Week One Review

Well, I am done with week one and all is good so far!

I am down 3 pounds... so the scale says. The thing is, I started (this time) at 188 and now I am 184. I honestly do not consider that being down 4 pounds. My reasoning? My weight can fluctuate that much already week to week anyways because I am not consistent with my eating habits. With that being said, I have been doing pretty well, so I am not dismissing the fact that the scale has gone down. However, I am not even going to do a smidgen of a victory dance until I am under 168 pounds. Why is 168 a magic number for me? Well, that is the weight that I was at when Dereck and I met. Once I can get under that again, I will allow a small victory dance. Once I am below 150 pounds, I may do a big victory dance and some clothes shopping.

It's not all about pounds lost though. I am going to be exercising and trying to get toned. That means that I may look awesome at 160 pounds. Therefore, I am going to be taking progress pictures and I need to do my measurements tonight. Pictures and measurements will tell more truth than the number on the scale.

So, how well have I done at following my own rules?

1. Work out a minimum of 2 times a week for 45 minutes at a high intensity
2. Stay between 1200-1500 calories per day
3. Follow the Eat to Live lifestyle as closely as I can.
4. Use Calorie-Count.com for support.
5. Drink a lot of water
6. Eat every 3 hours

1. I worked out twice last week. Both times it was Zumba and I actually did 60 minutes. It was tough, but it made me feel great!
2. I only went over on my calories one day. It was yesterday and I only went over by 45 which is amazing considering I felt like it was a pig out day. Even though I went over, I still netted over 400 cals, so I was still "technically" under.
3. I have been trying to incorporate as many vegetables as possible and cut down on meat consumption.
4. I've been very active on Calorie-count.com and love using the app. The calorie camp feature is great and my BFF joined so we can keep each other in check!
5. I have been very conscious about the amount of water I am drinking and even chugging some when I realize I am way under. It's hard to remember to drink a lot of water in the winter time. 
6. While I have not been religiously eating every 3 hours, I have been using the Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner structure. Eating that way almost makes you eat every 3 hours without really timing it. I started having mixed feelings on how important it really is to eat every 3 hours. Some things I have read now say that it doesn't really matter. However, I did that in the past and it worked well for me, so I am not going to abandon my previous beliefs.

I am not sure if it is in my head or not, but my pants feel a little loser in my outer thigh area. That is one of my major problem spots, so if it's true, that is awesome. That's also the reason I am going to take measurements tonight.

24 Day Challenge: Day 8

I just realized right now that I was following Day 8 instructions yesterday when I was on Day 7 and I was doing the same thing again today. I got one day ahead of myself somehow. So the other night when I was wondering why I had extra pills, that would be why. I really didn't have extra pills, I had lost a day in my head. I am not sure what to do, so tomorrow I am going to do the white pills (no fiber drink) and then at night the brown pills. You see, the difference is on day 4-7 you take the white pills in the morning and the brown pills and Omegaplex at night. Then on days 8-10 you take a Fiber Drink and the White Pills, but by this time you should not have any brown pills, so you just have your Omegaplex with your dinner and that's it. I feel pretty dumb :(. I really hope this doesn't have a bad effect on how much I could have lost, but won't lose as much now since I ruined it.

Anyways, I am doing very well on the challenge these past few days. I have not cheated at all. The only bad thing I did was yesterday I skipped my second snack. I just wasn't hungry at all and did not want to eat it for some reason. I weighed myself today and I am 179 LBS after completing 7 days. That is 6 pounds in 7 days! I'm starting to feel a little better now I am back in the 170's (even if only by a pound lol). I was going to share how my day has been so far, but I messed up, so there's really no point. It's not like I want you to follow my mistake. I will tell you that I ordered a Half size Caesar Salad from Jason's Deli today for lunch. By the time I was done tweaking it to take out the things I couldn't have, I was left with a bed of lettuce including a ridiculously small amount of chicken and Balsamic Vinaigrette. I paid $6.25 for THAT?! Well, I guess it would've been worth it if I hadn't taken off all the yummy stuff. Either way, I was hoping for more chicken.

Alright, that's enough complaining. Off to being happy now :) 

24 Day Challenge: Day 7

I had a busy (for me) weekend, so I had to try to find ways to fit in my diet. I can tell you right now that it was tough! I definitely failed in some parts, but if I look at it in a different light...what I now consider a "bad" day is what I used to consider a "good" day. Now how is that for some change? At least my perception of that has changed.

Here is a super condensed break down of Saturday and Sunday:

Day 5, Saturday: Woke up at 7:45 and had Spark with the White Pills. Did Zumba on the Wii for 20 minutes. Had a Meal replacement with Omegaplex at 8:45 am. Skipped my snack .12:20 pm Spark. 12:50 pm Was going to have tuna wrap for lunch, but after mixing the tuna and celery, I realized the brown rice tortillas were moldy already :(. So...I used regular multi grain wheat bread. Around 6 pm I had a salad at Chuck E Cheese. I was at least good there and only had a proper salad and resisted the pizza and even the birthday cake. After Chuck E Cheese, I left to meet my friends at a bar to celebrate one of my good friends birthdays. Throughout the night I had a Southern Comfort with Lime, a Tall can of Michelob Ultra, and two Red Bull and Vodka. I know I am not supposed to be drinking, but I was at least trying to make low carb or low sugar selections :-/ . Even getting home at 2 am I remembered to take the brown pills before bed (yay me!)

Day 6, Sunday: 10 am Spark and white pills. 10:55 am - had meal replacement. Around 1:00 pm Dereck went and got McDonald's for his nieces and himself. He offered to get me something healthy, but I declined and said I would find something at home. We were getting ready to go to the movies and the girls left a ton of their food out. I was starving and wasting that much food would've really bothered me. So...I ate 3 of their chicken nuggets and a small handful of fries. That must have lit up my insides because before I knew it I was ransacking the cupboards looking for things I could eat. I had about 5 of those quaker quakes, a small handful of almonds, then a banana. We had missed the time we needed to leave to make it to the movie, so we decided to go to Toys R Us. On the way we stopped at the gas station and I hopped out and got myself an Arizona Green Tea and a bag of Popchips. The Popchips were only 100 cal and 3g of fat. They really didn't seem that bad. I definitely shouldn't have gotten the green tea. I think it is safe to say that I didn't quite follow the plan this day, but I was still really trying to make healthy decisions. For dinner (which was served around 7:45) I had Grilled Chicken, Grilled Asparagus, and Salad.

Whew! That's a lot of writing. Here is a pic of my lunch from today. Yum!

Conglomerated Diet

It appears that I have inadvertently conglomerated diets. I came to realize that I am on multiple diets at the same time. I keep picking out tips I've learned along the way from dieting in the past and started to put them in my head as some type of commandment I must follow.  It could be a good thing, but it could be bad too. Only time will tell.

To be more specific, I have noticed that I have decided on the following rules for my new diet:

Drink 64 oz of water per day
Eat less than 1,500 cals per day
Make an effort to incorporate more physical activity into my day
Try to get the most out of my calories by eliminating certain foods
Pay attention to Fat and Fiber content of my foods
Take Supplements/ Fat Burners
Experiment with different herbs
Eat every 3 hours
Try my best at keeping a diet and excercise log

These are all things that I know I can at least put for a real effort on doing. I am not saying that I will do every single one every day, but I know I can at least try.

I will get more detailed on each one and cite where I heard of these things (some are common sense). I am not endorsing any kind of diet plan or promoting them, but I feel it is necessary for you to know where I learned these tactics from and give credit where it is due.