Drum Roll Please! 198.8

GUESS WHAT?!?! this is what I saw when I weighed myself this morning. I know I haven't been blogging.. but I still have been striving towards my goals... this was such a HUGE goal for me.. and I can't remember the last time I was under 200lbs.. but I think it was probably about 6th grade! that's pretty amazing! I was excited.. but honestly forgot about it until around lunch when I again thought "wow" and then thought.. "huh I don't really feel any different" like I expected that the world would change or I'd suddenly be the most breath taking woman in the world LOL. regardless 90.2lbs total weight loss is a big number.. and something I'm proud of-- only 23.8lbs more until my goal weight of 175lbs.. where I'll assess if I want to continue to lose weight or simply be happy where I'm at there :o) thanks for sharing in the good news of this big day with me :o)

P.S. I never realized how "fat" my feet look-- I have a wide foot and apparently my toes are spreading and getting twisty.. lol here's to almost being 30!

223.2 - The Battle Continues

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Christmas/ New Year. It's time to get serious again about blogging-- as I have been serious about weight loss again for about a month.

For Christmas I asked for a new scale-- this one is supposed to keep track of your body fat % and your water % as well as your weight. I've come to find out that the body fat % and water weight are actually not very accurate. Imagine my shock when just after Christmas I jumped on the scale to see that I weighed 228.8lbs a nearly 14 lb gain over my lowest weight last year.. AND that my body fat is 42% and my water is 40%-- as these past 4 weeks have gone by my body fat and water weight have stayed in the same 5% weight with the body fat and water % inversely proportionate to one another. SO I took a test @ the gym and it turns out my body fat is only 26.6% (sigh of relief)-- which still technically puts me in the obese category-- but much closer to "overweight" than the scale is reflecting.

So with that being said.. I'm in 2 biggest loser contests-- one at work where there is a 1st and 2nd place winner-- 1st place recieves $165 and second place $110-- I'm currently in 2nd place. The bigger contest I'm in is at the YMCA where there is only one winner-- to the tune of $575-- I would LOVE to win both-- but our second weigh in isn't until next week @ the half way mark.

This brings me to a little bit of frustration. I have hired a personal trainer (YAY!! I've never had one before) and have worked out with her 3 times (we're meeting twice a week) and on my own I'm hitting the gym every day-- I do cardio for 35 minutes - 2 hours/ day (and when I meet with my trainer I'm with her for an hour + at least 35 minutes of cardio on my own). It's very frustrating that after almost 4 full weeks I'm only down 5.6 lbs.

I am using a new program on my iphone (which incidentally you can also use online if you don't have a phone with applications) called "My fitness pal" it's soooooo much better than the old program I was using, lose it! where it simply didn't have enough food brands stored. My fitness pal is great because I think I've only come across one item of food that wasn't in there in the 4 weeks I've been using it. It also allows you to record your cardio/ workouts AND gives you a break down of your nutritional facts (along with goals of how much of what you should be eating) . All in all it's a great program.... BUT my beef with it is because I work a desk job.. it told me I should only be eating 1300 calories / day-- BUT I wans't losing any weight that way so I concluded on my own (and with a little research) that I should be eating at least 1560 calories/ day to lose weight (Jillian Michaels says your current weight X 7-10)-- so by this calculation the minimum calories I should be eating right now to lose weight would be 1562.4 and the max 2232. So right now I'm getting in about 1600 calories/ day and burning about 300- 900 calories / day at the gym. I've only been on this higher calorie diet for 3 days and I've lost .4 lbs in that time.


So that's where I'm at right now! How are you guys doing on your weight loss? Have you worked with a trainer before? What kind of results did you see? How are you figuring out your calorie intake?

She's up and running-- weight ???

Quick update. I haven't been weighing myself recently.. and that's really due to my lack of exercise and the feeling that I've put on some weight and want to remain oblivious to it. I need to get back on track.. BUT here is some of the reason why I've been such a slacker.. long time coming! Yep that's right. I have a temporary site up for Crown Jewel Boutique-- I just started it on monday and am still in the process of setting up shop so please come and visit often. I'm running a sale right now for 10% off and a little more off for Cyber Monday. Tell your friends!!! Just a taste of what you can buy! You can also "like" me on facebook to keep up with special offers/ sales. Let me know what you think!

