Be Your Own Motivation!

Hey Ya'll....(I was told recently that I say "ya'll" alot-- but I never realized it I guess.....so for funsies....)

So no, I haven't totally fallen off the globe. I think about blogging all the time actually, but unfortunately that is as far as it has gotten.

The last time we hung out, I was trying to get to 50lbs lost by my birthday.... Which was August 12th. (yeah, I am a little behind.... just roll with it)

So did I make it? YES! On my birthday I actually was at 54lbs lost.

Now what? Well.........I fell off the wagon. OK, not really fell off, more like I have been dragged around behind the wagon for a while, kind of like water skiing but not nearly as attractive! haha.

But lets just be real here today? Ok? Not the fake real we want everyone to think about us, but the real deal, Jill. (oh.....I don't know anyone named Jill, it just sounded fun to say it like that.)

Since I hit that goal, it being my first real long term goal, I hit a wall. I gained a 2-3 pounds back. I remember looking at pictures of myself at this smaller size a year ago and thought....wow, if I could just get back to that weight, I'd be happy. Well, now I am here, and my motivation to continue has been lacking. By this point, most people have become accustomed to my weight loss, and the compliments that were so motivating (and lets face it, who doesn't like to hear "WOW LOOK HOW LITTLE YOU ARE" - even if you don't feel it)......have slowed down, and now its just me and my food addiction. This is where we begin to get real. See when I was very overweight, my body required more calories and it was in some sense "easier" for me to just cut back on portions and eat a little lighter, rather than "healthier" to get where I am. Now that I really am like 25lbs from a good solid goal weight, its going to take more effort. More effort that I am not sure I want to give.

But who has the time right? We know this, but we brush it off as -

"Psssh, you don't know me and what little time I have to workout!"

But as a full time working mom of 3 kids who is now going to school full time, trust me, I didn't think I had time either. Now that I am in school, I am sure I don't have time. But, if I had the opportunity to get up extra early and win 1000$ in cash, I am sure I could manage to find the time to get up extra early, but to get up extra early to work out, BLAH. We all have our vices of excuse. I mean nobody has time for anything they don't want to do. You make time for what is important to you. Period.

Not to mention that women have way more to deal with on weight loss than men. Monthly bloat and hormones wanting us to eat everything in sight. Which I have....everything! Trying to exercise during "mother nature", when lets face it, sometimes getting up and down out of a chair is uncomfortable. It has just put me in a weight loss FUNK this last month. I still have been trying to log everything in MyFitnessPal (sorry friends who see my multiple cheeseburgers a day bad days) but you get the good and the bad! :)

I was browsing pinterest last night looking at weight loss inspiration to find some motivation for myself. You know, those cute and clever quotes about how its not going to be easy, but be worth it and the transformation of others that makes you think....you can do this! Instead of working out, I was looking for motivation to work out. Typical huh?

I showed one to my husband telling him how these people look so different after losing weight, like not even the same person! I asked him if he feels that way about me. Then he showed me the below picture.

This was about 5-6 years ago -When I consistently maintained a weight around 220lbs....(not even my heaviest weight!)

Horrified at how awful I looked, I decided to take that picture next to me now. Or a week ago- you get the point.

I am my own motivation! Why do I think that 25lbs is unreachable when I have lost 50! Why do you think 50 is unreachable when you have lost 5 or 10? Why is 30 unreachable when you have lost 15? Its Not! Its a battle of the mind!

So I am going to do better about blogging, being accountable for what I put in my mouth, try to eat more veggies and less fat/sugar, and TRY to exercise. I know that I can do it, look how far I have come. Its like starting over again, a year later (almost exactly) with new goals. Want to join me?

Until next time,
Keep Calm......and realize how far you have come!

Up Day Down Day

Years ago, when I was wanting to start my 50th "diet" I remember being like most people, Googling or looking up different "quick fix" diets that would help me lose the weight. It wasn't that I wanted it to be easy, but I think many of us want that Jump Start and want to see the 5-10lb loss like is shown on biggest loser. I read an article about a diet called the Up Day Down Day Diet. I read through it and I thought their strict concept was somewhat ridiculous, but could see how it was effective. I even tried it and failed miserably. Let me tell you about it.

The Up Day Down Day Diet consists of very little work as far as counting, measuring, and etc. Its concept is based around eating 500 calories one day, (Your Down Day) and then eating "normal" the next day (Your Up Day). 

Please let me throw in the referee flag in here and say please don't do this above "diet". 500 calories is not enough to sustain anyone and you can do more harm than good to your body, especially if you try and maintain that over a long period of time. One day of eating 500 calories will likely not mess up your metabolism, but it makes you REALLY hungry and then next day when you are supposed to eat "normal", you will find yourself binging on Reese cups because you know you aren't going to get to basically eat the next day.

