Which weigh do I go?

I'm not sure about you, but I really dread the new year. Why? Because I always have these high hopes and dreams of actually being able to accomplish something with my life and I set all these resolutions and after about 2 weeks I realize, "Screw it! Too much work!" and I give up. Doesn't matter what the goal is, it still happens. I've had on my resolution for the last, 15 years "loose 20 lbs", "exercise more", "clean house on a regular basis". This year, my New Year's Resolution involved my Etsy store... make more products for the store, and take better pictures. I actually gave up on the loosing weight thing, because it just wasn't happening. While my mind and heart was into it, my brain said, NOPE! Not happening. So I decided not to worry about it. I know I can loose weight, and I know eventually I would get to a place where physically, emotionally, and mentally I was ready to get back on the fitness wagon. Well, that time has come. 

As of March 1, 2012, I finally decided I really was ready to get back in shape, and feel better. It's been a struggle. I'm having to over come all of my ghosts and fears that tell me I can't do this. That I am going to give up. I'm too weak. I'm not good enough to do it. I know these feelings are wrong, and I am determined to prove it. Last week was my trial week, to see if I really was back in the right place mentally. The result: I am. I have selected my weigh in day for Saturday, because let's face it, the week days are pretty simple, it's the weekend that's the killer, so I like to have my weekends be the beginning of the week so if I splurge it's ok, because I still have 5 days to fix whatever I messed up, where as if I weigh in on a Monday morning, I'm S.O.L. 

So, last Friday night, I decided what I wanted to have for my main dinners for the whole week, and planned out my menu. Saturday morning I weighed in at 250.2lbs. (not my most proud moment). After breakfast I took my kids grocery shopping and spent a whopping $200 on groceries for 1 week... yup, that's right, 1 week's worth. Ok, so while the items I bought were suppose to be for only 1 week, I did stock up on a few items that could last longer than 1 week or bought multiples. When we got home, I made lunch did some cleaning, and then we had dinner. now... what did we have you ask... that's really the question right? WHAT was the food. For breakfast I had 2 "fried" eggs, and 2 slices of toast w/ a little butter. Lunch, well, I actually skipped it. Dinner ended up being Sweet and Sour chicken with Rice and for dessert Vanilla pudding. Not the greatest day, food wise, and I did get a little hungry. But I considered it a start. I drank around 9 8-oz glasses of water, and for exercise I did 5 minutes of steps on my stepper. By the end of the night I was exhausted! 

Sunday:

I forgot to weigh.

Breakfast:

1 fried egg (fried with cooking spray)

2 eggo nutri-grain low fat waffles w/ blue berries and whipped cream

Lunch:

Turkey, ham and cheese sandwich with tomato and mayo

2 8-oz glasses of chocolate milk

Dinner:

Basil Chicken with potatoes

salad

raspberry hazelnut vinaigrette

Snack:

yoplait light pineapple upside down cake

Exercise:

15 minutes on the stepper

Sunday was really hard. Breakfast kept me filled nicely, but lunch just did not cut it. I got really hungry around 2pm. Since I had already tracked my food, I knew I didn't have enough daily Weight watcher's points left, so I just drank water, and more water, and more. I learned that a sandwich alone just isn't going to cut it yet.

Monday:

Weight: 249.2 (loss of 1lb total)

Breakfast: 

1 Jimmy Dean breakfast bowl, the sausage and gravy

Lunch: 

Tuna Macaroni Salad (my invention)

Dinner:

Hawaiian Haystacks with White rice.

Exercise: none (rest day)

This was a good day eating wise, but my legs were so sore, that I could hardly walk. I had major pains in my calves from the muscles being so sore. I wanted to continue to work them out, but the pain was too much, so I decided to just give my legs a break and pick everything up again the next day.

Tuesday:

Weight: 249.2 (no change)

Breakfast:

Egg and waffles again,

Lunch:

Tuna Macaroni Salad

Dinner:

Chicken tacos (again my invention)

Exercise: 10 minutes steps

The muscle soreness was almost gone, and food wise, I was doing awesome! I wasn't getting hungry at all. I was hitting most of my daily values... life is going good.

