Another two days

Tuesday - I went for a 2 hour walk and felt really great. Wednesday I could hardly walk. I think I need new shoes....
Tuesday: Ate 1340 - burned 3131 = balance 1791
Wednesday: Ate 3723 - burned 3437 = balance +288
(Tuesday I had Chinese takeout - the 2 hour walk was balanced out by all that sodium - not so great. Wednesday, after work I stopped at the grocery store and just bought a lot of junk without thinking about it. Now, early morning while I'm motivated - I'm going to throw out the remainder of that splurge... what a waste! I have to remember to leave my brain ON while shopping, even if I am tired)

Two days

I have to log 2 days worth of calories consumed. I totally forgot to log in yesterday. I normally do it in the morning, but I was in a class yesterday so it totally slipped my mind.

Sunday I had a negative balance of 1065. Monday I broke even (well, I was up about 100 calories, but I needed to estimate, so I'm calling it a break even). I hardly did any activity yesterday. Or Sunday. I should go for a walk today. It looks so nice out. But I already have a load of laundry in so I'm going to wait until that is finished before I even think about going.

(Didn't I say that it would be really boring listening to me ramble every day about my life - it really is NOT very exciting!)

Agh - that dip!

I ended up going to the store after swimming yesterday and bought dip. The hummus was probably fine to eat, it is that it needs to be dipped in something that makes it a high calorie intake. And yes, I have veggies here in the house that I could have eaten, but doesn't multigrain flax seed pita snackers sound so much better? Nuts - it was a bad day.
Ate 4008, Burned 2986 = balance of +1022.

Friday's Balance

Ate 2040 - Burned 3015 = Balance 975
Another busy day at work. I would have done better eating, except I didn't pre-plan my meals at work and ended up buying something to eat. And then I end up guessing how many calories I ate (I probably underestimated - I usually do) and you don't have the same amount of control over what you eat. But not a bad day. So now I need to switch back over to being awake during the day. And I"m feeling a little out of sorts after working nights, but I'm going to get a swim in. The only problem is that when I swim, I can't wear my armband and have to guess at the calories that I burn. But I like swimming and I don't think that I could do much else now, so at least it is some kind of activity!

Thursday - working nights

I did okay yesterday. Ate 2105 calories, burned 2877, balance of 772. It would have been better except I probably ate too much when I got home early morning. I'm off to work tonight so I'm going to try to eat responsibility at the end of a long night.

Wednesday's Busy workday

Intake: 1706, Burned: 3561: Balance 1855
I had a busy day at work. I was walking all over the place. And it started as soon as I got to work and didn't stop all day. I took the stairs several times more that I have done in the past month. I actually beat my current record for number of steps taken. Last week when I went for an hour and half walk and then went to the grocery store, I ended up with slightly over 12000 steps. Yesterday (with only the walking around at work) I walked 13042 steps. And I also had my highest average calories burned per minute (METs) compared to any day that I have been wearing this armband. It feels pretty good. I even stopped to pick up some sushi after work (I only had a little bit and tried to pick the healthiest that I could) as well as a whole watermelon (well, one of those little mini watermelons). So it wasn't even a perfect eating day. But it sure helps when you move so much!

Tuesday's negative balance

3078-1782 = 1296. And it wasn't even a particularily busy day at work. But all that extra walking helps. Hopefully today will be a good day as well

Chocolate covered pretzels

Yesterday - I was even. Ate 2443, burned 2445. The problem was I picked up an treat at the grocery store - 100 calorie chocolate covered pretzels. Where there are like 8 in a little bag and each little bag in 100 calories. I ate a few bags. In fact - all 6 bags in the box if I were honest. I haven't figured out how to have food like this in the house and not eat it. I'm really disappointed in myself. But I don't have much time to think about it this morning - I'm off to work. So I better get my healthy lunch ready to take!

Sunday's Balance

I went for that walk yesterday - for 1 1/2 hours. Half way through it started pouring. I think I'm going to give myself bonus marks for walking in the rain. And I ended up walking 12000 steps! I ate 1731 calories and burned 3059 calories for a deficit of 1328. I have a feeling that today will be less active. I need to do laundry, maybe pick up some groceries for the next few days at work. But it is really overcast today and I just don't feel like doing a walk in the rain today. But it is still early yet. I just need to find some motivation.

Saturday's Balance

I burned 2343 calories and ate 1745 calories leaving me with a negative balance of 598 calories. Pretty good day for sitting around the house and reading. I had good intentions of walking to the farmer's market - but I thought I might melt in the rain so I stayed inside instead. There is no rain right now so I'm going to head out. With the dark clouds rolling in, I may get wet, but I'm willing to take that chance!

