Well, whoo hoo

Hi all -

I joined biggestloserclub.com a little over a week ago and wanted to report that I lost 6 pounds. I'm not really following the diet they have - well, I am, but I swap a lot (they have that option) and have ended up learning some new things that appear to be working.

1 - Never underestimate the power of water. It makes your skin clearer, makes you feel more 'energized' and makes you get your exercise whether you like it or not by running hell bent for leather to the potty.

2 - Eat more, weigh less. Maybe it's the calories from all that chewing, but the diet plan they have is absolutely fixated on making you eat every 3 hours. And you know what? My need to binge after 5pm is slowly but surely waning as my body gets used to it. I eat apples, bannannas and carrots for my snack times. They're pretty good. I'm getting more in control of my eating - and my budget. I bring my food to work now and leave credit cards and cash at home. I'm saving about $35 a week this way.

3 - Depression is a pain in the butt. For those of you who don't know, I'm bipolar. This attributes to my need to feed my guilt I guess by hiding and indulging. They have great message boards that will let you get on and rant to others, form bonds, come out of your shell, be accountable. I like it, I'm making friends, I can be totally honest about my eating habits and people understand, and its generally a great rally feel good session. You may scoff, hell, I did, but it works to know other people care.

4 - You don't have to start off with rockets firing - you'll lose anyway. I've walked one day in the last week. It nearly killed me. It's rained almost every other day and I don't own a treadmill, so I've been stretching. I know the people on the show lost 20 pounds or whatever a week, but I'm happy with 6 and I'm building up my muscles with the stretches. I *will* walk again and when I do I'm hoping I won't collapse. Starting slowly is better than not starting at all.

5 - I have people rooting for me - on the boards and off. My friend Leslie is sending me recipes that are making my mouth water, my friend Becky asked me over the weekend if I was losing weight (I hadn't mentioned my new diet, so this felt fantastic), my parents made turkey bacon for breakfast when I was over there and my hubby was happily frisky.

6 - I'm learning that I'm important enough to pay attention to. I don't have to devote 100% of my time to my kids - I can give 5% to myself (packing meals, stretching, taking bubble baths to reward myself) and though I may feel a tinge of guilt, everything else overrides that.

So, there you are. I've lost 6 pounds. And I'm still going :)

Laughing At Myself

My weight loss adventure has been a little dull - until today. But first, let me catch you up.
First - you'd be amazed at how much money you can save by buying those Lean Cuisine meals in the grocery store over the weekend rather than eating cafeteria, or worse, fast food, fare. I didn't realize I was spending so much on FOOD until I sat down and did my budgeting. I had spent, on one weekend, well over $150 at Burger King and McDonalds and Sonic and Hardees. Don't get me wrong, I had kids along for most of those trips, but even alone I was spending an average of $8 a pop for meals.

So, when I went shopping, I did something my mother had always frowned upon - I loaded up my grocery cart with frozen entrees. Your mom probably frowned on them too - which is why so many of us either have a NEED to cook a real meal from scratch or say oh screw it and stop by somewhere. Frozen entrees are a good compromise - they're cheaper and healthier than fast food. 400 calories as opposed to 1500 - Im not kidding. Look it up.

I also snagged some bannanas and apples and grapes for snacks. Ok, and some peanut butter crackers.

I'm also saving money by using the water fountain instead of the soda machine. I have a Dasani bottle I've been using over and over again (recycling people) and it's a full liter. I go through 3 or 4 of these a day. I've never figured out how much water I'm supposed to have so I pretty much just keep drinking it until I'm sick to death of it. Speaking of water - that run to the bathroom every 2 hours or so is added exercise, right? (Remember the commercial - gotta go gotta go gotta go right NOW???) I'm not sure bursting bladder is healthy.

Now, today I screwed up. I forgot to toss my frozen box in my bag for lunch and I stopped by Hardees for breakfast. Oi. I did however manage to remember to wear sneakers so that I could walk on the lunch break I'm vowing NOT to work through. My friend in the cube next door now has me bleeping (think Road Runner) at everything so the bleeps and laughing should help keep me motivated. Add to that calf stretches and you've got a day full of laugher.

Let me explain the calf stretches. I've been trying to stretch because my sedentary lifestyle has led to muscles like jello. So, when I'm nursing Raiden or waking up or whatever, I stretch. And today, when I stood up from my desk to go to the water fountain, I put my hands on the top of my cube walls (probably 6 feet tall) and did a calf stretch - raising my head enough to see over the cube walls. (I'm 5'10") And wow what a site. A total maze of cubes from one end of this huge long open building to the other. I had the sudden feeling of being a mouse in a maze and had a bad case of the giggles creep up on me.

Regina asked me what was so funny so I had her stand up and do a stretch too and see the view - so she started laughing. And then she had to say 'On your mark, get set....' and I said 'Go! - Run run run!!!' and we both pretty much collapsed laughing. Now, mind you, I said this at a whisper because my throat hurts so much I can't really talk, but still - it was funny. I don't know if I burned more calories laughing or stretching :)

New Year's Resolution Hell

Well, I hope your diet is going better than mine. I think I have a mental disability when it comes to food.

I woke up this morning - exhausted (Raiden has been sick) and ate some raisen bran with milk and drank my water. So I was thinking - ok, Im on a good start. Then I pumped milk and got the kids off to school. After I dropped them off, I'm NOT lying, I went to McDonalds and got a mcgriddle combo thinking - I need to eat breakfast or I'll be starving by lunch. I'd *completely* forgotten I'd already had breakfast in the span of an hour. So I ate that and *after* I ate the McGriddle I realized - hey, wait, I had raisen bran. What the heck is wrong with me??

I'm supposed to have a snack about now, but I'm out of my slim fast snack bar things and I don't want a candy bar and I don't have any fruit. Besides, I ate breakfast twice. So I guess I'm skipping that. I did park on the far end of the parking lot and walked (*huff puff*) the rest of the way so maybe that will help a little bit. I can't believe walking across a parking lot leaves me out of breath.

I'm not sure what I'm doing for lunch yet. There's a little cafeteria here with a tiny (and terrible) salad bar so I'll probably do that with diet coke or water. Probably the diet coke. I need some darned flavor. It would be cool to find some good, easy recipes to fix that had a lot of zippy flavor. I'm never satisfied with bland foods. I haven't weighed myself yet. I know I was at 370 last week. Yup, cry now.