Back on Track

It’s been over a month now with no weight loss.  However, August wasn’t exactly a model month.  With a couple family birthdays (including my own) and various outings with friends, there was more than an isolated few “off track” days.  In retrospect, I should be grateful there was no gain and I’m still where I was a month ago!

So today, with parties behind me and the beginning of our school year and normal routines, I am back on track and focused yet again on losing the rest.  After asking a lot of people who have gone through the plateau stage, it seems shaking up the workout routine is the common thread in getting the scale moving again.  In light of that, I’m increasing my workout times and doing varied workouts, getting out of my ruts, and pushing to burn more calories in each workout than previously burned.  Another thing everyone says, that I know I haven’t been consistent with, is keeping up the water intake.  So I’m back to my huge blue water bottle and trying to get 1-2 of those down a day.  We’ll see how that goes!

Thank you for all the encouraging notes, emails and comments during my plateau.  I not only have the blessing of losing weight through this, but the blessing of a great support network, which keeps me going and motivates me to finish what I started.  You help me more than you know!

Another before/in progress picture below.  The first one is with my oldest daughter a few years ago.  The second was this weekend, on a birthday shopping trip with my second daughter.  My children are nine of the  reasons I want to continue losing weight!

The Plateau

Three weeks now with no weight loss.  The dreaded plateau.  It would have been more convenient to have the plateau come when I was in a definite size.  But I’m between sizes right now, belting one and squeezing in the other.  Of course it would have been even more convenient to plateau at maintenance! But since these things never seem to care much about convenience, I’m just continuing to do what I do and wait it out.

In the absence of any exciting weight loss to report, other than the 54 pounds to date (not that that's not exciting in and of itself), I’ve decided to focus on inches lost in this post.  I measured at the beginning of all this, last November, but only once or twice since then.  I must admit, I’m more focused on the number on the scale, even though everything I read tells me not to be.  But the inches lost are adding up and I was quite surprised by how much less of me there is.

There are seven areas I measure (chest, waist, hips, thigh, stomach, buttocks, and arm).  In total from those seven areas, I’ve lost 38 inches!  That’s over a YARD of me GONE!  And if you count the size I can squeeze into (which, of course, I am), I’m down 8 jean sizes.

So if you are on a weight loss journey, here is my tip for the day:  measure yourself at the beginning and then don’t do it again until you hit your plateau (and you will hit a plateau).  It gives you something to get excited and motivated about, even though the scale refuses to budge. Because right now, I gotta admit, I'm pretty motivated and excited!  

My other random tip for those taking up running or cardio that you otherwise don’t care for: audiobooks.  I started downloading books on my itunes and only listen to them when I run.  I cannot believe what a difference it has made.  I get so lost in the story, it takes my mind off the run (or cardio machine) and makes the time fly by.  Sometimes when I should be done with the workout, but the chapter isn’t finished, I keep going to get to a good stopping point.  And because I won’t let myself listen to it unless I’m working out, there are some days I can’t wait to get to the gym, or start the run, so I can find out what happens next! Books that leave you hanging at the end of chapters are especially effective in this regard.

And speaking of running, I ran my second 5K on the 4^th of July.  I beat my time goal, which was to finish in 33 minutes, by two minutes, finishing in 31 minutes.  That’s five minutes faster than the first 5K in March.  VERY happy about that!  =D  Below is my wonderful husband, Ron, who also ran the race, but finished considerably before me.   

Bottom line, plateau notwithstanding, I’m still committed and on track.  Other than a couple day splurge with some girlfriends on a recent getaway, I’ve been keeping to my calorie and percentage goals.  I’m obviously looking forward to the scale moving again, but the way I eat is pretty much the way I plan to eat long term anyway, so I don’t feel like I’m spinning my wheels for nothing.  I may not make my final goal in the one year time frame I was hoping for, but, Lord willing, I’ll hit it eventually.  And in the meantime, I feel better than I’ve felt in years!  

Nobody Said It'd Be Easy

I love those weeks where I’ve lost a couple more pounds, tried a new recipe that is just to die for in a completely healthy-okay-to-eat kind of way, or had some really cool new gadget or insight that helps propel me into the next week of my weight loss journey.