I tell you about this diet that I read and tried because I think it can help show a valid point however. I now do my own Up Day Down Day lifestyle, although not as strict as above. I call it a numbers game. I realize that for some people, they have issues that effect them being able to lose weight, or health issues that totally disprove my theories, but counting calories are proven time and time again. I will be the first to tell you that you can't just eat fat all the time and count the calories and be "healthy". You may still lose some weight, but in the long term, you are setting yourself up with cholesterol and heart problems. You can't just only focus on calories, but if you are wanting to make a change, its a great place to start. Start meaning a push off, not a place to move into and stay forever. After you get comfortable in counting and are familiar with most of the foods you eat, then you can start looking at other things like carbs or fats, or sodium or fiber. All of these are important, but if you are anything like me, if its too much, or too overwhelming at the beginning, I am likely to talk myself right out of it.

For those who may not know, here is a quick beginner lesson on calories.

3500 calories is 1 lb of fat and There are 7 days in a week.

If you decrease your calories intake by 500 calories a day, then at the end of the week (500x7=3500), you "should" lose a lb. If you increase your exercise by 500 calories a day then you can lose 2lbs a week. Its not full proof and there will be weeks that you will see the scale only move to .04, however stick with it. In a week or two from then, (being consistent), you will likely see a 2-3lb drop. Its like the body has to catch up or something. At least this is how my body works.Overall, it accounts for 1-2lbs a week.

Where am I going with all of this ?

(Sometimes I have so much fluttering around in my head wanting to share I can get a little off track. Stay with me here, we haven't even really got to the point I am working towards.Thanks for being patient with my scatteredbrained-ness) 

I have learned over the last few 10 months or so that the days count, but its really overall long term that balances everything out. You can eat awesome on Monday and terrible the rest of the week and its not going to do you much good if your goal is to lose weight. Its about being consistent.

My "goal" is 1200 calories if I am not doing any extra exercise, however, if I come in after work and only want a bowl of cereal and I am at 900-1000 calories for the day, I don't stress out. The next day I can eat more like 1500 calories and it feels like a treat. So whereas I do not support the above very restrictive 500 calorie down day, I do support the "balance" of not eating the same mundane number every day.

Say you have a get together with friends and your foodie nature takes over (like mine does) and you eat 2100 calories for the day, when your goal is 1200. Gasp! How dare you! :) Don't you know that one day of eating higher isn't going to cause you to gain weight. (physical fat, not water weight, that's a whole other terrible thing that makes weight loss difficult).It actually might and can boost your metabolism. It's keeping your body guessing at what you are doing. If it can't figure out what you are doing, then its harder to plateau. If I have a higher day, then the next day I try to eat a little less and balance things out. It seems to work well for me, as it lets me have some flexibility while staying consistent. I know the concept seems like oxymorons but as long as you hit the same goal at the end of the week, you are being consistent.

My goal for this week is still water (drank way too much soda over the weekend and the sodium has me up a 1/2 pound) , but to also make a conscious choice to take stairs, park farther away from places, be more active with my children and keep moving. I don't necessarily have to get in a 60 minute workout in the gym, but anything is better than plopping myself on the couch in front of the TV.

Stick with it, consistency is the key to making any change!

Xo

Food Calories......They Add Up Fast.

Fresh off into the honeymoon phase, I couldn't wait to post on my new favorite blog! I realize as the honeymoon phase wears off that I will potentially space out the posts more, but I just can't help it. It's so new and fresh and I have a bazillion things to tell you.

Ok, so a bazillion is kind of an exaggeration, but just only a little.

It's like looking through a kaleidoscope and trying to pick out all your favorite colors and designs. What direction do we even start in????

Eating. You can really eat that is the title after all. Eating is the foundation of any health or weight loss. I don't care if you are exercising like the people on the biggest loser, if you are filling yourself up with junky food all day, every day, the hard work you are doing is a waste of your time.

Here is an example. .......and yes......I really did eat all that.

My normal day 10 months ago.

BREAKFAST
Egg McMuffin (300)
Egg McMuffin (300) by one get one free McEatALot
Hash Brown (150)
Diet Coke (0)

LUNCH
2 Ham and Cheese Hot Pockets (580)
Large Serving of Chips of some kind (200-300)
Little Debbie Brownie or other snackcake (210)
Diet Coke (0)

MID-AFTERNOON BORED SNACK
Peanut M&M's (250)

DINNER
Taco Salad - (800)
A huge helping mainly comprised of 80/20 ground beef, LOTS of cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips. Very LITTLE lettuce or veggies.

EVENING BORED SNACK
Dairy Queen Small Chocolate Extreme Blizzard (640)

Pretty Shocking huh?
Considering a normal healthy person should be on roughly an 1800 - 2000 calorie lifestyle.... I think I was slightly out of control. The above combinations come out to about 3430.

