Violetglass and Rosevines

Yesterday evening, I read all the 'courses' offered, and there is a lot of great information there, especially for someone who is truly a beginner - which I am not. That said, it wasn't a waste of time, driving it home never is! I dove into the forums and made a post and I've checked them again today - going to get them into my routine. Seems to be lots of great people on there.

There are some items that aren't quite 'me' - such as the paleo diet. I like to eat a lot of fresh food such as fruits and vegetables, plus I aim to find more meats that are better for me, such as grass fed, etc. But I don't like how restrictive paleo seems. For me, that's just a key to failure. However, it works great for lots, so to each their own. I'm going to keep doing the calorie counting I am doing, meeting my macros, working on having good micros, and exercising. If I ever stall way out or start feeling blah again, then going more paleo will be in the works.

My next steps need to be starting a free weight routine. So my short-term goal is to decide on a routine by Monday, January 6, and implement it by Monday, January 13. I'm giving myself a lot of leeway, because I'm breaking out of a major comfort zone, and I have to learn how to do all the moves properly, which means finding time to watch videos or steal a personal trainer at the Y during their busiest time of year.

I'm going to then narrow this down to 2 key goals for January:
1. Decide on and start a free weight routine 3x/week by January 13, 2014.
2. Blog at least 3x/week here starting January 6, 2014. These can be about anything - progress in NFA and with goals, writing, gaming, whatever I am in the mood for. Time to turn this blog into a blog, even an unread one is productive!

I ended 2013 at 200 pounds exactly - 91 pounds gone, spitting distance from breaking 200 for the first time since 1996. Awesome! Holidays went great, and I never felt deprived. I had lots of great food, just in moderation, and I kept up on exercise. I'm feeling stronger and stronger -- I can actually plank for awhile and start to lower myself down in yoga (chataronga - sp? whatever it is, when I hear 'chataronga down' I hear pain and awesomeness for my core). It's awesome to see these other, non-scale-related, improvements.

To continue on with that, I'm going to try Nerd Fitness Academy as well, because they do a lot with training to lift well, and that's the next phase I want to start integrating. Some of them seem way more paleo then I will ever be when it comes to diet and nutrition, but I'm perfectly comfortable being able to pick and choose intelligently what will work for me. Some of it is aimed at the beginner, just starting out, and without a lot of education on what is good -- I'm much more intermediate than that, and what I'm doing is working great for me, but I want improved body composition as well, and moving from machines to free weights will help with a lot if that, I think.

I love that I am doing well, and I love that it is changing my outlook and life. Being healthier is key - I want to be around for awhile. :)

Survived 3 birthdays and Thanksgiving awesomely :) I even dropped 3 pounds, so I'm down to 207! Weight loss definitely has slowed down from the 10 pounds per month average I was doing for so long, but that is totally okay. I'm at 84 gone, and I lost during a holiday week, and I don't feel deprived. In fact, I feel awesome.

Going to just keep on with the plan, as it appears to be working gangbusters. For Xmas, I may indulge a bit more, so here's my plan for that:

22nd: Mexican food (DS#1's birthday restaurant of choice + my mother's) - will keep this light and work out extra obviously.
23rd: DS#1's actual birthday - no cake since we will have Xmas the next day. Not sure yet what the plans are, so I will definitely work out in the a.m. hard.
24th: Our Xmas day. Get up early and go work out for an hour beforehand. Stay mostly away from the chocolates my mother always brings. Snack on vegetables without the dip. Save it for the roast, the lemon meringue pie, and the side dishes. Oh and the pizzelles, mom's bringing. Must. have. pizzelles.
25th: Off to a movie. Gym's closed of course, so no working out there. I'll just keep it sensible, back to the normal eating plan.

Xmas day foods:
Roast, mashed sweet potatoes, steamed vegetables, gravy, side salad, roasted potatoes with the meat, pie for dessert. Fruit/vegetable platters during day, mom's cookies.

A nice hard work out each day leading up to the 24th and on the 24th and keeping more of a deficit on all those other days should really help mitigate this without any issues.

