Why is there no formula?

You know weight loss is supposed to be simple in theory. Take in fewer calories than you burn and viola - weight loss. In execution it is much more complicated. There is metabolism, body type, HORMONES. Friggin' hormones.

My weight is still up and waiting for the lady troubles to be begin. It is kinda like waiting to be smacked in the face. I am trying not to flinch. I am sure the extra 300 to 500 calories I ate the past two nights after dinner have not helped. Not really bad calories, just more than I should have. Not even for hunger, just an overwhelming need to eat. And it tasted pretty good too. It is funny how being up a few pounds makes your mind go crazy. I keep thinking when I look in the mirror those old pictures will be looking back at me. But no. I do not look any different (read fatter), but that thought is still there - lurking in my mind. So instead of continuing to bitch about how hard this week is I decided to find one positive thing to focus on.

I started trying to run a little bit (and I mean little - like the distance of 4 mailboxes on my street) last fall - I weighed in the 270s. Not the easiest task in the world for me at the time. Then I continued to add a little more (not sure why I stuck with this, I am not a runner - maybe just to challenge myself). Oh, I did this with the vampire method (early morning under the cover of darkness so no one could see me or judge me). Today I can run a lot farther and a lot faster (and I feel fine doing it in public). Sometimes I feel like I can fly - even this morning being up a few pounds I felt that way.

Last December was when I first tried to run on a treadmill. I was scared to death everytime I did it for the first few weeks. I was scared I would fall and break my face. That, and man did my belly rolls flop around when I ran. I ran on the treadmill for 10 minutes as part of a warm up the other day and I did not think twice about it. Had that been my goal, I could have gone a lot longer and even faster. I was just trying to warm up my muscles. This is progress people. Especially for someone who is not a runner and will probably never be a runner. So there it is. All my sunshine and positivity - I must rest now.

I went to the doc yesterday. I asked about calories for maintenance and a good goal weight for my build (since no charts really take that into consideration). She was thinking between 160 and 170. She also thinks maintenance calories for me will probably only be an additional 200-300 per day. I am looking at about 1800 (when the time comes). Looks like I've got some more work to do! She also said I may have to drop to 1500 calories to get the last of the weight off (um, this sucks). I am having a hard enough time sticking to 1600 this week.

I just wish there was a specific formula to follow. Like with the Jenny Craig eating plan. The problem with that is, I want to enjoy my life too. It is all trial and error. This week I think I keep hitting on error. Maybe today I can hit on a winner of a day. No whammy, no whammy (90's game show reference - 10 points to you if you caught that).

What I Like About You....

What the hell is THAT?!? No, it is not cat vomit (I do not own a cat), although I can see where it looks like that. That my friends, was my lunch today. It was tuna fish (made with miracle whip light, mustard, pickles, onion and tomato), cucumbers (I used to eat it on crackers but cucumbers are the same size, serve the same purpose and are healthier) and baked chips.

What is the point of me showing you my lunch? Well I have been trying to think about what I like most about your blogs. And what I like about you (besides your wit and positive spirits and brutal honesty) is the fact that many of you share pictures. I don't even really care what they are of, they just add a new dimension to your posts.

I would have much rather shared some video from my Zumba class this morning (I am really loving the Monday morning group) however, some may have found that to be rude. These ladies crack me up! They really like to get their groove on.

So back to my lunch. That is a huge dinner plate (I like big portions - bang for my buck). My point is, that huge plate of food is under 350 calories (not by much though, I do not count calories in the veggies - they are so low in calories it does not much matter to me). My lunch during the school year was also around 350 calories but it was a frozen entree' a la Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine and a tangelo. I did enjoy my frozen meals (they are yummy, fast and make calorie counting easy) but they were not made with the love that the tuna fish was. And did you see how much I got to eat?

I am going to try and post more pictures. I am working on a post with pics of me for sometime this week. So sorry if this one grossed you out. It was delicious.

Other than that, we cooked out with our friends for Father's Day. I did not even exceed my calories for the day and I did not feel the need for the extra 200 calories like I have been. However, yesterday all I did was walk the dogs and swim (and by swim I mean float around the pool and throw the babies around in it).

Today it was back to Fat Camp, trainer and all. He made me do abs and then I did Zumba (which works a lot of abs). Boy were those muscles screaming. Hopefully they will not be too sore tomorrow. I actually have a training all day tomorrow. So tomorrow night I have a training session and I am going to attempt a Yoga/Stretch class (I have like NO flexibility). Dude, that crap looks hard. So wish me luck and I will write my review on that tomorrow.

Easter Feast

It was delicious!

My husband is a FANTASTIC cook, a grill master really. Each week he grills me chicken breasts to eat all week. He will cook me whatever I want but his boneless, skinless, grilled chicken breasts are to die for! I never get sick of it. When I want a break, I make a taco salad. I make killer salads.

So what was our Easter feast? Well, it included some traditional foods, and some just plain good stuff. We had: stuffed jalapenos with bacon (cooked on the smoker), smoked honey ham, filet mignon, green beans, homemade mashed potatoes (I peeled, cut, cooked and whipped myself), garlic ciabatta rolls and super delicious fatty cookies (170 calories each).

I ate some of everything. It was all super good. I was not pukey full, however I was full enough that when I walked the dogs afterward I got a cramp in my side. We have big spreads like that because my best bud is a vegetarian but her husband loves meat. We try to give them the best of both worlds. They own a restaurant/bar so we can get whatever we want there. We like to give them choices here. The babies loved it too. Man they can eat. They really loved the ham.

