Phase Two - Day Three

Stats for the Day
Wake Up: 11:30 AM
Breakfast: none
Lunch: Ham sandwich and tater tots. Water.
Exercise: none
Snack: Bagel
Dinner: Pizza

Inspiration of the Day
Lasting glances from a crush. Making eye contact with him makes me blush, giggle, and tingle. Can't wait until I feel more self-confidence and can march right up to him and ask for his phone number.

Reflections on the Day
I didn't work out, and I ate a bagel and some pizza. I feel on the verge of failure and depression, but I won't let myself down. In fact, I'm determined to do some DVD workouts over the weekend and boost myself back up because I'll need a kick-in-the-pants to carry my current daily exercise regime into the school year.

Phase Two: Day Two

Stats for the Day
Wake Up: 11:30 AM
Breakfast: none
Lunch: Salsa Chicken and tater tots. Water.
Snack: Special K. Minute Maid Lemonade.
Exercise: 30 mins clogdancing
Dinner: Chicken Spaghetti Alfredo and apple sauce. Water.

Inspiration for the Day
Took my shirt off for the shower and my breasts already feel a tiny bit perkier after only two exercise sessions this week. I'm starting to notice the tightening of my body where my muscles are getting the work out they've been desperately needing.

Reaction to the Day
  

Phase Two: Day One

Stats for the Day
Wake Up: 11:30 AM
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Ham sandwich with brown mustard on wheat bread and tortilla chips with salsa. Water.
Snack: Special K bar with Minute Maid lemonade to drink.
Exercise: 30 minutes elliptical Random setting
Dinner: Beef Merlot CafeSteamer

Today's Inspiration
I was flirting with the UPS guy, and he offered to get the phone number of his co-worker who I find quite attractive. I felt self-conscious and declined the oppurtunity for the phone number. I have to stick to my goals so my self-confidence will grow and these sorts of oppurtunities won't pass me by!!!!!!!!!!! Reason Number One for Losing the Weight: So my expert flirtation skills won't go to waste due to my lack of physical self-confidence. I know my personality is there, but I want a great body to back it up.

Thoughts of the Day
I feel great and inspired to begin the new phase of my life and especially looking forward to the improvement of my health and happiness. I need to succeed now more than ever. There is no looking back. My future is ahead of me and in a few months' time I want to be able to say, "I did it!" instead of, "I was doing so well, but I gave up. Oh well."

Phase Two: The Plan

To better facilitate Phase Two of my endeavor to lose a hundred pounds by May 2012, I am going to go back to daily counts of everything I eat and the exercise I have done. This will force me to stick to my plans and not deviate. By holding myself accountable, I feel I will be more likely to sustain will power and not sleep until noon before grabbing a cheeseburger on the way to work. It worked for Phase One, where I successfully lost forty pounds and maintained that weight for nearly five months, so I’m going to reinstate it for Phase Two. Here is a vague outline of my plan:

1.       Daily blog counts of food eaten and exercise done

2.       Only eat home-made meals, eat at restaurants sparingly.

3.       No soda, stay away from unnecessary sweets.

4.       Only one serving at a meal. No second helpings.

5.       Exercise for at least thirty minutes every day. Fit in more when time allows (if there is no homework or housework to be done).

Quick Comparison Shots and a Shout Out

I discovered an awesome forum where people are losing weight and sharing their stories of triumph. I feel it will serve as an amazing inspiration and motivation to get back into my good habits of exercising and eating right. I'm determined not to slip back into those painful patterns of weight gain and depression. I'm saying good bye to the next 40 pounds and beyond! Let's do this!

Here is the URL for the forum, if you want to check it out:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/
I highly recommend making an account so you can check out the Goal and Mini Goal Photo Albums. That is where everyone posts their comparison pictures and if those don't motivate you to put down those Cheetos, nothing will!

And here are some of my comparison shots. I think you've seen all of these pictures before separately, but I wanted to put them together to provide a boost into the new year to show how far I've come!

New Year: What I've Learned in 2011 That Will Carry Me Through 2012

A new year is upon us. When a new year comes around, it's a great motivation to start fresh, to clean out your dusty closets, and move ahead in life. Health and happiness top the resolution dreams and why not achieve those goals? No need to give up after the first week of January. Wouldn't you rather say, "I made it," instead of, "Like every other resolution, I gave up at the first sight of a couch, a Teen Mom marathon, and cake."?

Getting into the habit of eating right and exercising (because, guess what, those are the steps to losing weight, toning the body, and getting healthy) are not as hard as people make it out to be. Once something is done for a few weeks, it becomes routine habit (just like picking up Taco Bell on your way home from work, scarfing it down while watching America's Next Top Model re-runs, then collapsing into bed to sleep until noon the next day has been routine habit for the past few months).

A Few Things 2011 Has Taught Me:

1.Breaking the habits does become routine. Just do it. At first, you'll sneak a double cheeseburger for dinner here and there. Eventually, though, and faster than you think, you won't even want that double cheeseburger, the thought of eating it will make your stomach turn. Your body will reject the unhealthy, greasy, fatty food once you're used to eating better food and working your muscles hard with exercise. Trust me. It works.

