You gotta log what you eat!

My lesson from today is no matter what,  you gotta write down everything you eat!  I kid myself that I can eyeball it and do OK. Ummmm, NO!  I THOUGHT I did good Monday - I had a good breakfast, had all my snacks and then went out to dinner without preparing!  By that I mean looking to see what would be good to eat at the restaurant where we were going. 

So we ordered sausage and onion pizza and a chicken caesar salad pizza - it's a salad so it can't be too bad, right?!?! WRONG!  The sausage and onion pizza was 260 calories for 2 slices and the salad pizza was 320!  I really would have sworn that it was the other way around!  And I enjoyed the sausage and onion more!  Lesson learned!  

Then I just blew it yesterday!  I stopped counting at 2000 calories (though not much more than that!).  No kidding myself there and I knew I was doing it!  And I did enjoy everything I ate! And drank!

At least I went to the gym both days!  Cardio on Monday and Weights for upper body on Tuesday.  So back on track today!  And everything is being written down and accounted for that crosses my lips!

I give up! And pat myself on the back!

I started this waaayyyy back in November with the intention of posting a little background and then using it as my forum to track my progress and feelings with the side benefit of maybe inspiring someone else!  So this morning I have decided that I am jumping in with what is going on for me instead of worrying about a colorful history to hook readers!

I am stuck - stuck at 170.6.  I have been here for 3 weeks now! Of those 3 weeks I have changed my eating strategy!  I am keeping my calories to 1500 Monday through Friday afternoon :) and easing up on the weekends.  I was doing 1700 with 2 cheat meals and I was not doing so hot with that!  So for the past week I have added back in lots of exercise!  I made it 5 out of the 7 days this past week!  Good progress - now where is the disappearing pound????  I will hang in there one more week with the exercise & eating combo before I regroup again!

Today's obstacle of a planned power outage from 3 am to 7 am hurled me to the gym BEFORE work to be able to have a hot shower and light for makeup and a hair dryer!  And for all the complaining I did, it was a GIFT!  I got up at my usual time and slipped out the door before anyone was awake and had 45 minutes to workout and shower and get ready all by myself (those of you with little ones understand the amazement and joy in that!).  I did easy cardio because I didn't eat breakfast first- by that I mean keeping my heart rate down and just doing the fat burning range hits your stored fat when you have not eaten!  Had my protein shake waiting in the car and sucked that down along with a chocolate rice cake afterward!  

So I have a couple of training goals on the horizon!  I have mentally committed to a half marathon in September and have a training plan in place for that!  And then I am joining my girlfriend Sigrid in a mini-triathlon next April.  I find with things like this to work for, training has a much better purpose and I actually do it!

I am off to the gym this afternoon with Rod & kids for a round of full body strength training!  Whoo hoo!

A little of the past

This is a journal of my weight journey through the years! I am 5'8" and a medium build.

I was a slim younger child, chunky during those awkward pre-puberty age and finished high school a skinny size 8. I really thought I was fat - and looking back at pictures now, I wonder what fun house mirror I was looking in :)! Here is a photo of Senior Prom and my girlfriends Chris and Kim.


Having children seem to wreck my body. I was a slim 140 lbs at age 20 when I got pregnant with my first daughter. After gaining 37 pounds in the pregnancy, I never saw 140 again! I stayed at about 150 or 155 for years after that. At my height, that was not too bad so I enjoyed life. I ate and drank what I wanted and did not worry about it. I stayed at a size 10 to 12. Here is me when Taylor was little.




Rock along several years, add in the stress of being a single parent, stressful jobs, and meeting a great guy I started to fall apart! I started gaining weight and my health was iffy. After discovering a thyroid issue, possible chrohn's disease, appendicitis, and tons of food allergies I put my attention on getting well. I spent a year off of wheat, the appendectomy was good for two things - getting my appendix out and finding out that I really did not have chrohns! After all of that, a naturopath helped get me on the road to feeling better.

I took a break from all the supplements I was taking and gave my body a break - it was just hypersensitive to anything I put in it. I did the low carb thing - yea, roll your eyes, but it was suggested for treating excessive yeast - yeast loves carbs. It did help and melted a few pounds off as well. I continued to avoid wheat and added coffee, green beans, vanilla, eggs, dairy, and brewer's yeast to the avoid list. I lived off of corn tortillas, chicken and tea. I guess this was when I was 28-31 or so. I was getting rather large with my weight and did not really see it. There is where the bad fun house mirrors reappeared - this time I did not see how big I was getting. I was feeling better though!

I then was pregnant with my second daughter. My start weight with the pregnancy was 178 pounds. It was a struggle to get enough protein with all of what I had to avoid. So to my excitement, it was suggested that I try different foods and just eat what I could. The pregnancy shifted my system and I was ok eating all of the bad things I avoided. At delivery I was a whopping 219 pounds!

Postpartum I got down to around 200 and never really got significantly below that. I just ate (living in the south - lots of BAD for ya foods) and drank. Never gave much thought to what I was putting in my mouth and how many calories it was. I had a great time, but looked like crap! I played at exercise, but not consistently and had no idea of what I was doing.

Next blog...... Moving to Scottsdale and the motivation of the beautiful people!