 servings of veggies per day. It is not that difficult and I am actually enjoying the veggies more than I thought possible. One good thing about veggies is that one can eat quite a lot as it contains very little calories.

I saw this interesting article on MSN Health on using lists to aid weightloss.

In essence, using lists helps us to:

1. Gain control
2. Maximise brainpower
3. Make touch decisions
4. Beat a slump
5. Find motivation
6. Achieve balance
7. Feel joy everyday

Although I am an ardent list user when it comes to monthly grocery shopping and work issues, I have never really thought of using it for weightloss. I love using lists, I definitely get joy from ticking off the items from my list, so why not use it for weightloss purposes as well?

So, for the next week I will use the following list of daily/weekly goals to aid my weightloss journey:

• Must have at least 6 glasses of water each day
• Must have 2 cups of coffee and 2 cups of tea per day (read somewhere 2 cups of each help us get the maximum benefits from both)
• Must have 2 fruits per day
• Must have at least 3 veggies per day
• Must do exercise at least 2 times for at least 20 minutes per time per week

Let's see how it goes!

If I take a completely honest look at the past week, here are how I would summarise my results:

• Far too much snacking on chocolate!!! If I really have to snack, surely it could be something healthier.
• No exercise! This is basically due to laziness - there is no other reason at all!

So, for the week ahead, this is what I aim to do....

• Reduce my chocolate intake
• Exercise at least 2 times for a minimum of 20 minute each

I woke up feeling like I was getting the flu. I had planned to go to the gym today, but when i felt flu-ish when I woke up, that thought was quickly out of the door.

I did work hard at cleaning out my kitchen cupboards. It was my only exercise for the day.

I ate:

• Breakfast: one egg fried without fat served with one slice of toast
• Morning snack: Orange juice
• Lunch: Roast chicken, roast sweet potato with spinach and salad
• Afternoon snack: Chocolate
• Supper: Corn puffs, low-fat chicken and pineapple pizza
• Evening snack: chocolate

Today was a busy day. We went grocery shopping and afterwards went to buy fruit and veggies for the month ahead. I also cleaned the whole house. By the time I had finish make supper, I was exhausted and my feet were hurting.

Here is what I ate:

• Breakfast: cheese roll and coffee
• Morning snack: coke
• Lunch: left-over roast chicken and a 1/3 avo
• Afternoon snack: chocolate milk
• Supper: roast chicken thigh, roast sweet potato, cauliflower and a green salad.
• Evening snack: chocolate

The salad I had for lunch was surprisingly tasy with a low-fat salad dressing. I should definitely eat something like that more often.

This morning time was very little, I had to grab what was available for work. I took work home, couldn't finish it all and tried to be at work earlier than usual.

I only had breakfast at 10:00 am!!!

This is what I ate:

• Breakfast: A toasted chicken mayo sandwich from the cafeteria since I didn't bring breakfast with.
• Morning snack: an orange
• Lunch: left-over mince curry and basmati rice with grapefruit
• Afternoon snack: an apple
• Supper: Roast chicken, 1/3 avo and a cheese roll.
• Evening snack: Popcorn and about 30 gram chocolate

I'm not sure how many calories it was or what the split was - didn't enter it into Fitday.

For the whole week, I didn't get to the gym from Monday to Friday which was a bit disappointing.

Can't believe how fast the week has passed.

Here is what I ate today:

• Breakfast: Bran cereal with milk
• Morning snack: an orange
• Lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a chicken patty (leftover from last night)
• Afternoon snack: None
• Supper: Mince curry with basmati rice
• Evening snack: small chocolate and potato chips

According to fitday: 1,819

Split between carbs/protein/fat: 48/17/35

Today was quite a busy day at work.

I have noticed that I eat pretty well at work, the problem is when I come home at night. Then I will have a good healthy supper, afterwards is when the problem starts.

What I ate today:

• Breakfast: 2 slices of banana bread
• Morning Snack: an orange
• Lunch: Smoked fish with onion and green pepper
• Afternoon snack: an apple
• Supper: oven-baked fries with a baked chicken patty
• Evening snack: chocolate and 6 custard biscuits

According to fitday: 1,852 calories

Split between carbs/protein/fat: 53/15/32.

Yesterday I realised for the somaniest time that my biggest challenge in this weightloss journey is overcoming my mental barriers.

