Right date - Right time - Wrong Weight

Finally able to sit down on a Monday morning - weekly weigh-in fresh in my memory - to write this post.

Stepped on the scale today thinking that I wasn't going to see good things. After all, I had a HUGE family breakfast and greasy bar food as my only meals yesterday. (I was rather proud of myself for not drinking beer while sitting in a bar watching football - go Bengals!)

To my surprise, when I stepped on that scale, I was down 1.5 pounds from last week.

I am in a tough position though. I want to be proud that I stepped it up more this past week, but I don't want to feel that it's acceptable to still not hit my goal.

So here is where we stand:

46.5 pounds to target...

28 weeks to final weigh-in...

I need to average 1.66 pounds per week.

I am still working on not being discouraged! My husband and I picked up our key tags and activated our gym memberships. I went to Zumba on Saturday morning and had a blast! I kinda don't like that Zumba starts at 10 on Saturdays though because I am an early riser. This feels late to me. But at the same time, it felt refreshing to start my day with exercise.

At a family dinner this weekend, I was a very good eater! I went online to find the restaurant menu and nutritional information before heading out. Then, I selected my meals and put all the information into my calorie counting app and ordered exactly what I pre-selected: teriyaki salmon, fresh steamed broccoli, and cinnamon apples (the side dish with the second-lowest calorie count after broccoli). As is usual with restaurants, the servings were huge. I ate most of my broccoli before I touched the salmon, and treated the side dish of apples as my dessert. I ended up only eating about 2/3 of the salmon before starting to feel full. I never let myself get to truly feeling full.

And to top off my weekend, my husband said the sweetest thing ever (kinda) - he just recently got a new job with better hours and better money, so he has been looking at new cars. He told me this weekend that the reason he was strongly considering one particular model over another was the fact that he wanted to ensure he had a car that had easy access for a car seat. It makes me happy to know that we have similar goals. I am hoping this will make him even more supportive of this weight loss journey.

Fifty by one - here I come!

One more week down...

Since I am just now writing this, I feel like I should be thinking, "Holy crap, it's already Thursday." However, the truth is that this week has seemed SO long that I can't believe it's only Thursday. And when I say I can't believe, I mean I was getting dressed for work this morning thinking, "Finally, it's Friday."

Getting on the scale on Monday did not make me happy. Weight loss to date on Monday was only one pound from the week before - meaning only 2 of 50 pounds lost so far.

48 pound to go...

29 weeks to go...

Approximately 1.655 lbs per week needed from this point forward. Not much worse than before, but I'm not hitting that or my self-imposed goal of 2 per week.

Unfortunately, I blew the diet last night when I went out to dinner with the husband and split mozzarella sticks with him. (But I was only about 300 calories over my suggested intake-and I thought that it was going to be a lot worse!)

So, that's the negative of it...

Here is the positive:

- I tried Zumba this week and loved it! When I weighed myself the next morning, I had lost 2.5 lbs. (Not getting excited about this since it blew up in my face last week). I have about 28 more days on my 30 day membership, and I am planning to go back for a class on Friday

- My husband submitted the paperwork for our gym membership which should be activated by/on this Friday.

- I am slowly becoming better at planning my meals (and calories) ahead - and entering them in my Livestrong app early. For example, tonight is trivia night at our local bar. I know that I am going to order boneless wings and drink a beer. Not great food choices, but I accounted for them at the start of my day, and I should therefore be on track to be at or below calories today. I am working up to planning meals at the beginning of the week - it has become a bigger struggle to decide what to eat for dinner when we haven't planned ahead and defrosted meat.

I think I can - I think I can - I think I will!

Back on track... sort of.

I am back to losing weight. At my "official" Monday weigh-in, I was 49 pounds over my goal weight and exactly 30 weeks away from my final 1-year anniversary weigh-in.

Calculate that all out and I need to lose 1.633 pounds per week. That is not nearly as fun as needing to lose only 1 pound per week, but I have done it before and I will do it again.

I am using this week as a get-back-on-track/detox kind of week. I began using thedailyplate.com again. I was consulting the 3 hour cook book for recipes, but found that I really didn't like many of them, and they truly became a hassle - ingredients I couldn't/didn't know how to find, everything made for 4 servings and trying to cut it down, buying way too much food and throwing most of it away.

Plus, I'm not stupid - I know what I need to do to eat properly:
- I am focusing on including big ol' helpings of raw fruits and veggies into my meals.
- I am taking meals to work more often.
- I am giving up drive thrus (I would say I am giving up fast food, but the fresh ingredients used at places like Chipotle, Subway, and Potbelly make it difficult to profess that as a blanket statement)
- I am eliminating coffee and soft drinks from my life
- I am really watching my water intake (drinking 2 full bottles at work is like 4 servings!)

Next week, I will add in the exercise portion. My sister and I already have a date at 6:30 on Tuesday to check out a Zumba class (I am REALLY glad that she is going with me since it's a place I have never been for a class I have never tried!). My hope is to use my 30-day pass to take Zumba at least 3 times a week, though it depends on how difficult it is.

I am pushing hubby to get our gym memberships going (he gets a nice discount through work). If we do that, my sister and I will be members at the same gym and I can possibly have a workout buddy once a week or so. Plus, work is getting so stressful that I am evaluating what it will take to have an hour long lunch that includes a work out at the local gym once a week. (Side note, I am also making it a point to come in less early and leave "on-time")

And if you are curious, I am not calling it official until I step on the scale Monday, but I am down 1.5 pounds so far this week.

Oops

I wrote this last week and forgot to post :(

I haven't been blogging because I haven't been losing weight.