I was good - I kept myself to 2 of the awesome cheese-and-nut-stuffed bacon-wrapped dates, two small pieces of flatbread with a small amount of goat cheese, artichoke tapenade, and roasted garlic. I could have eaten so, so much more because they all taste so good, but I wanted cake. I kept my end goal for the day in mind (have cake without blowing it) and I kept my calorie goal in mind. I did one addition - I added french onion soup to my salad. I didn't eat the bread soaking in it, and it wasn't one of those slathered with cheese. I kept my salad dressing use to almost non-existent - kept forgetting to dip my fork in the dressing. I think I overestimated everything I did, which is good.

I did fine with the cake - I measured out two ounces. I did lick some more frosting off a fork and try a bite of the chocolate cake. I am not sure how the calories on this one went as I just found some random one on the website to estimate.

Overall - I came out by going about 10 calories over my daily goal. That is predicated on my being accurate with my calorie estimates and with my calorie burn estimates. I may be over a bit more if either of those are off in the wrong direction.

However, I am pleased. Even if it's over a bit, it isn't by tons. I kept myself in control, and when I knew a salad wasn't going to cut it, I added something easier to moderate and with fewer calories than what I could have done (aka crammed in more bacon dates and flatbread with goat cheese). I knew I was going to want cake so I exercised more and made smart dinner choices so I could fit that in.

The cake was sweeter than I'd had in ages, and really, I don't think I'm going to be tempted to have more. At about 220 calories an ounce, it's too much for too little reward. The cakes were gorgeous though!

I am proud of myself. I am good at making good choices and sticking to my long-term goals, and I don't feel deprived or like I want to binge out because I'm not letting myself do something. On the contrary, I can do it - I just make it fit, and that's a powerful feeling. I control it, and I'm good at it now. Yay me :)

Because I used this is the beginning to state and restate and re-re-restate all my plans so I helped solidify them in my consciousness and sub-consciousness, I am going to do that for the holiday times too. It really worked and helped before, and it can only do good now.

The next month in a snapshot:
Today - twins' birthday (dinner out, cake)
Saturday - DS#2's birthday
Next week - week off work, Thanksgiving weekend, all DS home
December - DS#1's birthday on the 23rd and Xmas on the 24th and movies on the 25th
November/December in general - food focus getting shoved on you from every which way

Today's Plan:
I worked out on the elliptical and did an hour of yoga. Plus last night I didn't eat all my exercise calories back so I had more of a deficit for today. Tomorrow I will do the same thing. We are going to Cafe Melange where I will keep myself at 2 bacon-wrapped dates, 1 piece of the flat bread with a small amount of the cheese and tapenade. I will have the Melange salad with the dressing on the side and with chicken instead of filet tip. When we get home for cake, I will have 2 oz max. I will weigh it.

Thursday/Friday: if I have the calories and I want an ounce of cake, then fine, but really, I think 1 day of it is plenty. I don't need more. So Thu/Fri will just go back to normal.

Saturday: DS2 is coming home but is planning on having friends to watch Dr. Who and then going out to McD's or something, so I should be able to just keep this as normal. Sunday, I'll drive him back to school and make him take all the leftover cake from the girls' birthday.

Thanksgiving Plan:
I'm off all week, so normal workout schedule + extra moving around the house as we prep it for Thanksgiving. Plus just some chill out down time. Wednesday I'll make a lemon meringue and a pumpkin pie. Thursday will be turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and a green vegetable. The Y is probably closed Thu/Fri so I'm going to have to weigh everything, keep my portions under control, and not overdo it. I don't really see this being a problem. I don't care about the pie - maybe I'll just make pumpkin for everyone else and keep some sorbet in the house for my sweet tooth. That sounds best.

December Plan:
December itself shouldn't be any different - I won't have any Xmas parties and I can keep myself isolated in my office (or at jury duty, ugh). So normal workouts and bringing lunches and tracking. No problem at all. For DS1's birthday, we'll do the restaurant of his choice, I'm guessing Mexican, and I've eaten there multiple times with no issues under this lifestyle change. I can amp up the workouts a bit if it looks like I'm going to want a bit more than normal. No need for cake - I think our new tradition will be next cake is the 21st birthday, go for milestones.

