You Have Lost Weight

So losing this much weight means I get to have a lot of awkward conversations with everyone from co-workers to neighbors to fellow church members.  They usually start in one of two ways:

1)  "You have lost weight."  (Yes, I have, thank you for noticing)

or

2) "You look great." (What did I look like before?)

Both of these are usually said very emphatically and slowly, with emphasis given to each word. I'm often not sure what else to say and it's usually at least slightly awkward, but it does mean a lot and makes me feel good.

It also means I get to have a lot of conversations about how I've "done it." I start with the short answer "working out and trying to watch what I eat." For some, this is all you want to know. You're just checking to make sure I'm not doing some crazy diet.  But if you seem interested, I give you more of the gritty details about calorie counting and how I use sparkpeople, how I make my meals in advance and plan my fruits and vegetables, how I work out a lot and I've started running. 

At this point, I get really excited, because I want so much to help you get to where I am.  I want to tell you everything I've learned over the last year. I want to see you do everything that I've done and then succeed.  But I've come to realize two things.

1)What works for me may not be the best solution for you.  These things work for me because I figured out what I was doing wrong (Overeating, stopping to get fast food for dinner on the way home from work, etc.) and I figured out a ways to curb the problems that fit within my lifestyle. (I don't have to cook for a family, and I'm able to work out on my lunch hour because I work about 20 feet from an amazing gym.) So even though I stand by my six days-a-week workouts and my Sunday afternoon grocery shopping and meal prep time, it may not be the solution your problem. Heck, you may not even have the same problems.

2)People have to chose to change. You may say to me that you want to lose weight and ask for all of the advice in the world, which I will happily share, but it all comes down to you, how you decide to live your life and the choices you make on a daily basis.  As I read somewhere, it's hard to be overweight and it's hard to lose weight. You just have to choose your hard.

So, I guess what I've learned is that instead of pushing my advice on you, I should 
try to help you figure out what is keeping you from reaching your goals and how then how you can fix it. Then it is up to you to decide to do it. 
Just some observations from the journey. 

A Little Inspiration

Need a little inspiration today? Check out some of these quotes about reaching your goals. If one jumps out at you, write it down on a notecard and post it somewhere you will see it!

"Success doesn't come to you, you go to it." -Marva Collins

"Success is a journey, not a destination." -Ben Sweetland

"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got."

"Seventy percent of success in life is showing up." -Woody Allen  

"Success comes before work only in the dictionary." Anonymous  

"Success: willing to do what the average person is not willing to do." Anonymous  

"What you get by reaching your destination is not nearly as important as what you will become by reaching your destination." 

"Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success." -Dr. Joyce Brothers

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want." -Ben Stein  

"I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." -John D. Rockefeller 

"Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going."


Do you have any favorite quotes that inspire you to keep going? Share them in the comments section!

Diet Or Exercise?

I think you know that I work out a lot.  I try to get in six to seven workouts a week of at least 45 minutes.  I swim, I run, I do Turbo Kick and other group exercise classes. I have spent a lot of time on treadmills and elliptical machines at the gym, although I’m staying away from them more these days.  I lift weights and even did nine weeks of the insane Insanity program with Shaun T this summer. I rotate such a large variety of activities to keep from getting bored. Of course, I did not start off with such an extreme regimen, but added and improved over time as my body became more fit.

With all this exercise, I have also learned the importance of a rest day.  In the beginning I felt guilty taking a day off, like I was a failure.  It’s taken awhile, but I’ve come to realize that too much of a good thing is never good and that my body needs time to rest, repair and revitalize itself.

We've all heard that exercise is an important part of a healthy life.  What I’ve learned, though, is that it is not the main ingredient in weight loss.  No matter how much you work out, you will be not be successful with weight loss unless you get your eating/calorie consumption under control.  Now on the other hand, if you are physically unable to exercise, you can control your weight by controlling your portions and calories. 

The exercise speeds the process and tones your body at the same time. 

Today, I love exercise, but my food intake is something I still have to constantly work on.  Which do you struggle with more, fitting in work outs or fighting with food?

*disclaimer: I am not a doctor or an exercise expert. This is just what I’ve observed based on personal experience.

Acceptable

Stay tuned for the 2nd installment of Memory Mondays...

In the middle of May, I started a workout program called Insanity that was run through the gym at work.  Before beginning, we had our body fat percentage calculated by our resident fitness guru, Lindy, so that we could compare them with our results at the end. It was the first time I was brave enough to have my body fat percentage measured.

We got the results on May 23, and much to my surprise, I was in the “Acceptable” range for my age group, 30-49 year olds. 

I immediately freaked out.  Yes, I had spent the last 10 months trying very hard to improve my health. Yes, I had also lost 80 pounds. But I was still in plus-size pants! And according to the online body mass index, I still needed to lose 60 more pounds to be in the “healthy” range for my height.