This last week was not one of those weeks.

Last week, hands down, has been one of the toughest weeks for me so far.  I have a sweet tooth craving that cannot be satisfied, jars of peanut butter that audibly call to me at odd hours in the day, and the munchies almost around the clock.  Not just today, which I could probably handle, but the entire last week.  While to some degree I’ve succumbed to these temptations, for the most part, I’ve just suffered through it.  But the longer it lasts, the weaker I get.  And the weaker I get, the crankier I get.  And the crankier I get, the more I think about peanut butter.

This next paragraph is supposed to contain the epiphany that saves the day.  It’s supposed to be the nugget that you walk away with that encourages and inspires you to stay the course, or start the course, or get back on the course.   But today, I sort of hate the course, and have nothing short of this to say:  this is hard.

Losing weight is never easy.  And losing a lot of weight throws the element of a lot of time into the mix, making it not only not easy, but seemingly unending.   It’s at this point that we separate the people who are committed to losing weight from the people who merely want to lose weight.  It’s that commitment that compels me to not give in, to not take a step backwards in my journey, only to have to make up for it next week.  Not because I’m obsessed.  Not because losing weight has become an idol in my life.  But because I have a goal to be in the “healthy weight” category.   I have a goal to be healthy and keep up with my nine kids and grandkids.  I can’t meet that goal by giving in whenever it gets hard. Yet I can already hear the voices of some well-meaning friends who would say to do just that.  “Take a couple days off”. “Life is short, eat dessert first” kind of advice.  When I get to maintenance, there will be times I do just that.  But for another 32 pounds, I’m still on a journey.  And I can’t get to where I’m going if I start walking backwards.  Please don’t tell me to just go for it and get back on track next week.  What I need is….

I can’t even finish that thought because I don’t even know what I need.  Sometimes things are just hard and you have to pick yourself up and just keep going.  I suppose if you’re really looking for it, you could find a life analogy in there somewhere, though if you find one, it would be completely unintentional.  This is just me, struggling to stay on track with the goals before me.  Even when it’s hard, even when I don’t want to, even when others would tell me to take a break.

Not the most encouraging post, I know.  I’d apologize, but it’s real.  If you think losing weight will be easy, you might as well know the truth.  It’s not.  Sometimes it’s just really hard and not a lot of fun.  But the more you distance yourself from your ultimate goal by giving in or taking breaks, the longer it will take to get to your destination.

 Just. Keep. Going.

Two New Items

I recently purchased two things that are helping in the continuing weight loss journey. 

The Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor

Absolutely LOVE this!  It has motivated me to increase my workout efforts, as I now have an accurate, in-your-face number of what I am burning and how hard I am working, staring me in the face during my workouts.  This HRM is a combination of the wrist watch and chest strap.  The chest strap is comfortable and you forget it’s even there once you start working out.  Once you enter all your personal information in the watch (height, weight, age, etc.), you get an accurate accounting, via your heart rate, how many calories you are burning during a workout.  I usually have the watch set to calories burned while I’m working out and have a number in my head before I start of how many calories I hope to burn.  I either keep going, or step up the intensity to make sure I get there.  At the moment, I only allow myself to eat back anything I burn OVER 200 calories.  So if I burn 250, I only get to eat 50 of those.  Therefore, my goals for most workouts are closer to the 350-400 range.

I got mine online for $65.00.  There are tons to choose from.  This one doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as others out there, but it does exactly what I want it to do: give me an accurate count of how many calories I’m burning, rather than estimating, thus pushing me to workout harder than I was doing before.

A ridiculously over-sized water bottle

Okay, this one was much cheaper.  $7.00.  It’s a half gallon water bottle, with the built in straw and the optional frozen mechanism in the middle.  Buying this has most definitely increased my water intake, which hasn’t been too great.  I’m addicted to iced-tea and drink about a gallon of that a day.  I’ve been telling myself it’s AS-IF I’m drinking water, since of course iced-tea is made with water.  Ahem.  Yeah, not the same thing at all.  Calorie-wise, the iced-tea doesn’t “hurt” me at all, since I don’t add sugar, but because caffeine is a diuretic, it is not the same thing as drinking water.  On run days, my goal is to drink two of these, one before noon, and the other before dinner.   Otherwise, I shoot for one and a half.  I’m not giving up my tea yet, but I have definitely noticed I’m not as “snacky” in the afternoon when I’m sipping on this all day.