For one day.

Crazy right?

It really is shocking when you start putting it all down. You know 3500 calories is 1 lb of fat right? So it was no wonder my scale kept climbing.

Did you notice my bored snacks? How often do we eat because of reasons other than hunger? Occasions, emotions, holidays, or my biggest culprit....... boredom. We all do it. Now, I do still eat for some of these, after all, this is the rest of my life, but it's about balance.

Try writing down all of your food calories for a week, shoot, even for a couple of days. Or try an app like MyFitnessPal (which I am no way affiliated or am getting paid to tell you that). It is a very easy, user friendly app that had a ton of things already in it. So its mainly search and hit enter or scan the bar code of the item. Easy Peasy!. You will be shocked how much you are really eating even if you feel like what you are specifically eating is small in portions. (scjones) is my MFP username. So, friend me and we can be "buddies".

My Goal this week is drink more water and less soda. Want to join me on this goal? Am I giving up pop from this week on. NOPE. But, I am going to try and limit myself to one a day. Diet, Regular, whatever your love is, try to fill in the days gaps with water and then reward yourself with your favorite at the end of the day. Or, for every bottle of water you drink, you can have a can or bottle of your preferred drink. It isn't about loving water at this point. It's about becoming accustomed to it, making it a habit.

Keep Trucking along......You are doing great!

It's a Marathon, not a Sprint

So I get asked all the time, You can really eat that on your new diet?

What's so funny to me is from the beginning, I have never said I was starting a "diet". I actually despise the word "diet"...unless its Diet Coke. (Shhhhhhh) For years, like most overweight people, I would sit on the couch, eating my comfort food, wanting a "quick fix" that would just make me skinny and happy. Cause skinny people are automatically perfect and happy right? WRONG.

It started for me right after I turned 29. I was determined I would be at a sensible weight by the time I hit the big 3-0. I knew it would take some time and long term effort, but even my willpower was not great at starting things. I had the "I will start over tomorrow disease". I call it a disease because I perfectly maintained a weight of 220 for years simply by starting every day with an "I'm going to do this attitude" only by lunch and dinner time I would make bad choices and say..."well I will just start over tomorrow." I was great at maintaining. That was easy. But when I finally decided I was going to really do it this time, BOOM. I got pregnant.

Of course.

So, because God knew what he was doing, and I certainly didn't, I took those nine months to eat what I wanted. My last hurrah so to speak before I really lost the weight for good. I knew that once the baby was born, it was not going to be easy, but I was going to have my mind made up to do it.

So I gained about 30lbs or so with my pregnancy, which at the time put me almost at 250lbs! I had an almost 10lb angel and after I was released from the doc from my c-section, my journey began. I still remember my first day on the scale. 229.

229? Everyone would say, but you are tall. Everyone wanted to justify why I was fine being overweight because I am 5'6. "Just imagine if you were 5'2' they would say. You would really look heavy, but you don't look bad." I remember these kind words over the years ring in my ears. How did I let myself get here? Oh yeah I remember. I love food. I am seriously probably a food addict. I love it, it loves me. I eat when I am hungry, I eat when I am bored, when I am sad, happy, or angry. I eat food SAM I AM, I eat it and love it.

First thing I had to do was realize I was in control. As much as I felt out of control like I had to eat that cheeseburger or cupcake, I had to tell myself, what do you want more? Health, or 30 seconds of yummy taste? Sometimes I chose good and sometimes I chose not so good. The great thing about a lifestyle eating change, is its a marathon, not a sprint. I had downloaded the MyFitnessPal App a year prior to this, but never really kept up with it. I am the worlds worst with finishing things I start. So I got the app back out and I put my info in and began an eating regime of 1200-1400 calories a day. At the beginning, I strictly watched calories. As the days and months have passed, I have began to pay more attention to fats, sugars, sodium, fiber....etc.

I started my journey in September 2013 and have lost 46lbs.

Have I eaten lettuce everyday and done killer work outs till I couldn't breathe or move. No. Have I made conscious efforts to try and move more and really focus on portion control as well as better choices? Yes. Have I seen the scale go up and down over the last 10 months? Yes.

Do I still drink soda. Yes...... Is it good for me? No....... esp since its "diet" (haha)

Do I know that I have to work my way there or I will not stick with it? Yes!

I can not imagine going the rest of my life without a Hostess Cupcake or a yummy cheeseburger, or having to get up everyday for a grueling hour workout. There has to be some balance. As I continue this journey to hit 50lbs lost and possibly 75 lost, I hope you stick around. I am not sure what all we will get into, but maybe this place can be a place of hope, strength, whiny rants when the its that time of the month, and hopefully inspiration.

I'd love for you to stick around.....

Just remember, You Can Really Eat That.....