I wrote Lindy an email explaining that I could not possibly have an “acceptable” body fat percentage. I told her that I am overweight, I always have been.  Was it possible that she miscalculated?

It turns out that she is very good at what she does, (not that I was really doubting her) and she has a one percent accuracy guarantee when it comes to body fat calculations. She first told me I needed to stop thinking about the body mass index scale. Because it is only based on height, it takes nothing else into consideration (like the fact that my hips make it clear that I’m a descendant of the Johnson family).  She reminded me that I just turned 30 two weeks before, so I was just barely into this higher age range, and I might consider looking at how my percentage measured up in the 16-29 age group. When I took a look at their chart, my body fat percentage was, just barely, considered “Overfat.” Crazily, despite how hard I worked, this was actually more acceptable to me. After all, it’s all I’ve ever known.

Lindy also reminded me that I had come a long way and that maybe I needed to appreciate the work I had put in, recognizing the changes in myself.  She suggested that perhaps I shouldn’t be so concerned with the categories and the charts and just concentrate on improving my percentage over the next two months of the program. 

So, I did.  I stopped thinking about the number and concentrated on these insane workouts instead (turns out, Insanity is aptly titled).  At the end of the summer, when our results were measured again, I had not lost any weight, but I had reduced my body fat percentage by almost a whole percentage point, putting me squarely in the “acceptable” category for both age groups.   Pretty crazy.

Now when negative thoughts creep in about how far I still have to go, I try to stop them in their tracks by reminding myself of how far I've come.  If you're trying to lose weight, it's a good idea to get your body fat measured and use that as another way to see your progress.

Don't Fail to Plan

So back several years ago, when I was attending Weight Watchers meetings, one of the sayings they had was:

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

And let me tell you, it is so true.  If you don't prepare, mentally and physically, it is really hard to be successful. I'm sure this applies to many other life areas, but especially when it comes to diet and exercise.  Part of the reason I think I did so poorly last week was because I didn't spend Sunday afternoon preparing meals for the week.  I was busy, so I thought that some leftovers and frozen meals would get me through the week. Boy, was I wrong.

That's one of the secrets of my weight loss: pretty much every Sunday afternoon since I've started, I spent time planning and preparing my meals for the week.  So, this week, I thought I'd let you in on the experience.

Yesterday, I did my weekly grocery shopping. I stocked up on strawberries, bananas, spinach, cereal, almond milk, chicken breasts...you get the picture. Before I went to the store, I perused my saved Sparkrecipe.com recipes and found two that I thought I'd like to try this week. I decided to make Cream Cheese Basil Fettucine, one of my favorite sparkrecipes, and a new recipe, Tomato and Spinach Chicken.

So today, I made them when I got home from church.  As I put each ingredient into the dish, I write down the calories and the fat grams and how many servings I've put in.  Then when I finish making the dish, I multiply out the calories and fat for each ingredient, add them up and then divide by the number of servings I made. It looks a like this:

Now, many recipes today come with the nutrition ingredients listed, so you may wonder why I do this.  Well, I usually try to get products with the lowest calorie count when I'm at the store. So, one brand of whole wheat pasta may be 200 calories for 2 oz, but another maybe 180 calories for 2 oz.  I try to get the one with the lowest calories every time. Plus, sometimes I modify the recipes. For instance the Cream Cheese Basil Fettucine is higher in calories than I normally like. So I put in less olive oil and butter than the recipe requires.
I want the calories that I keep track of every day to be accurate, and it won't be unless you figure out the exact calories for the meal that you are making.

After I make a meal, I divide it into the servings that I've accounted for and put it in individual Tupperwares. This is great, because it makes lunches and dinners during the week so easy. I just pull out one Tupperware and off to work I go.  This week, I bought grapes for a snack, so I also pre-packaged them into individual servings.

So here's my food for the week:

Every morning I have cereal (GoLEAN Kashi Crunch) and strawberries with almond milk.  For lunch I will have one of the Tupperwares lined up in the back of the picture, which are individual servings of Cream Cheese Basil Pasta. My snacks are bananas and grapes. I also have almonds and Luna bars already in my desk at work, if I need an extra boost of energy.  My dinners this week will be the Tomato and Spinach Chicken, which is at the forefront of the picture. They had just come out of the oven, so I hadn't had time to Tupperware them yet.  But they smelled so good, I made the executive decision to have one for much lunch today.   

Plated on my small plates, it looks like a lot of food! It's bedded on brown rice and the juicy tomatoes and crisp bacon made it all delicious!

This is what Bon looks like the entire time I'm cooking. So hopeful. I'm pretty sure it is her favorite time of the whole week, as she is just waiting for me to screw up and drop some scraps for her.  She eats pretty much anything I drop, except today we discovered that she is not a spinach fan.  I dropped a few of the fresh leaves. She made a mad dash for them and then slowly walked away without eating them.