I’m down another pound, but also down another jean size!  I kept one pair of jeans from back in November when this all started.  I just can’t believe how much more of me there used to be!!!

Another Milestone

After no weight loss last week, I was thrilled to get on the scale this morning and see a 2 pound loss.  This put me at minus 50.  50!  That just sounds so…well…50! 

I received a message from another large family mom asking me about how I handle eating so differently from the rest of the family.  It seems so “normal” now the question took me by surprise. But in the beginning, it was a little weird that I was eating often completely different meals from what the rest of the family was eating, even though we were all sitting down at the dinner table at the same time.  Because I have changed the way I cook, relying more on seasonings than sauces, I can often eat the main dish and salad or vegetable that everyone else eats, and just skip the side dish.  But there are still plenty of nights I throw together a tilapia filet or a chicken breast instead of whatever they eat.  The secret to getting the kids' food together, especially at lunch, is gum.  Often I have to chew gum while making their lunch or I find myself picking at whatever I’m making them. =O

I’ve really simplified my lunches of late, since after making their lunch, I don’t feel like making a whole separate elaborate lunch for me.  Often I have what I’ve nicknamed my BOWIN lunch:  Bowl Of What I Need.  When I plan my food journal for the day, I always start with breakfast and dinner.  Then, after I know how many carbs, fats, and proteins I have left over, I throw together a lunch that fits the need.  Often it’s a chicken breast, turkey sausage, lean ground beef or fish, with black beans, a heated-until-crispy corn tortilla, brown rice, wheat pasta or yam cubes, with an avocado or nuts, mixed with a sugar-free BBQ sauce or Balsamic vinegar, tossed in a bowl.  It’s quick (especially if some of it is already made ahead of time, see post http://busymomofnine.blogspot.com/2012/03/day-in-life.html ), it’s easy and it’s what I need.  Here is a picture of a typical BOWIN lunch.

My new absolutely favorite breakfast is Peanut Butter Protein Steel Cut Oats.  The biggest differences between steel cut oats and rolled oats are in the cooking time and texture.  Steel cut oats are more hearty and chewy, which makes it seem more filling (to me).  I add a scoop of my chocolate protein powder, along with 1 tble. Kirkland Organic Peanut Butter, and it makes a great tasting, well balanced breakfast.

And my latest find for a late afternoon, heavy protein snack is shrimp.  Shrimp is straight protein, no carbs, no fat.  It’s also very low in calorie.  I get a back of the Kirkland Cooked, Tail-Off Shrimp just to have on hand for snacks.  You get 11 pieces for 70 calories, so I usually have 22 pieces for a typical snack.  It gets my protein where it needs to be (which is generally hard for me to hit) and fits well with my calories. 

35 pounds left, which seems so doable.  I’m shooting for the second week in November, which would make the whole journey one year.  I bought my first pair of shorts in over 18 years last week.  I’ve stuck with capris and sundresses in the summer for the past 18 years.  I haven’t actually worn them yet, but the fact that I own a pair of shorts is a pretty big deal.  Amazing what a difference seven months can bring!

Is Your Program Better?

A question recently asked of me:

“Would you say the program you are on is better than any of the other diet programs out there?”

I’ve spent the past 18 years overweight.  I’ve gone up and down on the scale during that time (mostly due to pregnancies), but always overweight.  I’d get inspired to start a new program, or join a new diet group, or take a new product, but after some initial weight loss I would always gain it back.  The bottom line was, I just wasn’t committed to stick with it or see it as a lifestyle change.  I wanted to shed the weight, and then go back to eating the foods I wanted, when I wanted, and how much I wanted.

Seven months ago, that changed.  With the jumpstart of Rachel cooking for me and those first 35 pounds gone (the most I had lost on any program), I slowly came to embrace that this was not a “diet”.  It was a complete change in the way I approach food that would last forever. 

