Weight Loss & Wedding Rings

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new ring

A new ring to rule them all…yep I got my new wedding band for Valentine’s and lost nearly 4 sizes in the process. Yay!

My husband surprised me on Valentine’s Day with a new wedding band. I haven’t worn my wedding band or engagement ring since April 2013. That’s when I tried to dry my hands by frantically waiving them in the air the rings flew off my finger. Thankfully I was home at the time and found them.

After that incident, I put my rings up for safekeeping thinking I can resize them once I hit goal. Turns out, resizing was out of the question due to how the stones were set within the band. Grrrr!

So nearly 3 years later, I’m down 145 pounds and have 30 more to go, but the husband thought enough time passed and I needed a new wedding band.

I settled on a band similar to the original — sapphires and diamonds (stones not embedded into the band) but with white instead of yellow gold. The big shock came when measuring my finger. I went from a size 10-1/2 to 6-3/4.

Yikes! I was so busy focusing on losing weight in the obvious places — stomach, thighs, bat wings arms, and butt — I never expected fat loss from my hands.

But I’m not complaining. All weight loss victories are welcome.

 

 

Weekly Weigh-In: Up A Little

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weight jan 30

I’m up slightly and it feels like most of that weight is in my plugged up sinuses! Yep, my bug is back with abandon. And I’m fighting it the best way I know how…lots of sleep!

Well I’m up nearly half a pound, but I don’t consider that anything serious. My guess is my returning illness has more to do with it than what I’m eating. Yep, I’m sick again (or is it still?). Two weeks ago it was painful sinuses that turned into a head cold with a chaser of a bad earache. Well that earache turned back into painful sinuses with another shot of a head cold. Ugh!

So I’m doing what I should have done the first go-around — plenty of sleep and meds.

If I’m not fully recovered by Superbowl Sunday, then I’m raising the white flag and heading to my doctor’s for something stronger.

My appetite has decreased with round 2 of this bug. However I’m now craving comfort foods. Pizza, pancakes and chips. Oh my!

I took care of the chip craving thanks to a stash of zero carb pork rinds. The beauty of pork rinds is that you need water after every big, fluffy chip.  I can only eat a handful as I’m loading up on liquids to get them down. Unlike potato chips where I can eat a whole bag in one sitting.

As for the pizza and pancakes, every time a craving kicks in I just head back to bed and slept for 4 hours.  Seems silly, but it works.

The one silver lining in all of this is that as I recover the snow is nearly all gone. Hopefully early next week the trails and sidewalks will be snow and ice free and I can go walking again.  I’m also toying with hitting our country rec club’s weight room. My resistance bands aren’t cutting it anymore.

I can’t wait to be germ free again.

 

Weekly Weigh In: Down 2

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weekly weigh in Jan 9

Just 2.6 pounds before I finally break into the 170s. Super excited!

What happens when you eat right and take a 30-Day No Alcohol Challenge?  Weight loss!  I’m finally closer to breaking into the 170s after losing 2.1 pounds this week.

But what happens when my no alcohol challenge is over January 31?

Right now I’m eager to continue the challenge  into February.

Since I started my challenge on Jan. 1, I’ve lost 4.1 pounds. Clearly I made a big error by not cutting back on wine sooner. I significantly slowed (heck, stopped) my weight loss progress and was stuck in a plateau for about 7 months.

No use crying over drunk wine. I’m on track now and that’s what counts.

Today’s weigh in puts my total weight loss at 142.5 pounds…nearly 45% of my total weight gone.  Sweet!

So I’m roughly 26 pounds away from goal. Whoa…

 

Weekly Weigh In: Down 1.6 Pounds

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weigh in jan 4

In January 2012 I weighed 325 lbs. As of today I’ve lost over 140 lbs. To continue my quest to optimize my health, I’m giving up alcohol.

I start the new year weighing 184.6 pounds. That puts my total weight loss at 140.4 lbs. since I started this little journey in 2012. I attribute the loss mostly to my January challenge — no alcohol for 30 days.

Alcohol Causing My Weight Loss Stall
As I tracked my food I got suspicious that the cause of my weight fluctuation was my wine. Oh how I do love the Nectar of the Gods, but my intake was much higher than normal over the holidays.

Also I started experiencing heartburn right before bed, something that hasn’t happened since I switched to a LCHF diet. Hmmmm….something was amiss.