216.5 Test Results

So the deal with the diet is that I went off of it on Friday-- what immediately happened is I went from 215 to 217 and then a high of 218 yesterday. Today I'm down to 216.5. Everyone I work with who is on the diet said that the re-introduction of more carbs causes you to retain water. I'm not 100% that I agree with that assessment but in light of today's weigh in I do feel a little bit better.

I've always preferred to lose weight "The right way" and I lost 70.5lbs doing it that way. I hate the idea of crash diets where the moment you're off of them you gain it all back and then more. I hate the idea of pills where in 10 years you find out it makes you lose your memory or gives you a heart condition. I'm still on the fence about going back on the diet. It's certainly nice to be able to drop about .5 lbs/ day just by eating right- but I don't want to lose 30lbs on it and then gain back 10-- I'm on program where once the weight is gone.. it's gone for good and I feel pretty strongly about that.

215 -The Test

Alright I'm going off the Belly Fat Cure diet today through the weekend. I found out that you really need to space your meals pretty evenly or you don't lose the weight-- that's why I didn't lose last weekend-- because my meals were crazy all over the board.

This weekend I'm going to start eating the things I missed like yogurt and fruits and as aforementioned partake in an apple dumpling ala mode and/ or an apple fritter-- I'm a little concerned that since this diet keeps my insulin level even-- and thus losing weight-- if I go back to eating normal where I'll get a spike in insulin-- that I might just gain everything back. Better to find out now than when I'm down 30lbs and devastated to lose it all back.

I'll let you know how things transpire. Incidentally I didn't post yesterday but I actually weighed 215 yesterday-- yes I dropped 1 lb overnight where I had been losing .5lbs overnight-- BUT everything in the end evens out because I'm not down any lbs today.

Happy Friday Everyone!

216- That's One Mean Colon!

Well guys, I'm still on the Belly Fat Cure diet. I seemed to hit a plateau on Saturday Sunday and Monday-- but on Tuesday I started to lose weight again-- Both Monday and Tuesday I dropped an additional .5 lbs / day. In retrospect I think this has a lot to do with my hectic schedule on the weekends-- it makes it hard to space your meals/ snacks out evenly and therefore I didn't do a good job on keeping my insulin level the same-- which in turn is why I don't think I saw the same results.

I was a bit upset that on this diet you're supposed to lose between 3-9 lbs a week and I lost the bare minimum @ 3lbs-- I was so strict too! Then I thought back to the fact that no matter what I do it's a struggle to lose weight with my Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome and my slow metabolism.. so the fact that I was able to lose 3lbs from diet alone-- should be celebrated!

One thing I have noticed however is that-- with the lack of fruits and yogurt on this diet I seem to going to the bathroom a lot less-- once every 3 days or so-- and when I do go my intestine/ colon gets so mad.. that sort of cramping burning sensation that lasts for an hour afterward-- I guess it's a small price to pay for the quick weight loss.

I plan to be on the diet for 1 more day and then I'm taking Friday, Saturday and Sunday off-- my schedule is way too hectic-- AND I want to partake of an apple fritter and an apple dumpling @ Applefest this weekend in my hometown. Depending on how much willpower I have left.. lol I will probably try to start up again on Monday.

217.5 I'm a believer

Since starting my new "fad" diet on Monday I have dropped 2.5lbs-- this is a week by week diet-- so I'm going to do it until next Friday (my schedule is crazy busy next weekend so it's really going to be too difficult to keep it going then) however depending on how I feel that Friday --which honestly is dependent on my total weight loss and my will power at that point-- I might try another week or two. I'm not hungry, I've lost weight, the food is healthy and pretty good the only down/ upside is that I'm not eating enough calories to go and do an intense workout. -- so I'm losing weight with my diet alone. I know that's not the best tactic-- but for a short term gratification it's working :o) I'm a believer!

Happy Friday everyone!