Lose 5 more lbs.

in looking over my goals… this one I made when I was 137 lbs … so for this one to be accomplished, I have to be down to 132. Doable… I’m back up to 143 … so 11 to go but I won’t look at this goal until I’m back at 137.. the original plan!

I think I should throw out my scale. I feel a bit ridiculous for complaining about weight loss when there are so many people suffering in the world without food… but I need to complain for a second.

I am up 6 lbs now. I know I’ve been sick all last week so I haven’t been able to work out… and then my normal life style became sedentary over the past 5 days…. sleeping most of the time. But why 6 lbs??? It’s SOOOO much. Now my goal of lose 5 more lbs is actually lose 11 lbs. : ( sigh I really hate to be whiny … but I really need to whine right now. 5 lbs is so hard for me to take off and I’ve worked so hard at it… I hate to think I’ve backtracked that much… and all because I was sick???? : (

OK. Enough whining. If I want to be proactive about this here is one thing I can do since I can’t work out yet… My calorie intake for the day should be between 1200 and 1550. I stay in that range but usually closer to the 1400…. I will stay on the 1200 end instead… and work on getting more calories from protein.

I have to say- while counting calorie, fat, protein and carbohydrates intake for the day is tedious- once again, it is VERY enlightening.

I stopped tracking a couple of months ago thinking I still had this down…. : ) .... lol …. well… not quite. It’s been interesting to see how my diet has shifted back to higher levels of carbs and less protein! I had no idea… but now that I’m tracking, I see it again. I love how sparkpeople gives you a report at the end of the day with graphs and charts showing you where your calories/fat/carb/protein are coming from… It’s a great tool.

It’s taken me a an entire week to get warmed up with it again… forgetting here and there… but I’m happy to say I now feel I will have continued success going forward.

So I have to remember, that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Weight loss takes time and obstacle like being sick or family obligations etc can sometimes get in the way… and SODIUM.

I haven’t been able to work out all week and I’ve been drinking lots of juice and vitamin C containing fluids while I combat this cold/flu/bronchitis thing. I haven’t been eating any differently…

I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, and thought my face looked kind of “puffy”... I got on the scale and Whamo! 5 lb total increase? Ummm…. What? I’m supposed to be going the opposite way!? It’s got to be water retention!!

So what did I do different this week?

I found and fell in LOVE with coconut water and I have been drinking the tangerine and passion fruit flavored ones which are low in calories, contain fiber and have 230% vitamin c per serving….. AND ALMOST 700 MG of SODIUM PER SERVING (I just read on the packaging!WHAT?! How is that possible!? I should only be having 1000-1200 mg a day in total and I’ve had 4 or 5 coconut waters over the past two days…that’s already at minimum 200-400 mg more than I’m supposed to have… and that’s not including the sodium that comes from regular food!

WOW!

I need to continue drinking lots of water and herbal tea with antioxidants and just regular OJ for now…. coconut water is reserved for extreme post workout … and I need to reevaluate for a new brand.

...and not in the direction I want to!! LOL! But it’s OK.

From my lowest weight, I’m back up 3 lbs and seem to be staying there. So my goal is to get back down those 3 and an extra 2 to equal for me “another 5”

So what actionable things am I doing to achieve this? Well, I pretty much can tell you what I’m not doing that is preventing me:

- Not drinking enough water
- Not tracking my food
- Not appropriately spacing my meals out

Changes to be made:

- Take a full Sigg bottle of water with me to finish before the work day is over
- Ummm… simply start inputting food in Sparkpeople nutrition counter to see where the disconnect in weight loss may be.
- Plan in advance my 4 small meals instead of 2 large! That’s just plain silly!
- Exercise… I’m good. I have been really active with my beau. He is all about tennis and hiking and he’s got me on board too : ) I don’t at this time feel the need to change anything… I will be training again for a 5k very soon so long as my neck can tolerate it.

I am wondering if somewhere inside of me, I believe that just by righting this goal down, magically, 5 lbs will go away? : ) REally, I haven’t made any plan or mapped anything out that is clearly actionable to help make this goal a reality. I did mention going back on sparkpeople. I at least signed up. I have had a few good excuses… my birthday, and then my work conference. But this goal is very important to me and always has been. Now that I am quitting smoking again to, it’s going to be important for me to be as diligent about this goal as I am about quitting smoking.

Plans always work well for me… as in, mapping out meals for the week, and scheduling in my workout time. My goal today, is to map out the rest of september on this goal.

Make 5 different meal plan days for myself:
1 specifically for workout days
1 specifically for low activity days
1 specifically for being out of the house all day
and 2 others that are just general, regular ol’ days.

I’d like to make some workout goals for myself based on my schedule through the end of september. No real reason I can’t make it happen! In 2 weeks time, I will be down 2-4 lbs, getting almost entirely to my goal : )

...chipping, chipping, chipping, away….

Once I reach this goal, I will have lost a grand total of 20 lbs : ) It’s been a slow crawl but well worth it. I feel great! : ) IT’s so much less overwhelming to make these small numbers to achieve!! Thanks flutterby!

I am now at 145 lbs. Wooohoo. Now on to the next goal of being 140. :-)

I went clothes shopping today. I haven’t been since I bought that sweater last Winter. Today I bought a couple of ‘work’ shirts and many t-shirts. Since losing 24 lbs., thus far, it’s been wicked easy to find/fit in clothes. Yeah, it’s a no brainer, but it used to be soooo frustrating to go shopping, which is one of the reasons that I don’t shop often. Anyways, my self-esteem is increasing, which is a fantastic feeling. I can’t wait to eventually get to 130-135 lbs. (my dream goal)!

I checked yesterday and today and I’m at 146