Xmas (aka the 24th) will be probably ham, but I'll see what the 'rents want. Turkey would be great again. I'll do roasted vegetables instead (brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions, peppers, asparagus) and have biscuits on the side, plus gravy. Maybe I'll do a roast beef or bison instead, as ham is just so fattening. An egg bake in the morning (egg, bacon, light cheese, add in some vegetables too) if my parents want food, plus keep a vegetable platter out and have fruit on hand. Should again be pretty easy to keep it within my calorie limits, and I can get up early and go work out before all of this anyway.

the 25th: normal movie day. Normal calorie day. Easy peasy.

And there you have it - shouldn't be bad at all. Tonight may be the hardest so it's a matter of willpower against the flat bread and the bacon dates :)

I started this journey on February 23, 2013. I'm almost 9 months in at this point, and I'm now down 81 pounds. For awhile, I was averaging 10 pounds a month, and that's slowed a bit, but not in a way that's bothering me at all. I'm still at just over 2 pounds per week average, which is great.

I am fast approaching my first goal, so I wanted to restatement for motivation.

Weight Loss Goals
Goal 1: break the 200-pound 'barrier'. I'm 11 pounds from this and can't wait! It's not going to stymie me this time; I'm blowing past this sucker. While I don't have any set time frame, I do hope that my weight loss rate continues so I can do this goal before the end of the year.

Goal 2: hit 100 pounds lost. This will come shortly after goal 1 - I would say sometime between year end and January 31st. Even with a slow down, it shouldn't be hard to hit 100 gone within 1 year of starting, which is amazing in and of itself. I'd just prefer to do it sooner.

Goal 3: get under 150 pounds. I know this one will take longer and involve more focused work - the closer to a healthy weight I get, the slower this may go. However, I don't plan on getting discouraged. To help with that, I'm not putting a time frame on it. It'll happen when it happens.

Goal 4: get under 130 pounds. Let's face it, I'm going to be ecstatic at being under 150. I started at 291, so that's losing half myself. I just know my body type, and I know that I looked good when between 115-125. I think a more reasonable goal is to maintain between 120-130. However, this goal is flexible and will depend on my fitness goals and how they affect my body composition. Under 150, the weight on the scale is going to be less important than the inches on the measuring tape.

Exercise Plans
I love exercising now. I feel great when I do it, so even on days when I'm dragging a bit, I realize that once I get myself on that elliptical or treadmill that I will feel way better afterwards. I want to keep that up for my lifetime, and I want to add in more and varied activities. I think doing another fun run with the kids, maybe a Colour Run next, and the Zombie Run again are on the docket for 2014.

For right now, my plan is to integrate in 2-3 times a week yoga, except when I'm on the road, keep up a minimum of 4x/wk cardio (elliptical or treadmill), and 3x/week weight machines. At some point in the near future, I'd like to hire a personal trainer for a few sessions and get back into free weights. I did those in high school and enjoyed them. I'd prefer them over the machines, because some of the hotels have weights I can use. I just need to get someone to show me the right stances, get a plan together, and then get comfortable using the free weight room where I might have to interact with others for spotting or whatever!

Ultimately, I want a fit body with good muscle tone so that will require doing weights. I love yoga and cardio, so it won't go away either. Those "weights and only weights" people drive me as batty as the "no weights only cardio" people do. A healthy balance of the two so I can get trim and have loads of energy is what I want! One or the other may work for others, but this is what will be best for me.

Eating Plans
Not changing much here. Tracking everything I eat on MFP is working well. I've mostly phased out also tracking it in my moleskine, as I really don't see the need. It was a good tool to keep me honest in the beginning and to help me in remembering everything if I didn't have easy access to the internet when eating, but I haven't had a need in months to use it. So, rather than track in 2 places, I'll keep it up on MFP. If I find myself faltering there, then I'll go back to doing it in both places to kick me into gear again. I do think I'll change MFP to be hourly instead of my 'meals' so I can get a better idea of times I am eating. I did use the moleskine for that, and it was useful. I can use the note system if I get headaches so I can track that outside of the notebook too.

