One of my big motivators to work out and lose weight is watching the Biggest Loser.  Seeing all the contestants lose weight and hearing their weight loss stories.

Current and past contestants were  in the news and on talk shows a couple weeks ago.  I found out that on the Biggest Loser they have a total of 7 months to lose the weight.  Don’t get me wrong that is by no means a very long time to lose 100+ pounds but it is longer than I thought they had.  For some contestants that is an average of 4-5 pounds a week for 7 seven months.  Knowing that, I feel a little better.  Sometimes I get discouraged when I see some of them lose 10+ pounds in 1 week and think “man I haven’t even lost 1 pound this week” LOL!  I know that they eat, breathe and sleep weight loss and they have trainers yelling in their face and pushing them to keep going but it just seems crazy.

I also found out that these contestants workout about 8 hours a day.  I totally could lose 100 pounds in 7 months if I had 8 hours a day to bust a move on some workout machines.

I guess my point is that they dedicate months of their time to losing weight. I am hearing more and more from the trainers that how the contestants are losing weight is by no means normal.

I think it was Extra that I was watching and they showed 3 past contestants from some of the first seasons, had all gained a bunch of weight back.  One guy had gained more than half of what he had lost.  He had lost 214 pounds and gained back 122.

I think that is what keeps me thinking that I am doing things right.  I mean the man weighed over 300 pounds when he started.  In 7 short months he dropped a ton of weight – it is so easy to go back to old habits if you don’t change your whole idea of food and eating.

It has been a while since I have been to the gym, but I am still losing weight….a little.  I still for the most part watch what I eat and I don’t pig out.  I learned a lot about calories and fat.  What is good and what isn’t.  I have a few things going on right now and that is what is keeping me from going.

I no longer deprive myself of the things I want to eat.  I may even eat some every day but I don’t go crazy.

Even though I have not worked out in a few weeks, watching the Biggest Loser is what really keeps me on track.  I also look at pictures of myself from right after I had Isabel.  OMGoodness, I can totally tell I lost the 60 pounds and I can’t believe I ever let myself get to that point.  I will never go back there.

Once my move is complete and I can get some organization to my life, my priorities and everything in between I am going to start working out again.  I will get to my goal, one day at a time!

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In August of 2008 I decided to take weight loss on full force.  I was eating way healthy and exercising as much as I could with being really overweight and just recovering from a c-section.  None-the-less I lost 60 pounds to date.  A good deal of that was baby weight and water weight but I’ll take it however I can.

In September I stepped it up a notch and started working out a whole lot more.  I was on a STRICT diet and working out at least an hour a day 7 days a week.  But I wasn’t losing any faster and I felt that maybe I was in need of one or two days a week to let my body rest.

My next step was to workout 5 days a week and eat a little more. I think I may have been putting myself in starvation mode.

Are You Eating Enough?
I know this isn’t what you’re used to hearing this time of year, but it’s important to make sure everyone’s got it straight. You’re all trying not to go over your allotted calorie amounts for the week, but how many of you aren’t eating enough calories? It may seem like a bright idea to cut a hundred or so calories from your diet each day, but that’s a dangerous — and incorrect — assessment of your dietary needs.It is absolutely 100 percent essential to eat enough calories! If you don’t, it will destroy your metabolism. It’s like telling your body that you’re starving. If your body thinks it’s starving, your metabolism will shut down.

-Jillian Michaels

It seemed as though I would do a great job and lose 10 pounds in a couple weeks and then hit a plateau for 2 weeks or so.  So every time I hit that plateau I thought I needed to change up my routine.  20 of the pounds I lost were during Sept-Dec.

The week before Christmas I was just feeling beat down.  I was “craving” food everyday.  I had NO desire to workout.  For about a week during the holiday I didn’t really concern myself with calories and I didn’t workout.  I mean I didn’t stuff my face but if I wanted to eat something, I did.

My goal was to start fresh in the new year.  Back on the workout wagon but I was going to just give in to my cravings a little more.  If I wanted something, I would have it just in some moderation.  I still worked out 5 days a week.  Well I really just don’t think I have the body type/metabolism to do that.  Thankfully I have a scale.  I think not having one over the years is how my weight got out of control.  Now that I have one I can see a pound or two weight gain and I think to myself that ….I just don’t want that and it gets me back in to reality.  I just don’t think that I can eat and give in to cravings.  Maybe once a week or a couple times a month I can but not as often as I have.

My thoughts were going to be that I just wanted to be healthy.  Exercise, eat healthier and just be more energetic.  But I am just NOT happy with my weight at all.  I need to lose more or all of the weight I want before I can take that approach.  I can maintain my weight with that plan but I can’t lose weight and quite frankly….I need to lose more weight before I have those sort of eating habits.