While wine is low in carbs it slows or stops your weight loss. And if you’re not careful it packs on the pounds too.

I wasn’t careful. Read More

Weekly Weigh-In: Down 1.3 Lbs.

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Dec 12 weigh in

I’m down 1.3 lbs. this week and lost 7 lbs. since Thanksgiving. I’m optimistic I’ll finally break that 185 pound barrier by year’s end. Maybe by my birthday I’ll finally reach the 170s.

Well my march to the 170s continues. I’m down nearly 1.5 pounds this week and I’ve lost 7 lbs. since Thanksgiving. Woohoo!

I do have a holiday party later today. As I want to keep my momentum up, I came up with a pretty simple plan for tonight:

  1. Eating a late lunch. I’m currently on an 18-hour fast which ends at 2:00 pm. So I’m making myself a mushroom-onion omelette. That way I won’t be starving when I arrive at the party.
  2. Eat only when hungry. I’ll snack on the lowest carb food available. My goal is to eat only when hungry, keeping snacking to a minimum.
  3. Keeping alcohol to a minimum. I’m limiting myself to just a few glasses of wine.
  4. No desserts! When I eat sugary sweets now, I feel physically ill. I just need to remember that when I see anything yummy.
  5. Have fun!! Food and drink are not my focus tonight. Celebrating the holidays with old friends and making new ones is what’s special about tonight…not the food or booze!

The husband is doing the same so we can support each.

What’s your game plan for avoiding temptations during holiday parties?

Cutting Dairy, Fasting Lead to 5+ Lbs. Drop

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after thanksgiving

After my post-Thanksgiving weight gain, I got back to the basics that helped me lose 140 lbs. Plus cutting back on dairy and some needed fasting improved not just the number on the scale, but my energy level and mental clarity.

By the time my 2 Thanksgivings (with lots of wine)  ended, I gained 4 pounds. Ugh! When I stepped on the scale November 28, I temporarily left the 180s, weighing in at 193.2 lbs.

Oh hell no!

Since then I’ve redoubled efforts on my healthy eating habits – menu planning, eating only when hungry, chopping and prepping the meals in advance, minimizing eating out, and tracking everything I eat. Oh and drinking water…lots of water.

Yep, I got back to basics. Read More

Resetting My Goals: Shooting For Optimal Health

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new life

Since I’ve lost 140 lbs. and my doctor told me I was healthy, I needed a new health goal to set my sights on in my march to lose another 30 lbs. My upcoming IVF treatments were key in coming up with this new goal. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and mrpuen.

Despite my procrastinating, I came up with my new health goal fairly quickly the other day. I’m totally committed to optimizing my health to improve my chances of a successful IVF treatment and pregnancy.

Seems sensible. Although I’m not sure what “optimal health” really means.

I spent some quality time researching the definition of optimal health. But there really isn’t one. Because we are all so different, the optimal weight, nutrient levels, BMI, muscle mass, athletic performance, etc. isn’t the same for any one person.

Defining Health
I stumbled across an interesting article over at Paleo Leap on defining optimal health. Basically the article confirmed what I thought. You can’t define it. There are so many variables — weight, BMI, muscle mass, athletic performance, sleep, etc.

As a starting point, the article included a working definition of health I liked:

Health is the mental and physical energy, vitality, and resilience to live joyfully in your own body and face the challenges of your life.

Okay…so how does one live like that all the time? Read More

Fighting The Urge To Do Nothing?

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My weight is fluctuating between the same 4 pound window. I know I need a new goal to focus on, but I'm in the grip of laziness and it's clutches are mighty.

My weight is fluctuating between the same 4 pound window. I know I need a new goal to focus on, but I’m in the grip of laziness and it’s clutches are mighty.

Since March, my weight’s bounced between 185 and 189 pounds (I weighed in at 188 this morning). Clearly I’m not in a plateau. My damage is self-inflicted and my frustration with myself is growing. I know what I’m doing wrong – carb creep, drinking wine, and occasionally tracking my food.

Yet course correction is proving difficult now. But why?

Overcoming Laziness
Bad habits never die. They just rear their ugly heads at your weakest point. One of my bad habits I’m fighting now is laziness. There are just times where I don’t want to do a dang thing. No walking. No food prep. No weight training. No nothing. Just an overwhelming urge to veg out.

Right now I’d rather play Plants vs. Zombies 2 on my iPad than write about my laziness.