Whenever I lose weight nicely, I will get scared and suddenly start to saboutage myself by eating more and unhealthy, by not exercising. It happens automatically, I am sometimes not even aware of it.

But lately I have tried to focus on how I am feeling when I weigh, when I eat, when I drink and I have become aware of this huge load of self-doubt that I carry around with me.

Yesterday I had an appointment with the dentist. I haven't been to a dentist in over 5 years. I have this stigma about my bad, yellow teeth (according to my ex) and always felt self-conscious about smiling. I would watch make-over programmes and see how beautiful porcelain veneers look and I would wish that I could get some for myself, but it is out of my price league.

Anyways, at the dentist I enquired about her removing my capped tooth which is the one thing making me feel extremely self-concious since it's colour is different from my other teeth and it is slightly slanted forward - it just doesn't fit with the other teeth in my mouth. She told me that they can remove and replace it over a period of a week and that a technician would match the cap with the colour of my other teeth - a perfect match. I then asked about bleaching my teeth and to my surprise discovered that it was actually more affordable than I had thought.

I still have to phone my medical insurance to make sure they will pay for the cap, but I don't think there will be any problems there.

The mere thought of having a beautiful smile makes me tear up. It would be so wonderful... I wonder what it will do for my self-confidence.

What I have realised is that so often I doubt myself for even the smallest thing and yet there is not much stopping me from improving myself or my life. All it takes is a step in the right direction. Just a step...

This morning I weighed in at 192.5 pounds, which was quite a surprise to me.

It was a busy day, I was not at work as I had several doctor's appointments to attend and to take dd to.

Here is what I ate:

• Breakfast: 2 slices of banana bread
• Morning snack: can of coke
• Lunch: KFC twister with a coke
• Supper: roast chicken with roast veggies (eggplant, carriot, green pepper and sweet potato)

According to fitday, my calories for the day ended at 1,800 calories, slightly better than yesterday. Split: carbs/protein/fat = 55/16/29.

Not a very good day as far as my drinking especially was concerned, but it was mainly due to limited options.

Here is what I ate today:

• Breakfast: 2 slices of banana bread
• Morning snack: orange
• Lunch: sardines with one slice of banana bread
• Afternoon snack: apple
• Supper: pasta, fried egg and potato salad (strange combination, I know)
• Evening snack: cup of milk and a small packet of jelly babies.

According to Fitday, my intake totalled 2,164 - definitely too high. The calorie split: carbs/protein/fat = 52/20/28. Carbs are too high as well.

I didn't get to the gym today, but I did clean the whole house after work.

I weighed in this morning for the first time in about a week and I am UP!

I expected to be up. This past week I did not have any self-control and basically ate what I wanted.

So, my new starting weight for this blog is.... 194,04 pounds:-(

I worked hard today. I cleaned the whole house, cleaned out some of dd's cupboards, washed curtains, etc. So, I didn't have the energy to still go to the gym. I think cleaning can be a good workout as well.

Eating was ok, could've been better. Here is what I had:

• Breakfast: An orange
• Lunch: Pasta, sausage and potato salad (Way too much carbs!!!)
• Afternoon snack: Ice cream
• Supper: Pasta and potato salad
• Evening snack: biscuit dough

So, a lot I can improve on.

Tomorrow morning I will weigh to get my starting weight for this blog.

Today was quite a good day.

We slept late this morning and had a late breakfast.

Then we went to the gym. I had a really good cardio workout.

We did some shopping and went home for lunch. I was quite proud of myself for not buying take-out which is what I normally would have done. Perhaps spending quite a bit of money probably helped.

Then we spend the rest of the day cleaning the whole house. I was really exhausted by the time we finished.

Here is what I ate for the day:

• Breakfast: Bran cereal with skim milk
• Lunch: Low-fat pizza
• Snack: cherry juice
• Supper: Roast chicken with cauliflower, zucchini, eggplant, sweet potate and cauliflower
• Snack: 5 chocolate biscuits and low-fat hot chocolate

I am a 32 year old single mother with one child. I have been overweight since the birth of my child. I lost some weight afterwards, but I have never been anything less than 44 pounds overweight since then.

I now weigh 196 pounds. My BMI is in the obese range and I am tired of struggling to find clothes that fit or to have energy to play with my child. My ultimate goal weight is 132, but I am breaking this down into shorter intermediate goals just to make this journey seem a little bit less daunting.

I want to use this blog to track my ups and downs, my successes and failures and to identify my weaknesses so I can work on them.