What a difference a day makes...

Okay, so you may have noticed that I was a bit cranky yesterday, I have since gotten over it. Yesterday was a good day ... lots of water, more calories/shakes than I have had in a while ... and thank god, the scale reflected it when I officially got on the Wii.

For the first time in 2 years I saw a weight in the 250s! I think the last time I weighed in the 250's I was just getting back from Italy. I must have lost 5ish pounds in Italy (thanks to all the walking). It was all uphill from there. When I went to Italy I still had the very functionally restrictive (but infected) lapband. With the band I was unable to eat anything for breakfast (I missed out on ALL of that Nutella ... sad), not much for lunch ... and a bit more for dinner. Fortunately there were no issues with wine or gelato. To be honest I am certain that wine and gelato were the main reasons for going to Italy, oh, that and Florence art and Pompeii ruins! Priorities.

While traveling with my dear friend in Italy, we would of course go out to eat ... I would order what I wished I could eat ... I wouldn't actually be able to eat it...spend the next 20 mins spitting (if you have a lapband or a friend with one, you know what I am talking about) ... and my friend would finish the meal. That was what we did for 2 weeks. I managed to lose, she managed to find what I lost (my fault).

We are travelling again together, this time to Hawaii. The band is no more, so I plan on eating what I order this time! Hopefully I will have the good sense about me not to eat the worst things possible ... and still do a lot of walking. I have no delusions of losing weight while in Hawaii :)

Goals for today:

1. Water Water Water
2. try and get in more shakes, more calories
3. get my ass off the sofa (i had pulled a muscle in my abdomen somehow, so have taken it easy the last couple of days .. walking upright was a challenge)

Officially I have hit the 20 lbs mark!!! Sorry for the blinking, I just had to do it!

stalemate

Sorry I havent posted in a while. The last week has been discouraging, no slide in the scale at all. I am getting nervous as Hawaii is getting closer and closer!

My goal was to be in the mid 250's by Jan 8th, and it is still possible. Right now I am hovering around 260 and have been there for the last week. I havent been "in the box" like I should be. My work week was insane, I was busy from the moment I arrived until late in the afternoon. I would be though 3 meetings and realize that I hadnt had my morning shakes or any water. Not good. I know my body is in starvation/preservation mode. I wonder how long it will take to reverse that?

The weekend was not much better, not sure why. I think once you get out of the habit of doing something, its easy to just forget. Water has never been easy for me to get in ... and I have not been making the effort to correct that. Today, I will be shotgunning 40 oz ... twice. That should cover it.

On the plus side, I have NOT had any yummy treats that have been offered to me...everywhere I go! None of the two giant trays of baked goods that sat 3 feet from me at work all day Friday, none of Grandma's cookies (my favorites are the butter drops). I also managed to get some good exercise in at the mall saturday. I walked around for 2 hours, mostly doing laps ... some shopping.

Goals for this holiday week:

1. WATER WATER WATER
2. more is better ... add in more meal replacements
3. not have any of the delicious foods that will be offered to me, or that I will cook.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! Wish me luck for those last 5 lbs before my vacation!

6 weeks down ... 3 weeks to go

3 weeks to go until I leave for Hawaii (Jan 8th). My short term plan is to follow the diet 100% from Nov 3rd to Jan 8th ... vacation ... come back and evaluate the budget to see what is best to do next. I really enjoy this program, I am a creature of habit and enjoy knowing what I am going to eat and when. Sadly, I could eat the same thing daily and not really care. Financially, the program is REALLY expensive. I average about $100 dollars a week in food. Having never really a big eater out ... I managed to spend much less on a regular diet, of course that regular diet kept me fat!

So ... perhaps a balance. Not sure the impact of using the shakes with something "sensible" for dinner. I know its a program with HMR, but I haven't really tried it. If anyone out there is doing a mixture on your own and being successful, let me know!

My widget for Traineo is broken (they made website "improvements") but I am officially down 18 lbs in 6 weeks. Having not had the initial high weight loss the first week, I am having a nice 3 pound a week trend. I will take it!

Here is a link to my latest SenseWear report . I am still in love with it and finding it very easy to wear. I have slacked on my trips to the gym ... but trying to get in as much exercise as i can...not doing a great job at it.

Anyway, I need to scurry to work. Hopefully traffic will be cleared up.

Everyone stay strong this week, for me its hard due to work stress and general holiday festivities. Did I mention my FAVORITE Cava was on sale at Publix this week. I might have purchased 3 bottles...not sure when I will have another "Mimosa Saturday" but when I do, I will be ready :)

my first tangible milestone!

Hi all. Its Friday and work is busier than ever (champagne problem these days) but I wanted to take time to write about my first tangible milestone with my recent weight loss.

So, as you know from my information I am not only horizontally challenged, but I am equally vertically challenged. Two months ago I ordered a pair of fairly tailored pants with a 24" inseam that I thought might actually fit. To my horror they would not fit over my tummy. The pants are fairly low rise, so not only did they not fit but I wasn't even sure that I could wear the cut because of the rise.

Today I decided to see if the pants fit (mostly because of a laundry crisis). Pulled them out of the mailing packaging and OMG they slipped right on!