So with all that being said, I am back to calorie counting and measuring my foods.  Staying within a certain number of calories a day and working out at least an hour/5 days a week.

Here’s to ANOTHER fresh start……I think I just need to lose another 10 – 20 pounds to lift my spirits.  I am still half way to my goal so if I lose 20 pounds I am 1/3 of the way to my goal but I have been at the same weight now for almost 2 months.  Somethings gotta give. 

Today I decided to go to the gym in the afternoon.  We have been living off one car (Tony’s car needs a new tire) and I decided to drive Tony to work so I could run some errands.  Since we probably wouldn’t get home until late tonight, after I pick him up, we probably wouldn’t end up working out.

We didn’t go last night because I had a really bad kink in my neck.  I knew I wouldn’t really be able to workout so I took the day off and it actually feels much better.

Anyways, I guess weekend afternoons is when all the skinny minis go.  There were 3 girls in there, I swear, no bigger than 90 lbs wet.  LOL!  But they had nice bodies.  One girl, her shorts were so short I could see her butt cheeks.

I really want to look like that…..LOL!  Actually that will never happen, I have never ever been that small.  I don’t think I have the body frame to get that small.  I workout, I eat healthy and it is just such a SLOW process.  Maybe I just need to find some diet pills that work. Ones that will help this whole process along.

I have tried so many and all of them I have gotten really bad side effects.  I will have to do some research online to see what I can some up with.

Tony and I decided a couple months ago that I wasn’t going to be that concerned with my salt intake since when I workout, I sweat A LOT.  I still was a little conscious of how much I was eating and trying not to consume too much.  Since using myfooddiary.com I was able to track everyday.  Well over the last couple weeks I have (not so much) not been worried about it at all.  Seriously I was eating about 5000+ mg of sodium a day.  That is A LOT!!!  Well I am wondering if that is why I feel so bloated over the last week, why I have a 3 pound gain.  Maybe I am retaining a good deal of water.  

I have been watching old episodes of Biggest Loser and I heard one of the trainers tell a contestant not to consume more than 1200 mg of sodium a day.  WHAT??  Are you kidding me???  

I would have to only consume 1/5 of what I was.  That is going to be hard.  I told myself I would try over the next few days to eat less sodium.  So I was looking in my cabinets and pantry and tried to find low sodium foods and well…….it was hard.  I thought I could eat (just for a couple days) more oatmeal and some cottage cheese and then dinner will have the most sodium.  

Cottage cheese, I was disappointed to read that it contains 400 mg of sodium per serving (1/2 cup).  That is not good.  At least for what I am trying to accomplish over the next couple days.  No cottage cheese for me.  Chicken and tuna even has a good deal of sodium.  How ever am I going to only consume 1200 mg?   Unless my fridge is packed with fruits and veggies and financially that is just not possible.  Fruits and veggies down here is really expensive. 

I need to see if my weight dilemma right now is water related.  If it is not then it is either muscle gain or that I am destine to be overweight. 

I have hit another plateau in my weight loss.  Is it because I am gaining more muscle?  I don’t know but I am stressing too much over this whole process.  I let it consume my days.  Well in the last day or so the website I use tried to charge my debit card for the month and was declined, not because of no money but because I had to cancel the card when I threw my wallet in the garbage.  So at this point I have no access to this site unless I give a new number.  That is ok with me, I think I really just need to take a different approach.  I wasn’t really keeping track like I used to.  I mean I still counted calories, measured my food and exercised but I wasn’t logging it all on the computer. 

I am still going to eat healthy and exercise but not going to be so anal about all of it.  I will say though that sometimes I have a lack of energy too.  I want to nap and sit on the couch and I have a hard time getting the motivation to workout. I think most of it is my lack of sleep at night. However, maybe I need to try some Fenterdren.  It is a weight loss supplement to help me get through my plateau I seem to hit more than I would like.  It is also going to give me the energy to make it through my day. 

I just don’t know what else to do.  I have changed what I eat, how I eat, when I eat…how I exercise, when I exercise and how much I exercise and  for every 10 pounds I lose I seem hit a plateau for a week or two. 

I think I can, I think I can!!!!   LOL!  I will lose the weight, I am done being fat and out of shape!!!

……to remain positive through my weight loss journey.  I was steadily losing weight during the month of Oct and Nov.  Losing about 1 1/2 pounds a week.  That made me happy.  Then when Thanksgiving came, I decided to just eat a good meal and not worry about calories.  I didn’t completely stuff myself, I ate reasonable servings but I ate a lot of calories for dinner. 

For the week following and through last week I had lost 3 pounds a week.  I was feeling really good.  I thought maybe I had figured everything out.  I thought I was on a roll and the weight was just going to start falling off. 

