Healthy Weight Loss

[PinkieLee]

Good morning & happy Tuesday healthy folks!

It's good to see everyone is either staying focused or getting back on track with their goals. Man I tell you... this healthy living stuff can be a bumpy journey. But, luckily we can start fresh every day with exercise and even make healthier choices with each & every meal.

I'm still holding... no gain/no loss.

I've been lax lately... I know bad! I haven't gone crazy and binged, I just haven't been as focused on every single thing I put in my mouth. For 4 months, I was sooo good at tracking my food, but lately I've just kinda pushed it aside letting life get in the way. I KNOW that if I don't journal what I eat, I can trick myself into believing that I'm doing better than I am. Since yesterday, I'm back on track with my WW tracking and staying strong.

Exercise... seriously I have the hardest time motivating myself to get up and just freakin' do it. Lately, I've been doing things like mowing the grass & pulling weeds in my garden because I know at least I am getting exercise in by doing these chores. I wish that I was born with that umph that makes you wanna exercise. And I KNOW that when I get going, that I really enjoy it. It's when I get out of my workout routine that I can't seem to bounce back into it. Luckily, the cooler temps have FINALLY moved into Texas, so we are hitting the park after dinner tonight to walk. YAY, fresh air AND exercise!

Meals planned for the day:

Breakfast:
1 scrambled egg with diced potatos on a wheat tortilla
a banana

Lunch:
leftover turkey chili, with 1/2 cup regular rice and a sprinkle of WW cheese

Dinner:
grilled chicken stuffed with boudain (it's a cajun rice dressing, but just a small amount)
steamed green beans
spinach salad with avacado slices, pecans & light raspberry vinegarette dressing

So many folks that have started this healthy weight loss journey are gonna be at the Reunion in 8 days, and I can't wait to see all their hard work and celebrate their success. Yes, I'm packing my workout clothes, too

Have a great day y'all!

[PinkieLee]

sylvie...

I am soooo very proud of you! CONGRATULATIONS on the 50 pound weight loss... you should be super proud of yourself! All that hard work is definitely paying off!

I hope that you enjoy your vacation and long overdue time with your love

[Medusa]

Good to see folks checking in and updating!

I hear you, Tonya, about journaling. I haven't journaled my food in 3 weeks and it shows! I had a 2 pound gain while in Portland and have been somewhat back on track since. I've lost the 2 pounds but it looks like the rest is going to be stubborn.

I've been hitting the water pretty hard since being back and watching my food pretty well but haven't exercised at ALL due to time constraints and exhaustion. I am motivated to exercise but it seems to fall to the back of the line with "things to do".

I keep telling myself that after Reunion is over, I'll have a lot more time to focus and will be able to be fully resumed but I know on some level I have to keep it going even before that.

[Kelt]

The Annual Report

It has been one year since I began my weight loss project. I had it planned out to come in here and go all data on you; you know, weights ,measures, avg loss per week, macronutrient balances, and on, and on. Maybe even some charts. You know I could.

I started in the reunion workout thread and then switched into Healthy Weight Loss when it became apparent that I was not doing traditional “workout” stuff for the long haul. You folks have been there for me the whole way, I’m still not done, but the year that I allotted for this is. I will keep working on this, hopefully with your continued support.

That said, I decided to do something dicey; numbers are all well and good, but it is time for the rubber to meet the road. For a while anyway, there are before and current (yesterday) pics of me in the gallery.

Please bear in mind the following:

No surgery
No diet drugs
No “diet” formulated foods
No gym

I was pre-diabetic - now normal
I was pre-hypertensive - now normal
I feel better than I have in over a decade
I can’t say thank you enough for all of your support and encouragement, this would not have happened without you.

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by Kelt

The Annual Report

It has been one year since I began my weight loss project. I had it planned out to come in here and go all data on you; you know, weights ,measures, avg loss per week, macronutrient balances, and on, and on. Maybe even some charts. You know I could.

I started in the reunion workout thread and then switched into Healthy Weight Loss when it became apparent that I was not doing traditional “workout” stuff for the long haul. You folks have been there for me the whole way, I’m still not done, but the year that I allotted for this is. I will keep working on this, hopefully with your continued support.

That said, I decided to do something dicey; numbers are all well and good, but it is time for the rubber to meet the road. For a while anyway, there are before and current (yesterday) pics of me in the gallery.

Please bear in mind the following:

No surgery
No diet drugs
No “diet” formulated foods
No gym

I was pre-diabetic - now normal
I was pre-hypertensive - now normal
I feel better than I have in over a decade
I can’t say thank you enough for all of your support and encouragement, this would not have happened without you.