I remember being inspired at different times through those 18 years when I would see my friends losing weight and would think, “Oh, if she can do it, so can I.”  But I didn’t have the discipline or commitment to work past the initial weight loss.  I got tired of “their” food, that really didn’t taste that good anyway.  I was sick of being hungry all the time.  I was discouraged to be spending all that money on something that would probably not work long-term anyway.  And, importantly, I couldn’t see how what I was doing could ever be something I could do for the rest of my life.  

I’m not bashing or discrediting any particular diet program or product.  You will find people who thrive on this particular program or that one.  And that’s great….for them.  But that’s the key.  It wasn’t for me.  You have to find something that works for you; that works with your lifestyle, that works with your budget, that you could see yourself doing forever.  At some point, the “diet” is over and you have to go on eating for the rest of your life.  If what you are doing isn’t something you can do forever, odds are you will gain it all back once you end your “diet”. 

I needed the “jumpstart” of Rachel cooking.  Maybe this or that diet program is your jumpstart.  But until you come to terms with the fact that losing and keeping weight off involves a change in the way you eat forever, you will probably continue to go up and down on the scale.

So back to the original question:  Do I think the program I am on is better than others out there?

 No. 

But only because I don’t see myself on a “program”.

I have changed the way I eat.  And this change will stay with me the rest of my life.  I see myself always counting calories.  I see myself always eating within certain protein/carb/fat percentages.  I see myself staying away from certain foods (namely processed foods and refined flour and sugar products) forever.  These changes work with my lifestyle.  They work with my budget.  And they are changes, many of which are now habits, that will stay with me forever.  And that is how I am losing weight.

47 pounds gone.  Everyone says I need to do something special when I hit the 50 pound mark.  I'm open to suggestions!!!

A Change in Attitude

A strange phenomenon is taking place.  I’ve been hesitant to say it out loud because I don’t want to jinx it, but, truth be told, I am starting to enjoy working out.  (I’m never going to hear the end of this from my family members).  I’m not sure when the change in attitude started, but I definitely no longer have the dread of the next workout  that I formerly had.  In fact, I kinda, sort of, just a little bit, even look forward to it.  =O

I’ve been on a pretty regular six days per week workout schedule for the past couple of months.  I run every other day, and go to the gym on the other days.  I rest on Sundays.  The runs are going great.  I run 3 miles for two of the days and work on time goals.  The third run is untimed and I’m slowly adding quarters to it.  I’m at 3.5 now.   The timed runs are going ahead of my goals.  I ran the first 5K at 12 minute miles.  I wanted to be at 11 minute miles by the 4^th of July 5K (which I just signed up for last week).  But my runs are pretty consistently under 11 minute miles now, so I may push for 10 between now and then.  (Notice the completely non-committal “may”, thus leaving me an out if I don’t make it).

I don’t know how long this non-aversion to exercise will last, but I am enjoying it for now.  This is a definite first for me.  And it feels great!

Recipes

Rachel made these pancakes last weekend and they were so good!  I just had to post the recipe.  They are now our Saturday post-run breakfast.  I have three, with ¼ cup Pure Maple Syrup, and add two scrambled eggs to it, since the pancakes are so low in calorie.

Gluten-free Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

1 ¼ - 1 ½ oat flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 c. apple juice
1/3 c. apple sauce
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbl of melted coconut oil

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in the other.  Then mix together.  Spray bottom of skillet with a cooking spray (I use Olive Oil), and spoon out in ¼ cup servings.  Each pancake is about 70 calories.  Makes roughly 14 pancakes.

And I have found my new “candy”.  Peanut Butter Protein Balls.  Where have these been all my life?!

1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I use Isoflex)
¾ cup Kirkland Organic Creamy Peanut Butter
¼ cup honey
½ cup dry rolled oats

Mix into balls and freeze on a plate of wax paper.  Once frozen, move to a ziplock bag.  Remove from bag a few minutes to unthaw before eating.  Makes 14 balls. 1 ball = 122 calories

(If you are using Myfitnesspal, it is on the database as Stormoen Protein Balls)

Peanut butter and chocolate!  It’s like heaven in a ball!

45 pounds gone.  I finally cleaned out my closet and seriously have very few clothes left in there!  But since I don’t want to stay in this size very long, I’m just making do and waiting for a whole new wardrobe when I get to where I want to be.  Now that’s motivating!