A recent post touched upon my lack of motivation. I put the blame on stress. Sure, I’m juggling a lot – starting the IVF process, having mom 8 miles away vs. 2,000 miles away, sick pets and figuring out a career change – but it’s not all stress. Mentally, I checked out.

Doing nothing seems like the right choice. I know it’s not right but it feels so good.

Time For A Reset…And This Time I Mean It!
When I reached my goal of being healthy, I told myself I wanted to lose about 25-30 more pounds. Just saying I want to lose more weight never worked for me in the past and it ain’t working now.

My goal was accomplished and I never re-evaluated what to shoot for next.

Yet, when I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, I still didn’t bother with formulating a new goal. My growing frustration got the best of me. It was just easier to do nothing (literally) for weeks than to actually think about my future.

Today I’m setting aside time to come up with a new goal. A goal that is all mine and fits the direction I want to take with my life. That’s the only way I’ll feel motivated to do the hard work.

So I’m dressed in my fall sweats and got on my walking shoes on. Ready to take my first walk in weeks, I always think better when I’m moving.

Besides, what better way to kick laziness’ ass than walking a few miles?

How Dot’s Getting Her Weight Loss Groove Back

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Well after not really trying to lose weight, I'm at 185 lbs. this morning - the same weight I was at my physical earlier in the year. Time to take a look at my goals and refocus my efforts after a 3 month mental break.

Well after not really trying to lose weight, I’m at 185 lbs. this morning – the same weight I was at my physical earlier in the year. Time to take a look at my goals and refocus my efforts after a 3 month mental break.

Well since August I’ve struggled with my push to drop my last 30 pounds. My tracking is spotty at best. Weighing and measuring food? Almost non-existent. How about counting carbs? I keep a mental record, but if I’m not measuring my serving sizes or tracking what I eat, how good can my carb counting be, right?

Yet, I feel fine…and a little guilty.

Time To Re-Think My Goals
As of this morning I weigh 185 lbs. So I’ve lost 4 lbs. since my doctor told me I was healthy and didn’t have to drop anymore pounds.

Now, I don’t believe for a second that my body is at its set point. I think I mentally started coasting once my doctor told me I was healthy and didn’t need to lose any more. After all, I started this adventure in 2012 to get healthy. The weight loss was a great side effect.

But that got me thinking: Do I need to reconsider my goal?

When I shifted my thinking from weight loss to getting healthy, the weight came off. Yes, I track my weight loss on this blog, but the overall goal was health.

Well, I’ve done that. Now what? After my physical, I never asked myself what’s next. I just thought “happiness” is my new goal. Crap!  What does that even mean? I just thought I can drop 30 more pounds and be happier. Why 30? I have no clue. Read More

Weekly Weigh-In: Nothing!

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Despite the travel over the last couple of months and lots of stress eating, I've stopped gaining weight. Time to get back to basics and become a fat burning machine.

Despite the travel over the last couple of months and lots of stress eating, I’ve stopped gaining weight. Time to get back to basics and become a fat burning machine.

The good news is I’m holding steady despite a pretty stressful week. The bad news, I saw a bad habit – stress eating – come back with abandon. Ugh!

So this week I’m going back to basics. I’m working on a simple menu – just tried and true meals without a lot of moving parts. So plenty of eggs, steak, healthy fats (in the form of sauces, avocado and butter), and some leafy greens.

I’m also starting to cut back — way back — on my coffee intake. I was up 8 cups a day and my water intake dropped significantly. Of course, with each cup of Joe I added 1 teaspoon of heavy cream. I ran into problems with cream before. When I cut back, I started losing weight again. This time I’m limiting myself to no more than 2 cups of coffee (all decaf by the way!). While this limits my cream too, I’m still going to try to enjoy drinking my coffee black.

Time To Get Moving Again
Since the end of August I haven’t been able to exercise as consistently as I like. I know that exercise doesn’t cause weight loss, but I tend to eat smarter when I’m working out. When I don’t workout, I start feeling restless and that can get me into trouble in the kitchen.

I’m headed back to my parkour gym this week. After my first 2-hour class, I haven’t been back due to my travel schedule and just too much going on at my house. My plan is to take the 90-minute intro to Urban Fit (weight training) and the parkour class for folks over 35.

Oh, and despite the cold weather I’m walking everyday.

Lots of muscle soreness is headed my way this week.  Yay!