Then this week started.  I got sick but I still worked out.  I was working out about 45 min a day instead of an hour but I just don’t think that would make a difference.  Tuesday afternoon I worked out and when I came home and weighed myself I was actually just below my mini goal I had set for myself.  I was so excited to see that number on the scale.  Everything changed yesterday morning and this morning.  I didn’t do anything different in my eating.  However yesterday I was UP 4 pounds and this morning it was the same.  I thought maybe I had just consumed a little too much sodium the night before or something but 2 days in a row to have the same weight.  UP 4 pounds.  Now last night was my night off from working out but that couldn’t have done it.  I only ate 2400 calories all day which is the amount I need to eat to maintain my weight and I am UP 4 pounds.  That is equal to 14000 extra calories (on top of the 2400) with nowhere to go.  It takes me almost a week to eat that many calories.  But I workout and burn probably half of that so what is the problem, where am I going wrong! 

I hear sleep is essential to aid in losing weight, is that why I have not done so well this week?  Am I really not eating enough because I know I am not eating too much.  Am I eating the wrong kinds of food?   Maybe I was eating more carbs this week!  Maybe I wasn’t drinking enough water!  Maybe I am gaining more muscle!  4 pounds though, that is just a smack in the face for all my hard work and effort. 

I stress about this often.  I mean it’s not like I only need to lose 10 pounds.  I have 55 well now 59 pounds to go.  That is a lot of weight to lose when I gain 4 pounds.  My month went like this, lost 6 pounds gained 4.  It will take me years to lose the rest of my weight at that rate. 

I may have to buy one of those Body Buggs.  They wear them on the Biggest Loser.  They seem pretty awesome I just didn’t want to spend $200.  Basically you wear them all day and it calculates how many calories you burn.  Maybe I burn a lot more calories than I am giving myself credit for which in turn would mean I am definitely not eating enough or vice versa….maybe I am not burning that many calories and I am eating too much. 
The only thing is that it is not only $200, that is just for the arm band.
Then you have to buy a watch if you want to be able to see the calories
you  burn at the time you are burning it otherwise you have to log on to
the website to download everything.  You do get 6 months of free service
online to set a meal plan and track your day….once that expires you have to pay  which can be about $99 for the year or you can pay monthly at $14.95.  It just seems like a really big investment.  I think the Body Bugg is cooler than the regular heart rate monitors that track your calories because those only seem to track during exercise.  The Body Bugg tracks all day.  From sitting on the couch, to cooking to exercising I will know by the end of the day just how much I burned. 

Maybe after the new year and we can get past the holiday, get back on track financially, get our tax return I will consider buying it.  Maybe the last couple days are a fluke.  Well no because this seems to happen every month or every 6 weeks or so.  Usually when it’s that time of the month I retain a lot of water and I gain a pound or two but when the week is over I shed that plus some.  But I can’t see in a couple days shedding the 4 pounds plus some.  If any of you have seen the Biggest Loser, I just don’t know how they do it.  I know that they are on a strict diet and workout 3/4 of their days but my goodness one girl lost 10 pounds in one week and then the next week lost 9 more.  Holy crap!!!! 

I have lost 59 pounds (as of todays calculation with my 4 pound gain) in just over 4 months, that is pretty darn good.  A good deal of that, well maybe 1/3 of that was baby weight but the remaining 2/3 took a lot of work to get off.  I am up for the challenge to lose the rest I just……..I don’t know, to see +4 pounds on the scale is just WHOA!!! 

I am so going to appreciate myself that much more when I lose all the weight, I am going to remember how hard it was and the struggles and sacrifices I went through to get to that point.  I want that to remain in my head forever so I will NEVER let myself get so overweight again. 

I was unhappy with myself.  I can tell just a small boost in my self-esteem now, I can’t imagine when I hit my final goal.  I am happier (well not so much today) the more I lose, I seem to have more patience in everyday activities and am so much more motivated to eat good and go to the gym.  When I see +4 pounds I just want to go stuff my face with everything I can possibly get my hands on, not because I am craving all that food or anything but just because I have had such amazing self control over the last 4 months that I just want to let loose. 

I don’t eat because of any emotional reasons like doctors always want to use as an excuse for overeating.  I eat because the food tastes so darn good.  I like sweets, I like cheese and bread and I used to like soda.  I drank some the other day (it has been about 3 months since I had any), it was diet, and I could only drink half of the bottle.  It wasn’t all that great.  Don’t get me wrong, it tasted good (it was diet mountain dew) but I just had no desire to drink it after the first couple sips. 

Well let’s just see over the next couple days.  Maybe I will get a surprise and lose the 4 pounds plus some and then I will have to come back and tell ya’ll what a goof I am .