Body Media

I signed up for the extra service of this metabolic counter through Jenny Craig. You wear a little electronic gizmo on your arm and it measures things like calories burned, amount of steps you take in a day, what level of intensity your exercise was, when that exercise was done, and how much time you spent asleep. You are suppose to wear the band 24 hours a day. It is recharged when you plug it into your computer to download all that information. It then can calculate any deficit in calories consumed vs. burned if you honestly enter in the food you ate for that day.
www.bodymedia.com

I have been wearing this arm band for 2 months. In that time, I have learned a few things. Like a goal of losing 2 pounds per week equals about 1000 calorie deficient that I have to maintain every day. And when I try to increase my activity, it does not really affect how much weight I lose. It is totally dependant on what I put in my mouth. Now, increasing exercise (and intensity of that exercise) might make more of a difference if I was less overweight and closer to my goal. But now, trying to walk 30 minutes in a day does very little for the final balance of calories burned vs. consumed.


This knowledge was a little disheartening. You watch programs like the biggest loser (or any other reality weight loss show) and see these people flopping around, sweating in puddles on the floor and you begin to think that exercise is the answer to weight loss. I have to admit that exercise plays a vital role in improving your health (creating a stronger heart, improving your immune system, decreasing your blood pressure, developing more lean muscle mass), but it doesn't seem to help me with my weight loss. Granted, I'm not going to (or ever will) work out 6 hours a day for even 1 month let alone 6 months or more, but in my overall balance of calories burned and consumed, it actually makes little difference.


Now the days that I work (12 hour shifts - walking and standing for a lot of that time), I can burn 700 to 800 more calories than days off where I'm hanging around my house. That is a significance difference. But trying to exercise for 30 minutes on my days off is not going to make much of a difference.


I came to these realizations perhaps a month ago. And have been depressed about the results ever since. I guess because this means I need to been vigilant about my diet. And I have never been very good at that for an extended period of time. So that is when I really stopped blogging. I have been thinking about this and I have come up with a solution (short term at least). I decided that if I can stick to my diet (really any diet that restricts calories) for 3 months, I can lose some weight and then just try to maintain that loss for a while afterwards (how long after, I haven't decided). Thinking about losing over 100 pounds - it's depressing. Thinking about dieting for 3 months - well, that's do-able. I like that I can see a light at the end of the "diet". I like that my goal will not be overwhelming.


So I have decided that I'm going to give my daily balance of calories consumed verses burned on this blog. I am the first to admit that reading how many calories I burned every day will be very tedious for you. But I'm going to do it. And let me tell you, it was really hard today not to go out and buy some junk to eat. Especially because I had yet to announce my intentions of being accountable this way. But I made it through the day without eating too much and with no trip to the grocery store (living in a building with a store on the ground level seemed like such a good idea when I moved in).



I would give you my balance for today, but there is still 3 more hours left in the day. I will still be burning calories, even once I sleep. So I will have to let you know tomorrow what the final number for today is. And if you have made it all the way to the end of this rambling post - yay! Please keep checking in on me for the next 3 months. I need to be accountable to someone. And 3 months - I'm starting to get excited about this....

Chinese Food

Okay, so I was doing really good the last few days. It helps when I'm at work. I definitely eat more at home.
So... the first day off at home.... it didn't go so well. I got out and had a lovely, long swim, but then - I ordered chinese food. And yes, it tasted great. But now I'm not feeling so well. And I'm sure I'm going to be up tonight with heartburn. But starting now - I'm going to do better. Because I decided that for the next 3 months - I'm really going to try to lose some weight. And it is going to start with a good sleep tonight. Hopefully.

Doing better

I have been doing much bet better these last couple of days. I probably need to start writing down everything I'm eating to be more accountable. For example, after getting off work this morning (worked a 12 hour shift overnight) I stopped at a coffee shop and got 2 sausage rolls and a small caramel hot chocolate with whip cream. Probably not something I should have during these 3 months I'm trying to lose weight. But it was at the end of a day where I had a great day - other than perhaps the sugar in the ice tea. So, in summation.... I need to start writing things down, but I'm eating much better. And now I'm off to the best part of the day (or so it seems like now) - SLEEP!

A long time

It has been a month and a half since I have posted anything. I have started a few drafts that I never actually posted. The hardest part about posting after a long absence is justifying why there wasn't anything posted for such a long time. I don't really have a reason. I was really struggling. I found it really difficult to stick to a diet. I wasn't exercising. Tomorrow is one full year on this journey and I really wanted to be farther along than this. And I think it was really depressing that I wasn't farther into my weight loss so I just didn't blog anything. Posting nothing was better than posting all my negativity. But I have decided that I'm just going to start fresh.

So in one year - I have lost 25 lbs. And I think I'm only going to focus on the next 3 months. I'm going to try to lose weight over this summer and then in the fall (when I find it so hard to lose weight), I'm just going to try to maintain that weight loss. Looking at how much I have to lose was becoming way too overwhelming. So I'm going to focus on the next 3 months. I can lose weight in 3 months. And I can lose enough to feel a whole lot better.

I have to go to work now, but I wanted to post a little something - just to get over the hurdle of this first post. But I'm still here, and I'm going to go strong for the next 90 days!