I hit a really rough time at work and my husband and I were busy every night of every week. And most of that busy involved food and/or drinks. And I just haven't been a very good eat-outer. Plus, late hours at the office mean coming home late and eating whatever takes less than 3 minutes to cook. Add to all of that the fact that we had parts of our house remodeled and have had little access to the kitchen.

Yup, put it all together and I have a giant pile of excuses as to why I have been a weight-loss slacker.

But things are changing. My husband got a new job with regular hours. That means that we are able to eat dinner together more often (and have more time to do it) which means cooking at home! We also just found out that we can get a really good rate at Urban Active and can use any local facility. So hubs is signing us up for that soon. And, for just $8, I got a 30-day membership to a local dance studio where I am going to take a few Zumba classes (gotta use that soon because it expires).

AND... we adopted a lab puppy who has a lot of energy and needs a lot of exercise. So when he is just a little calmer, we plan to start taking him for walks often and using him for more work out opps.

I am also thinking of using the C25K app on my phone, but that requires downloading music so that's just not happening yet.

And finally, I purchased a 3-Hour Diet cook book which I am using to get a few recipes to keep in my back pocket!

Need to get that honeymoon booked soon so that I have no excuses for not looking my best!

End: Week 2

Ok, so it's Wednesday already and I am just finding the time to write. As I am already at work for the day, this will be short...

I stepped on the scale Monday to reveal that I had...

Only lost half a pound.

This is both good and not so good news. technically , I am still on track for my ultimate goal. However, my weekly goal is 1.5 lbs no matter where I start the previous week. It's slightly frustrating but I can only blame myself. It was a holiday weekend and I decided to throw caution to the wind in my eating habits.

Here's some friendly advice: simply eating less does not compare to just eating better. Though I felt like I made wise decisions regarding the amount of food that I consumed, I (now) don't feel like I made good choices in the type of food. That is definitely an area with which I constantly struggle!

Here's to hitting goal on Monday, July 12!

Week One: Done

Though I started this blog at the end of last week, today is really the official weigh-in for the end of week one. As of today, I am down by 2.5 pounds! That's right, one pound over my weekly goal.

So how did I get here?

The most important change that I have made is watching my calorie intake. I can do this easily with the help of thedailyplate.com. (If for some strange reason, you desire to follow my journey on there, my screen name is MrsMcW0408.)

What else led to this point:

- Working in the hot summer sun while clearing the ugly bushes in my front yard for about three hours Saturday morning.
- Drinking LOTS of water. I typically have one Diet Dr. Pepper (a habit I am working on kicking) first thing in the morning and follow that with water for the rest of the day... lots of water. Usually I have two 16.9 oz bottles at work and one large (size unknown) bottle at home.
- Choosing salad - I actually really enjoy salads! I have recently discovered that I love the salads at Potbelly Sandwich Works. The Farmhouse Salad consists of lettuce, bacon, blue cheese, red onion, hard-boiled egg, tomatoes, cucumber, and chicken. Paired with non-fat vinaigrette, it's only 484 calories - and is about two meals for me!
-Eating approximately every three hours. I try to keep my major meals around 400 calories and snacks around 100 calories
- Vegetables - I actually love vegetables! I am making a conscious effort to eat more veggies and cut back on starchy items like french fries as a side item.
- Weight tracking: I do weigh myself every day - more as a means to find out if what I did for the previous day was effective. Did I eat good calories? Does eating later have an effect? I do it at the same time every day: in the morning just before getting in the shower. However, I only "officially" weigh myself on Monday mornings. And every Monday, I write my current weight in bright red pen, and then flip forward one week and write my expected weight for the next week in pencil.

Coming up... The plan is to use my Wii Fit more often for an easy morning work out to get my metabolism and energy up and running for the day. I am also hoping to get the husband on a walking plan - to go for a nice walk with me a few nights a week.

Introducing... 50 lb heavier me

My name is Gina and I am overweight. There I said it.

I am 5'4" tall and weigh about 50 pounds more than I should... or so my Wii Fit tells me. I am fortunate to only be considered "Overweight" and not "Obese" by Nintendo standards.

What an introduction! So, why am I opening up so quickly to you? Because that's why this blog exists. I am on a journey to lose 50 pounds by April 8, 2011. This blog will serve as a place for me to open up about this journey, so why not come out with the admissions early.

Why April 8, 2011?

I was fortunate to marry the most wonderful man in the world on April 8, 2010 in a wonderful ceremony in Las Vegas. So, by the one year anniversary of our marriage, I want to have lost 50 pounds.

Being from Cincinnati, Ohio, I feel that getting married in Vegas has set us down a path of traveling as a tradition. We didn't take a honeymoon since we were already vacationing. We did however promise to take a one-year anniversary honeymoon-esque vacation. So, you know I have to look good in a swim-suit.

But that's not all...

My husband and I have a very packed social life. Before we really start a family, we want to be as social as possible. We made a list of all the things that we want to accomplish in our home town before our first year of marriage, and we agreed that once we have done all of that we can begin working toward having children.

So if in one year, we find that we are expecting, I want to be in the best health for my future children. I want to start from a healthy weight so that I am not trying to lose weight on top of losing baby-weight.

So why blog about it?

I am starting this blog as a place to share my weight-loss journey.
I am starting this blog as a place to keep me on track.
I am starting this blog as an outlet to be honest - with myself and others - about my weight.
I am stating this blog to act as a chronicle of all the good and bad things that occur along the way...
a place to find life lessons...
a place to teach others...
a community of support.

It's going to be a journey, but I hope to enjoy the ride.