Wow Kelt...what an amazing and fantastic change.

Bravo on all of the hard work and success....and especially for feeling better and improved health. You are seriously an inspiration.

[PinkieLee]

Originally Posted by Kelt

The Annual Report

It has been one year since I began my weight loss project. I had it planned out to come in here and go all data on you; you know, weights ,measures, avg loss per week, macronutrient balances, and on, and on. Maybe even some charts. You know I could.

I started in the reunion workout thread and then switched into Healthy Weight Loss when it became apparent that I was not doing traditional “workout” stuff for the long haul. You folks have been there for me the whole way, I’m still not done, but the year that I allotted for this is. I will keep working on this, hopefully with your continued support.

That said, I decided to do something dicey; numbers are all well and good, but it is time for the rubber to meet the road. For a while anyway, there are before and current (yesterday) pics of me in the gallery.

Please bear in mind the following:

No surgery
No diet drugs
No “diet” formulated foods
No gym

I was pre-diabetic - now normal
I was pre-hypertensive - now normal
I feel better than I have in over a decade
I can’t say thank you enough for all of your support and encouragement, this would not have happened without you.

WOOHOOOOOOOOO is the only words that can come to my brain right now! What an amazing transformation you have made... all on your own! Your determination, hard work & sheer willpower are amazing and you should feel absolutely AMAZING my friend!

That lil' bit of umph & extra motivation I needed... you gave it back to me! THANK YOU for sharing your story, your journey and YOU with us!

[Thinker]

Originally Posted by Kelt

The Annual Report

It has been one year since I began my weight loss project. I had it planned out to come in here and go all data on you; you know, weights ,measures, avg loss per week, macronutrient balances, and on, and on. Maybe even some charts. You know I could.

I started in the reunion workout thread and then switched into Healthy Weight Loss when it became apparent that I was not doing traditional “workout” stuff for the long haul. You folks have been there for me the whole way, I’m still not done, but the year that I allotted for this is. I will keep working on this, hopefully with your continued support.

That said, I decided to do something dicey; numbers are all well and good, but it is time for the rubber to meet the road. For a while anyway, there are before and current (yesterday) pics of me in the gallery.

Please bear in mind the following:

No surgery
No diet drugs
No “diet” formulated foods
No gym

I was pre-diabetic - now normal
I was pre-hypertensive - now normal
I feel better than I have in over a decade
I can’t say thank you enough for all of your support and encouragement, this would not have happened without you.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCKIN' A, KELT!!!!!

You have accomplished something so amazing! I hope you are proud; you sure as hell should be!!

Congratulations!

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Kelt

The Annual Report

It has been one year since I began my weight loss project. I had it planned out to come in here and go all data on you; you know, weights ,measures, avg loss per week, macronutrient balances, and on, and on. Maybe even some charts. You know I could.

I started in the reunion workout thread and then switched into Healthy Weight Loss when it became apparent that I was not doing traditional “workout” stuff for the long haul. You folks have been there for me the whole way, I’m still not done, but the year that I allotted for this is. I will keep working on this, hopefully with your continued support.

That said, I decided to do something dicey; numbers are all well and good, but it is time for the rubber to meet the road. For a while anyway, there are before and current (yesterday) pics of me in the gallery.

Please bear in mind the following:

No surgery
No diet drugs
No “diet” formulated foods
No gym

I was pre-diabetic - now normal
I was pre-hypertensive - now normal
I feel better than I have in over a decade
I can’t say thank you enough for all of your support and encouragement, this would not have happened without you.

Way to go Kelt! Nothing like persistence and determination, now pass some this way LOL

[Rockinonahigh]

At the moment I am highly pissed off,I nearly went to the food for calming down...but I didnt..not intirely I ate a sour pickle insted of a bag of chips I was fixing to tear into.Im better for the moment.

[Kelt]

Good Morning Healthy Peeps,

Wow! What can I say, you are sure a terrific bunch. Thank you for all of the positive feedback both here and other places. Putting the pics up scared the bejeezus outta me, but you guys are aces.

Going forward, because I still have work to do, I wanted to drop in with a take on tracking tools.

Several of you have mentioned that you sometimes track or journal what you are doing. So do I, and it has evolved over time. I know a lot of you are on WW and I tried to look at what they have but would have to join to do so; so, I will just stick with what I have first hand knowledge of. There are dozens to chose from, I have tried three.

I started out with a Diet Minder paper journal and a copy of Food Values (the book) which I have used off and on for years. The key to that is “off and on” even though I believed that pencil to pad would provide a stronger learning experience I found it was wrong for me.