So I indulged. The good news is I did not eat while I prepared food. I ate limited calories until dinner. Yesterday I was pretty perfect calorie wise. As long as I get back on it tomorrow I think I will be fine and have no remorse.

That is until I have to workout tomorrow night. I might feel some of the pain then. Or perhaps when I try to run in the morning. That is actually only a few hours away. Lucky me!

Hope you had a good weekend and have a great week!

A Better Road

When my trainer changed my diet, he said to listen to him and not count calories. I gained 2.5 pounds. Yesterday he had me write out everything I eat and count the calories. Today he told me I was eating too many calories. I needed to cut out 600 calories.

600 extra calories per day. No wonder I gained weight. I have been working hard at making my trainer feel bad. I think it is working.

Starting tomorrow, I will be eating the"right" number of calories for me (except for my one cheat meal each week). Let the diet trial month begin. I better lose some serious poundage.

In other news......I bought my first pair of size 16 pants in over 5 years. I wore them today. They felt tight in the butt, however I think it just seemed that way because everything else has been hanging off my butt for so long. My most honest co-worker said they looked normal.

I was in fear that I may have been exceeding the weight limit for the waist band (these pants did not stretch as I wore them, unlike my other pants). I think all is well since the buttons were still intact at the end of the day.

Happy losing to you all!

I May Have Made a Mistake

Alrightythen.....

So I decided to follow the advice of my trainer. That may have been a mistake. I ate lots of protein. I ate how he told me to. Did all my workouts. I gained two and a half pounds. *SIGH* I am treating this as an out of body experience, otherwise I would be pissed that I undid two and a half weeks worth of work.

So I asked if I should go back to weight watchers. I am told to turn off my brain and trust him. Oh yeah, and not weigh myself for a month. God, by that time I could put on 20 pounds. And if I am going to GAIN weight, I can think of alot more fun things to eat and lazier things to do with my time.

I finally did measurements again. My trainer tried to hide them from me in his car. But then I threatened to jump on the hood and leave a huge ass indention on his nice sports car and he went out to the car and handed them over. He really thinks I analyze too much. This may be true but I cannot keep myself from thinking about progress. Afterall, this is a ton of money, time and effort.

So I will TRY to not weigh for one month. And eat his way for one month. But if I GAIN, I am going to try the Biggest Loser diet. The other trainers at the gym also said to just stop with the weighing and use my clothes as a measure. I am trying to tell them that my goal weight is still in the "overweight" category. How many people ask their trainer to help them be overweight? I think it is achievable. But is a number.

Do you ever watch TLC's What Not to Wear, hosted by Stacy and Clinton? Well, I am trying to see myself as that hideously dressed woman who thinks her painted on jeans showing off her muffin top paired with an 80's thread bare t-shirt topped off with hooker boots sporting a broken heel look spectacular (in real life, I do not dress this way, for the record). While she is dressed in this outfit, Stacy and Clinton mock her and point out all the flaws but say they can help. And by the end of the show she can't believe she ever dressed that way and she looks fabulous.

I think the trainers are Stacy and Clinton. I am the hideous woman who fights them and says clothes never fit her right, their rules won't work, they are wrong. I plan to give in (at least for a month) the way the woman does. Hopefully, the result will be me looking fabulous and wondering why I ever doubted them.

The hardest part? Staying off the scale for a month.

Hope you all had a better week than I did.

Diet Dilemma

So I have a diet dilemma (as you can tell from my earlier post). I think my 1 pound per week loss is due to my laziness and I could do better with weight watchers if I were more strict and wrote things down. I decided to talk to my trainer about this because he loves to talk food and exercise (even when I do not want to).

He said that when I first started losing weight I could have been doing just about anything diet wise and because I was working out so much it made me drop bigger numbers more quickly. But now that I am 53 pounds lighter and still exercising a ton that the same diet is not going to work with the same results.

His conclusion? After we went through a "typical" day of eating for me, he concluded that I do not eat enough protein during the day. I asked if I needed to stop eating other things (baked chips, string cheese, FiberOne bars, etc.) and replace them with protein. His answer? No. I just need to add more protein and eat it with a starch. I will admit that I am skeptical but curious at this reply. I had to leave at that point in the conversation so I told him to come up with a plan for me and I would get it when we workout tomorrow.

Prior to this conversation I was considering two options:

#1 - Stop being lazy and work hard to stick to weight watchers points. I like this option because you can eat whatever you want as long as you count it. I think it is something that is just plain healthy and can be done for the long term.

#2 - Follow the Biggest Loser diet. This diet is high protein but low carb. I would have to count calories and stay away from prepackaged food (which I love to eat frozen dinners for lunch). Also, I do not think low carb is something good for the long term. However, I bet I would start dropping some pounds fast.

Now I have a third option of following a diet plan set up by my trainer. I like this option because he knows me. He knows I love to have a cheat meal of Mexican food and he is all for it. He knows the calories I am burning in the gym (which a generic diet program would not know). He knows I hate protein bars and drinks. He knows I love dairy products and only eat fruit because I feel I have to once a day.

I will have to see what he has in mind tomorrow but I think I will go with option three. He has come up with some off-the-wall training stuff before but it turned out that he was right. So he is probably right about this. I could at least give it a shot, I've got nothing but weight to lose.

What would you do? Better yet, what do you do? Have you been faced with needing to change your diet?