And there we go - my ongoing lifestyle rearranging. It's wildly successful thus far, and I plan on it being wildly successful for life. I feel way better; I have more energy; and I didn't have to give up a favourite food. I just learned to control. I'm looking forward to hitting my benchmarks and goals.

So I stopped posting back in June, since this is really just a conversation with myself. I've kept up weekly short updates on my fb though. The reason for the blogging stop was time-related (too little of it) and success-related (had a pretty good idea of what to do). But, I figured I should do an update to keep myself motivated!

As of today, I am 70 pounds down and am averaging just under 10 pounds per month. This puts me at 221 pounds -- only 22 more pounds to break the 200 barrier! I'm ecstatic.

In the last 4 months, I've had to toss out essentially my entire closet. I've purchased a few items, but I want to keep the purchases down, since I'm still losing a lot, and I don't want to waste money. However, I needed SOME items. I snagged 3 work skirts and a handful of classy t-shirt shells and 3 black blazers -- in 2X. Which is down from 4-5X depending on the cut/style. I can now fit into most 2X items, and if I want a shirt to be tight because it's going under something, 1-2X is fine (or 18/20). I bought 2 looser shirts in 22/24 that hang over my ass well, and I found a lovely black stretchy belt at Target to wrap around those looser shirts so I can silhouette myself.

I am buying clothes are regular stores sometimes now! Still need the 2x size, but most stores go up to that. It's super refreshing to realize that I have more flexibility, and that in another 40 pounds or so, I'll have even more flexibility when I get down just a bit more into the size 16 range or XL.

Logging everything I eat continues to work great for me. I get familiar with a restaurant's menu before I go, if possible, and if not, then I go work out extra to give myself some flexibility. In September, I went to our strategy meeting in Florida and had a drink every night plus fairly rich food, and I just kept the portions reasonable, and I exercised, and voila - lost weight that week too. I do have some weeks where I fluctuate up slightly, but that's just timing and water weight (for example - I had a week where I showed myself down 5 and the next week down 3, but the week after I went up 2 and held that for another week before finally dropping again -- the body does weird things sometimes).

In early October, I spent 3 days in San Diego with my parents, and I realized that I could set a good walking pace for them and keep up, not get winded, and not curse myself because my 70-year-old parents could kick my ass around the block :)

If I can keep on this pace, I can be under 200 before the end of the year. I do know that once I hit the 180s or so, weight loss will probably slow down a lot more since I'll be that much closer to goal. That is okay. I have plans to change things up when I slow down or plateau, such as tossing in Jillian Michaels' 30-day Shred and getting a few sessions with a personal trainer to get a weight lifting regimen in place. Right now, what I'm doing is working, so I'm good with it. I will want more weightlifting in the future because toned muscles are sexy happy muscles, but I like saving big changes for when I think I need to shake it all up a bit. No real science behind that - just personal preference.

So there we go - keep logging, keep exercising, keep losing. I want to toss my closet out again in a few months!

Saturday - 1 hour cardio + full strength + chill out in hot tub or sauna. In other words, relax and take my own sweet time. Groceries, packing, and gaming, ftw. Dinner = salad or roasted vegetables + a meat.

Sunday - Gaming and chilling until 3ish, drive to Seattle. Work out at hotel. Bring dinner (microwaveable thing).

Monday - get to airport early enough to walk all 4 terminals. If running on time, in DFW walk 20 minutes briskly before flight. BF at hotel. Buy water at airport. On flight, fruit snack pack if possible, otherwise keep it light. In DFW, if I had meal on plane, just water. If not, then water and a banana and eat my other fruit too. Go to grocery store and pick up fruit and food to nuke for Tuesday dinner. Dinner either from grocery store or from Taco Bell (depends on how I feel, calorie count, etc).