In January I switched to FitDay.com an online tracker/database that I used until about a month ago. I worked very well for what I wanted at the time. I did find after about a month that I ended up getting the paid subscription just to shut off the constant moving, blinking ads that made me feel like I was going to have a seizure or something. The database is pretty good but it ticked me off when I would put in something like “apple” and it would come up around seventh on the list well after things like apple pie or apple crisp. It just seemed both wrong and cruel somehow. That said the weight progress tracking, under stats is really very good and encouraging, with the ability to really drill into things like weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc, averages and changes. It is a very flexible way to pinpoint exact timing of changes for reviewing and learning. The daily food journal is one big list without the ability to break out meals, but during loss it is all about the big picture, so that was fine and easy to use for course correction during the day. One thing I thought was weird is that they offer stand alone software (I did not use) for PC’s and an app for iPhone. I think most folks fall into either PC/Android or iEverything camps, having it split like that didn’t make sense to me. I did not use a mobile app.

For the last month or so I have been using Perfect Diet Tracker and so far, I think this is where I will stay. It is an installed software that works with all types of OS and has multiple mobile apps. You can export to CVS and it syncs with Dropbox. I have not used the mobile yet as I have a dumb phone. So, the actual software is great for what I am doing now, approaching maintenance, going for optimal health, and wanting to break out more subtle factors. The foods database is extensive and searches the web for other users inputs as well, which means pretty much anything is in there. It is really easy to create your own custom recipes and exercise routines through “groups” and it tracks sugar grams, sodium, and amount of fats that are saturated. This works well as I now want to track more health oriented stats than just fat loss. It also breaks out individual meals/snacks for better balancing through the day. One minor thing that I really like is that I can control the font size of the food/exercise pane without having the whole page go all huge. A nit pick, but nice. It works well for advance planning e.g. if I have leftovers I just plug them into specific meals on upcoming days so I don’t forget them and know ahead of time what gaps to fill. The reports could use a little work but the graphing is great. Clearly, I could go on about this. At this stage it seems like the best one I have used. I will update when I have tried the mobile app, I see an iPhone in my future.

Costs;

Using the paper pre-printed journals was $10 every 90 days + the Values book.
Annual = $40

Fitday = Free if you can handle the visual noise, $50 annual without ads, $30 software.

Perfect Diet tracker = $30 or $25 through the Apple app store, one time expense, unlimited users and custom fields.

There are lots more to choose from, I would love to hear what others are using and how they stack up too. It could help out folks that are thinking of starting.

I’m sure some of you are wondering if I can keep it off. Well, my feet are pretty far into the fire now, lol. Besides, I know what it takes to get where I got, and what it takes to get back. I don’t wish to repeat either. Guess I’ll just have to keep posting in here.

Supposed to be stormy today; rain gear at the beach it is!

[Corkey]

SparkPeople.com = free, I like free.

[Kelt]

Originally Posted by Corkey

SparkPeople.com = free, I like free.

Free is always a good thing. Are there particular features you like?

[Kelt]

One more happy little thing happened to me today. Before starting all this my BP was 139/80 for three years. About two months ago I had it tested several times and got consistent readings of 121/80.
Today I went in and it read 110/79.
I'm a happy camper.

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Kelt

Free is always a good thing. Are there particular features you like?

I haven't used it in about a year, I found that all the tracking was taking up entirely too much of my time, sitting as opposed to moving, so I took from it what I needed and eat healthy foods, smaller portions and get off my butt LOL

[Kelt]

Originally Posted by Corkey

I haven't used it in about a year, I found that all the tracking was taking up entirely too much of my time, sitting as opposed to moving, so I took from it what I needed and eat healthy foods, smaller portions and get off my butt LOL

Getting the lessons and applying them is the trick.

I just seem to have a lot to learn

[foxyshaman]

Originally Posted by Kelt

Good Morning Healthy Peeps,

Wow! What can I say, you are sure a terrific bunch. Thank you for all of the positive feedback both here and other places. Putting the pics up scared the bejeezus outta me, but you guys are aces.

You look fabulous. And as frightening as it may have been for you, it was incredibly inspiring for me!! So, I thank you for your bravery.

Going forward, because I still have work to do, I wanted to drop in with a take on tracking tools.

....

The database is pretty good but it ticked me off when I would put in something like “apple” and it would come up around seventh on the list well after things like apple pie or apple crisp. It just seemed both wrong and cruel somehow. That said the weight progress tracking, under stats is really very good and encouraging, with the ability to really drill into things like weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc, averages and changes. It is a very flexible way to pinpoint exact timing of changes for reviewing and learning.