2. Losing weight takes time and patience, but the results are well worth the wait. I'm determined to lose at least another sixty pounds by 2013. I'm absolutely sure I'll meet that goal and probably exceed it by quite a bit, but the reason I'm setting it a little low is because I want to lose the weight slowly. I want to be toned as well as thinner. I don't want to have all the excess skin that comes with losing a lot of weight quickly.

3. Plateaus happen, and they don't last forever. I'm planning on trying to lose 10 pounds a month, and if a week or two goes by where I don't lose any weight, I'll be alright. And that will happen. There will be weeks where the weight won't fall off my body, but after that plateau, I will start losing again.

4. You have to walk before you can jog before you can run. Another trick, is to start slow and work myself up. I've seen people hop on an elliptical or a treadmill and think they can run for thirty minutes after having not exercised in months. It simply won't happen. You have to build up the endurance. Otherwise, exercise is painful and not fun because you're tired after two minutes. So do five minutes your first day. Then ten. Then fifteen. And eventually you'll be able to go thirty or forty minutes a day like I do. You can't do it your first day, though, simply don't even try it.

In many ways I'm starting over again. I've been out of the gym since August 2011 and it's now January 2012. But I'm ready, despite school starting again next week, to not let anything, not even school, stand in my way.

5. Nothing feels better than that rush after a great workout. I ran on the elliptical for thirty minutes yesterday and it felt so amazing. I can't give justice to how much better I feel about my appearance just after thirty minutes of exercise. Your adrenaline and endorphins flow, it's magical and it feels amazing. I strut in front of the mirror after a good workout session. I'm sure any men in my life can testify that I feel very very very good about my body, even though that single session on the elliptical didn't make a significant physical difference.  But mentally, it made a huge difference: I was reminded what I was keeping from myself by letting exercise lose the priority in my life for the past few months.

6. No excuses. No more. I need that health and happiness and I'm going to take it.

7. Even the smallest bit of exercise is better for your body than no exercise. Do what you can, when you can. Don't think that just because you don't have time to put an hour into the gym on Monday that you can't walk up and down stairs at work on your fifteen minute break or do a few jumping jacks in front of your desk. 

So wish me luck and I'll wish you luck! We have the power and there's no reason to give up now.

Oh! P. S. I started a pinterest account and I have a board just for Fitness Motivation and Inspiration. Here's the link, check it out if you're ever contemplating sitting through another episode of The Soup instead of going for a jog:
Click here for Fitness Motivation and Inspiration!

Have a Very Merry Calorie Overload

Having grown up in a strangely agnostic family, Christmas has come to mean only three things to me: presents, the family gathering in a single house, and dinner.

Presents are shiny things in wrapping paper that for whatever reason haven’t been truly exciting since I was old enough to be carried on Mom’s hip. Since those days of youthful wonder and delight have passed, presents only mean undue stress, especially in the areas of finance and time management. This year, I bypassed that stress by asking my family to donate to a charity instead of buying me a gift. In return, I plan on making donations to a few choice charities in the names of each of my family members. Sounds like quite an endeavor, but I’m hoping to make it a tradition every year. I can’t explain how much less stressful Christmas has been this year without having to worry about what gifts to buy everyone and knowing that I won’t have to fake delight at the presents I receive. Instead, I know that the money previously spent on candles I will never use or makeup I will never wear will go to a charity that is doing wonderful work in the community and the world.

The family gathering in a single house is the part of Christmas I enjoy the most. I love being around everyone, (once I get past their questions about why I’m not in a relationship and/or bearing their grandchildren, nieces, or nephews yet) and I love playing cards and just chatting about the year with people I don’t get to see as often as I would like. My grandparents, especially, are my favorite people to be around at Christmas. I enjoy their stories, their life, and their love. I love knowing they have lived through so much and have so much wisdom to impart. I cherish everything they tell me, and Christmas is especially great for stirring up their memories and listening to them telling great stories and tales. Grandma’s house is a bit small, but everyone fits and we all have a great time. Every so often an argument might pop up, but for the most part, we all get along and smiles and laughter are upon everyone’s lips. Those are the Christmases I enjoy the most. The house is never without the sound of someone laughing and the joy shines brighter than the lights on Grandma’s tiny tinsel-smothered artificial tree.       

         

Lastly, Christmas is all about the dinner. This year, Grandma is deviating from the staple turkey and ham and making meatloaf instead. I can’t wait! Meatloaf is one of my favorite things to eat, and my grandma’s is actually great. I joke about my family not being the greatest cooks in the world (and they really aren’t, but we get by) but grandma’s meatloaf is really good. My mother makes her delicious desserts, and I’ll bring my much-requested hash brown casserole. I’ve also volunteered myself to make green beans, and I’m’ going to surprise everyone with some red velvet sandwich cookies. I’m most excited about making those cookies. I can’t wait to see everyone’s surprise at the decadent and tasty little treats!

Dinner also poses a big problem at Christmas: I always want to overeat. This year, I’m determined to manage myself a lot better than years past. I need to stick to my goal of losing 100 pounds by next April. I’ve come so far, I can’t give up and let it all go to waste just because of a holiday! So everyone stay strong and think of your goals instead of how tasty grandma’s cooking is! J