Tuesday - up at 5, short work out (even if only 15 minutes), drive to Pryor. Return, do at least 30 minutes on treadmill/elliptical. BF at hotel, take fruit for snack/lunch on site visit. Dinner from grocery store.

Wednesday - up with time to spare to do 1 hour workout. Take fruit for site visit. Return for 30-60 minutes light workout. Dinner at Rolando's. I need the calorie burn from 2 1 hour workouts for this food :) Guacamole + chips + Don Quixote burrito.

Thursday - 6 am flight so too early for work out. Layover is only 1 hour, so if I can fit in a brief brisk walk, great. Land in Seattle, get car, go to Ikea, go to DS#1 to pack up. Return home. Food: at DFW grab a water and a granola bar. If I eat also on the plane, then I probably just need some water and fruit in Seattle. If I don't, then another bar and water -- something to keep me going for the packing :)

I'm thinking Thursday's exertions will be enough for exercise. Friday will be business as usual, so I can work out before and after work to make up for any excesses with Rolando's and any lacks with working out.

The following week:
Saturday - normal Y work out (60m + strength + relaxing) and packing
Sunday - flight to DFW with 3 hour drive to OKC. If I have time on layovers, I'll walk. Otherwise, I'll probably have to skip. Dinner from ?? Staying in MWC, if it's early enough, just run to grocery store and find something.
Monday - MCW visit, so short commute, therefore workout in the a.m. Drive down to Durant in p.m. Dinner can be from Chili's (grilled chicken salad, santa fe chicken salad).
Tuesday - workout am and pm. Madill. Dinner either from Chili's again or find a grocery store or a taco bell.
Wednesday - workout am and drive to TX in pm. Durant. Dinner from On the Border, Taco Bell, or the greek place. I'm leaning toward the Greek place -- it's good, I can hang out until after traffic ends, etc.
Thursday - workout am and maybe pm. Mesquite. Dinner at hotel near airport -- Red Lobster or Olive Garden.
Friday - workout am, plenty of time. Walk the airports too. BF at hotel. If upgraded, eat on plane. Snag a water and a bar just in case, aim for the fruit platter if they have it. Dinner at home.

The key is to keep moving as best I can, get lots of rest so I'm not exhausted, and find grocery stores to get some extra fresh fruit to use as snacks during the site visits and with dinner.

That's 38 lost total, putting me at 253. A couple more weeks and I should be in the 240s. I love every time I move into a new "tens" arena -- it feels awesome!

So Wednesday brought an unexpected challenge. Demonspawn the Third had a band concert that the obnoxious band teacher turned into a 2.5 plus hour ordeal because it was the last of the year. Band had to be there at 5 pm and it started at 630 and ended at 915. Try working and then fitting dinner for everyone in there! We decided to just do a late dinner and the deadelf suggested Olive Garden. I proactively looked up their nutrition info in the 20 minutes I had between work and concert and decided on a few options. I got there and stuck to it, and I'm very proud of myself! I allowed myself one breadstick, skipped the salad since it's crap I don't like and crappy lettuce, had 3/4 of the lobster cannelloni, and a mini dessert. I had worked out hard that day and didn't go over on calories and kept a reasonable balance on the other stats. Yesterday I was exhausted from such a late night, so I did a light workout. I felt guilty about that today and just finished an hour on the treadmill. Tomorrow will be another hour of cardio and my full on strength training. I'll need it, because the 'rents come into town tonight, so we're having the requisite Mexican food with them (it's what my mom always wants -- it's super adorable). The menu isn't available online, but I think I'll do something like fajitas so I can build a lot of it myself. Their main items tend to be heavily sauced with lots of cheese.

Tomorrow is graduation for Demonspawn the Second. I pick up DS the Eldest at midnight from the airport so he can join us for the festivities.

Lots and lots going on, right now I'm juts hanging in at the same weight, but I'm hoping today and tomorrow's workouts can knock out enough to show a couple pound drop at least on Sunday.