I like the points you are making here. I think during my process I have had to change things along the way as things stopped working. Or perhaps were not working in the same manner as they used to. The beginning weight loss is generally pretty easy for me. I did hit plateau's this summer. I don't think I would have hit those plateau's if I had continued tracking and learning my body's "ins and outs".


For the last month or so I have been using Perfect Diet Tracker and so far, I think this is where I will stay. ... It is really easy to create your own custom recipes and exercise routines through “groups” and it tracks sugar grams, sodium, and amount of fats that are saturated. This works well as I now want to track more health oriented stats than just fat loss. It also breaks out individual meals/snacks for better balancing through the day.

This seems like a great feature. I am not sure how I would fair using a program such as you are suggesting. I do like what you have said about it quite a bit. If I was technically driven this may be what I would look at. I am a techno phobe on so many levels. However.... what compels me to check this out further is tracking my nutrition. WW is good for lots of different things, but the majority... and I mean the vast majority...of their material listing points is for meat eaters. I also don't eat Dairy, so there are nutritional niggles I need to figure out. You have me I need to pay closer attention to my whole nutrition, along with my points system.


Costs;

Perfect Diet tracker = $30 or $25 through the Apple app store, one time expense, unlimited users and custom fields.

That is very reasonable. Much more reasonable than WW!!


There are lots more to choose from, I would love to hear what others are using and how they stack up too. It could help out folks that are thinking of starting.

I’m sure some of you are wondering if I can keep it off.

I don't wonder. Not at all. I believe you have changed.

Well, my feet are pretty far into the fire now, lol. Besides, I know what it takes to get where I got, and what it takes to get back.




Supposed to be stormy today; rain gear at the beach it is!

What is different for me this time, has been figuring out my triggers. And for the first time realizing my triggers. It is easy for me right now because I am not in a relationship. I am therefore far less vulernable. I learnt I eat my vulnerability. It is important to me to change my inner being to reflect my outer being. I learnt that I did not get fat after being raped because my body needed "protection" rather it was easier to put something in (food) instead of letting something out (my voice). If I did not have that I am not sure if the changes I am making would stick.

Anyway those are just a foxes thoughts. I look forwad to other thoughts.

[Cowboi]

Had a kick a$$ workout. My arms are like sgetti!! I will be cycling off all my supplements starting next week. I will be on vacaton, thought it would be a good time to do it. Will be doing a liver cleanse also. getting ready to start back on November 7th.
Phase 2 will begin!!!

[Hack]

Fall is always tough for me because I love, love, love three things:

Pumpkin anything.
Apple anything.
Caramel.

I am looking for any good recipes for pumpkin or apple things that are low- or no-sugar. I have the WW Two Point Pumpkin Muffins (though I am not sure of the sugar content). Anyone have anything else they can share?

[Rockinonahigh]

Im on this low carb thing,I have 135 a day to use but am keeping it mostly at something like 70 to 80 pr day,tho hear lately its been 102 cause of some things im allowed but dont eat much of cause of the high carbs.Tonight I had a cup of sea shell noodles with skettie sause with spicy italan sasuage cooked in it.. the noodles had 30 carbs for the amount I had.I know im well within my allowed carbs but im trying to keep them as low as I can...im half way wanting to change my food plan or stay on what the doc gave me cause I feel I should be loseing more than I am.I just feel a pound aweek isnt enough with all im doing,Oh and my calorie count runs atound 6 to 700 calories a day,I tryed to up the cals and lower the carbs but I feel like a stuffed pig .

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Rockinonahigh

Im on this low carb thing,I have 135 a day to use but am keeping it mostly at something like 70 to 80 pr day,tho hear lately its been 102 cause of some things im allowed but dont eat much of cause of the high carbs.Tonight I had a cup of sea shell noodles with skettie sause with spicy italan sasuage cooked in it.. the noodles had 30 carbs for the amount I had.I know im well within my allowed carbs but im trying to keep them as low as I can...im half way wanting to change my food plan or stay on what the doc gave me cause I feel I should be loseing more than I am.I just feel a pound aweek isnt enough with all im doing,Oh and my calorie count runs atound 6 to 700 calories a day,I tryed to up the cals and lower the carbs but I feel like a stuffed pig .

Realize that you are unique and that a pound a week may be all your specific metabolism may be doing. You should talk to your doctor about ramping up your metabolism. Remember we have to eat to burn the calories, the carbs are what help to break down the proteins. If you aren't eating enough carbs, the proteins will not break down and you will not loose weight. On the flip side if one eats too many carbs it turns to sugar, without any proteins to eat. Finding the balance is at times difficult.