So that's it.  I'm always looking for new recipes, so if you have any great ones, please share!

It's Mental

You will not believe how trapped in my head I have been this week. I gave up on myself.  I had no energy or desire to work out, so I didn't. I was tired, I was sad, and I was stressed. I ate out way too many times.

I skipped my workout on Tuesday and Wednesday all together.  In my running training program, my runs are getting to be dauntingly long. Last Saturday I reached a new distance, but I did it while running alongside a friend, and I think I was scared that I couldn't go that long/far again by myself. Plus, my runs are getting too long to do on a lunch hour, so I need to figure out how to make time for them at night.

This whole time that I was sabotaging my efforts, I knew I was being stupid. I knew I should call someone and confess my backward slide. I knew that if I would just do some kind of workout I would feel better. But I couldn't make myself do either.  It was easier to stay trapped in my head.

So tonight I got a message from a friend who was checking in on me.  I responded with the truth of how my week has been going and made myself sick from the whiney, "woe-is-me" nature of this message.  So after sending the message I walked to my car and drove to Manchester Meadows before I could talk myself out of it.  I told myself as I started it didn't matter how far I went, I just had to get started. It was a beautiful evening. Before I knew it, I had run five miles in 56 minutes with two walk breaks of one minute each.  That's a new record! That's more running time than what I did with my friend last Saturday.  

While running I had a lot of time to think (one of running's many benefits).  I was thinking about how running is such a mental game.  I'm to the point now that I am physically able to run (relatively) long distances. But each time I go out there, I have the ability to psych myself out of a run. I've noticed that the attitude with which I approach a run workout completely changes the kind of workout I have.  

Dieting is the same way.  A big key to success is believing you can do it. If you go into a day expecting to fail, then you probably will.  Stating your goals in the present tense, rather than the future tense, tricks you into believing you have already achieved it.  When you have yourself believing that it can be accomplished, it really will be accomplished.  Don't be afraid to give yourself a little pep talk when you need it (if people look at you like you are crazy, it's okay. You probably are a little). If you don't have the energy or mood or internal motivation to give the pep talk to yourself, find a good friend and let them do it.  Anything to get yourself out of your own head. It's mental.

P.S. I saw someone on a diet forum today refer to her "liveit" as opposed to her "diet." Get it? LIVE-It and  DIE-it?  I thought it was kind of cute. Corny, but cute.

Life List

So eventually, I'm going to get around to posting a serious blog about goals and how important they are to have and to evaluate regularly, etc.  But tonight, I thought it might be fun to post some things I just want to do someday.   In preparation, I went and dug out a "life list" I made in 2005 and thought I'd share most of it with you. I've edited the list to remove some things that are highly personal/highly stupid/unfit for the public's consumption. Progress is also noted, for your reading fulfillment.

1. Visit all 50 states. (Still working on this.)
2. Visit all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums (I believe I have stalled out at six stadiums, but I'm not giving up just yet.)
3. Visit all of the continents, except Antarctica. (Hope to visit my second continent next year when I go to see the amazing Stephanie Hardy.)
4. Finish my M.B.A. (GIANT CHECKMARK HERE)
5. Cameo on "The Office." (I would settle for a set visit.)
6. Go to San Fransisco. (someday)
7. Lose 100 pounds. (See, this was a goal I had in 2005. Now, five years later, I might actually accomplish it!)
8. Sing with a live band. (Check!)
9. Own a dog. (Check!)
10. Go skydiving. (someday)
11. Learn to play the guitar. (I've since accepted my lack of musical talent and given up all music-related goals.)
12. Learn to play golf. (This was a phase I was going through. I no longer feel a need to know how to play golf. But I wouldn't mind learning to play golf's more-hip cousin, disc golf)
13. Learn to salsa (I think the cha-cha slide is good enough for me.)
14. Own a house. (Check!)
15. Learn how my car works.(I bought a book on the subject, but it did not help.)
16. Be proficient with graphic design. (I wrote this before I started working with graphic designers. I think I have achieved a base level of proficiency, but will, sadly, never have talent.)
17. Be fashionable. (Thanks to the generous donations of "clean-out-the-closet"clothes from more fashionable friends, I'm as close now as I will ever be.)

Now some new goals that were not on the list in 2005, but I'd like to add:
18. Hike down into the Grand Canyon and back out.
19. Love others the way I am loved. (definitely a work in progress.)
20. Complete a sprint triathlon.(hopefully, next May)
21. Run a 10k. (I don't have a race in mind, but it will be somewhat soon!)
22. Run a half marathon.


Do you have a life list? If not, you should make one.  What are some highlights?  Share in the comments below!