Wednesday:

Weight: 247.6 (total loss of 2.6lbs)

Breakfast:

egg and waffle breakfast

Lunch:

Tuna macaroni Salad

Dinner:

Chicken Enchiladas

Salad

Snack:

cottage cheese and pineapple

I had a lot of left over sauce from the Hawaiian Haystacks so I decided to use that as the sauce for my chicken enchiladas. It worked wonderfully! The flavor's were a little bit different, but not much. 

Exercise: 18 minutes steps. I decided to increase each of my intervals by 1 minutes. It was really tough, and I thought I was going to die, but I completed each interval.

Thursday:

Weight: 247.1 (total loss of 3.1lbs)

Breakfast:

egg and waffle breakfast

Lunch: 

1/2 serving of the Tuna macaroni salad 

Turkey and ham cheese Sandwich

Dinner:

Tacos

Exercise: Rest day

I decided to give myself another rest day because I was dealing with some severe pain in my legs. At first I thought it was from the increased exercise and was going to reduce my time back to 5 minutes again, but by the time i went to bed, I realized that the pain was caused by the cold. I decided to take a pain pill which is never a good thing because it knocks me on my butt for about 24 hours.

Friday:

Weight: 247.4 (small gain of .3lbs but over all loss of 2.8lbs)

Breakfast: Because I was still feeling the effects of the pain pill, I had no energy to cook anything, so i decided that a sausage bowl was a good thing.

Lunch:

1/2 serving of the tuna macaroni salad (whew... finally gone!)

Turkey and Ham sandwich

Dinner:

Chicken enchiladas

salad

chocolate milk

Snack:

I had the bright idea to try to make my own frozen yogurt "ice cream" and froze 3 containers of the yoplait light yogurt, one for me and each of my kids. I was served the Black Forest cake container. While the idea was interesting, the flavor just didn't do it for me, it was just way way way too sweet. 

Exercise: 12 minutes Steps

Still hard, but getting easier.

Saturday - Weigh-in day

Weight: *trumpet sounds* 248lbs (again, a small gain of .6lbs but an overall loss of 2.2lbs)

Now even though I put on a little bit towards the end of the week, my overall loss of 2.2lbs is a very healthy loss and still very exciting. I'm not sad/upset/disappointed or anything negative about this loss. No, it's not the 4-6lbs that I typically loose when first starting a new "diet", but I also typically kill myself exercising and I didn't do that this time. I decided to take it slow and ease myself back into exercising so again, 2.2lbs, I'm very proud and excited for it!

Breakfast:

eggs and waffles again

Lunch:

Chicken Salad w/ grapes and apples on sara lee 45 cal bread

Peanutbutter Grahamwich.

Dinner:

Grilled Cheese sandwich 

Southwestern Corn Chowder

By this point, I was so stuffed i wanted to throw up, but I still had 9 points left to eat for the night. It has completely amazed me. In just 1 week, my body is already feeling the effects of eating better and eating the right proportions. It completely amazes me how the human body adapts. So, 9 evil points still to deal with. After some advice, I decided to drink 1 8-oz glass of chocolate milk for 6 points, and another grahamwich for 3 points. and finally 2 slices of turkey after my exercise for 1 point. (yes, I went over by 1 and I'm ok with that.)

Exercise: 55 minutes of Richard Simmon's Sweatin' to the Oldies.

This is one of the hardest workouts I've ever done in my life. This workout has helped me in the past to keep a weight loss maintained for 1 year (stopped working out. :( ) so between the steps and the video, I think I have my bases covered, and while I love doing the steps, I decided I needed a more total body workout. Don't want to get the sexy legs and still have a huge tummy. So, Richard, you're gonna be my buddy in this long journey to getting fit.

And this is where I end off. I'm feeling good, more hydrated than I've been in a very long time, and I have sore legs. What more can I ask? Will I keep it up? Oh yes. I'm ready for it. The one thing that is helping me keep motivated and feel like I'm in control is by tracking my food the night before so I do not have to think about it when I'm hungry. I can just look on my Plan manager and see what new and exciting food I will be eating that day. I can also decided if I want to do any snacks or whatever. It really has been a life saver.

I will be posting the recipes that I'm cooking with and the pictures of my meals on the cooking page, and linking them back to this page if anyone is interested. :)

I hope you will continue to join me through my journey and if I can inspire even 1 person to start their own journey to better health, then this has all been worth it.