Although the pants are still a very large size, they fit nicely and do not have ANY elastic in the waist band. The legs are a bit wide, so ironicly the pants look too big for me...but they FIT.

Its hard to see from the picture, but I have a fairly odd body shape. I am short...with slender legs and slender arms. I carry all of my weight in the middle, so pants that fit around the waist never fit in the legs.

Anyway, that is all for now!

Still loving my SenseWear. My challenge for next week is to see if it is possible to walk the recommended and targeted 10k steps while having a desk job that keeps me on the phone 60% of the day. How to people do it????

Grrrr...

Sometimes the body is very frustrating. I seem to be back pedaling and gaining a pound or so. I know the body fluctuates, etc, but it is a bit defeating sometimes. No ... not that time of the month (I haven't had one of those in years). So ... not sure what it is.

Calories - getting around 900-1100 a day
Water - getting at least 64 oz
exercise - taking 30 min walks and a little extra at home

Weight - plus 1.

Go figure. On the upside, I was pondering yesterday the goal of 10k steps per day. For those of us who work long hours behind a desk, I find it difficult to even come close. I managed to get in 6500 steps. This was after my 30 min brisk walk, regular daily office walking, and coming home and walking and dancing in place while talking to Pete (SO) . Bless his heart, I was bouncing around the room like an idiot, and he didn't say a word!

How many steps per day are you all getting?

Still in LOVE with my SenseWear ...

Long Week

It's been a loooong week, and I didn't take the time to post a new message. I could say it was due to working hard, etc, but I would be lying. My SenseWear came in the mail on Wed AND my new iPod Touch (32gb) showed up on Thursday, so I have been totally obsessed with my gadgets ever since!

Okay, the SenseWear is for my health, right? It's really cool. Although not cheap (450 for device and 6 months website membership) I have NO buyers remorse. This might be the best thing since slices organic multi-grain bread (keeping it healthy, of course).

So here is the deal with the SenseWear, in case it is new to you. There is an armband that you wear on your tricep and a display that you wear as a watch (optional). It keeps track of your body movement and calorie expenditures all day/night. You upload the data to the website, enter in your calorie intake ... and it creates a TON of graphs and charts. I do loves me some charts. Here is my data for the 3.5 days so far that I have owned the device, please take a look at the PDF report: Allison's Report 12.07.08 .

Um, the iPod touch is also ridiculously fun. All of the bells and whistles of the iPhone, but without having to give up my beloved BlackBerry. I will have plenty of things to keep myself busy on my 9 hour flights in January!

This week in weight-loss : Some challenges. I have had a hard time eating enough (ironic) and drinking enough water. Because both of those things are off, I don't think I am losing at the rate that I would like to. According to the Wii, I am down 14-15 lbs since Dec 3rd. Not too shabby. Definitely on my way to reaching my goal of being around the mid 250's by Jan 8th (Hawaii time).

Things I will work on this week to get my butt in gear:

• Literally get my butt in gear by upping the exercise
  
• Drink Drink Drink more water (I am setting an Outlook reminder)
• 4 shakes during the day at work

All for now ... time to go make more shakes ... its almost 6pm and all I have had to eat were the double mocha shakes from this morning. I suck. :) Who EVER thought that eating enough would be an issue for me. I know I didnt get to be this size by forgetting to eat. Hmm.

To Sara

Thank you for your comment on yesterday's post. Congrats on staying "in the box", I know its hard. Perhaps we can both take inspiration from each other and be successful!

Allison

Back to reality

All in all not a bad day, I am just grumpy to be going back to work after a glorious 5 days of consecutive lounging! 3 1/2 weeks until Christmas vacation ... another 5 or 6 days of glorious lounging. Sigh.

Lets see... went to the gym for the first time in a week (I am bad, I know). It felt good, which is refreshing. I eeked out 22 mins on the elliptical, which is a new best for me. The weight loss program is a killer ... so to make it 22 mins was nice. Thank god the lady working at the gym is a General Hospital fan, that makes it easier to get absorbed and forget that I am killing myself. Tomorrow the plan is to get up a bit earlier and try the workout DVD with the weights.

Not sure if I have mentioned it in this blog, but I am going to Hawaii in early January. One of MY motivating factors for this diet is the thought of squeezing into my plane seat for 9-10 hours. Right now I figure I am near the same size as when I flew to Italy on 2007 ... but this time I won't have a friend next to me (and the arm raised). While Googling the size of airline seats I ran across this message board post regarding people of size taking up too much room on the subway or plane. Yuck. I don't travel very much via plane ... and the airline seat causes me much anxiety. I dont want to infringe on anyone elses personal space and make them uncomfortable...nor do want to spend 10 hours fretting over it. I accept the fact that I will not be comfortable, but I will feel bad if I make someone else uncomfortable as well. Hopefully losing a few more pounds before the flight AND a steady supply of Xanax will help!

Thats all for now.

PS my SenseWear can not get here fast enough. Apparently it has shipped , though I have no tracking ID. I feel sorry for my office manager, Pam, because I will be stalking her all week :)