The Small Wins

My first little milestone has been hit. The LoseIt app gave me a little present.


I'VE LOST 10 LBS!!!

It definitely feels really good to have hit a little milestone like losing 10 lbs. My next milestone will be around 15 lbs from now. My ultimate goal is to be under 200 lbs. I know this will take a while to get to and the hardest thing will be sticking with it. It's not going to be done in a month. This is going to take maybe a year to reach my goal. I need to be okay with that and though my weight may fluctuate, I can't give up.

One thing that I have noticed, even after only losing 10 lbs, is how much easier things have become. The other day I decided to go for a run. The plan was only to go for 30 mins. But I got out there and it just felt so much than it had in the past that it became less about time and more about me wanting to make it 2 miles. It took me 34 minutes so I wasn't far over 30, but I made it 2 miles which is what made me feel so much better. Eating healthier and losing weight has given me so much more energy. I'm actually kind of looking forward to the snow and cold leaving so I can get back out and try to make it 2 miles in under 30 minutes.

An update on my goal of eliminating soda from my life. For about a month and a half, I have been working on a 12 pack of Throwback Pepsi's that I decided would be my last soda's (hopefully forever). Well, I am down to the last one and it has been in my fridge for about 2 and a half weeks now. I haven't really craved any soda lately, which is awesome. I am waiting until the right time to have the last one. It can set in there forever for all I care, but I won't drink it until I'm REALLLLLLLLLY craving one. But, at least it's the last one.

I'm going to give you a tip each time I blog. This week it's an active/exercise tip: When you go to the grocery store or mall, park in the spots furthest away from the building. It will allow you to get some good exercise in without even really thinking about it.

Well, if you have read this far kudos to you. Thanks and please come back

Temptation

Oh boy what a week I have had. I weighed in Friday morning the scale told me I lost 7 lbs from last Saturday. Man was I excited. The change in my eating habits have paid off quick!

But then there is that terrible, terrible temptation. Really my first real temptation of the week came on Thursday morning. I had taken Vanessa to work and was stopping at QT to grab some coffee. I accidentally walked by the donuts. Oh man. I was by myself and hungry and saw no reason why I shouldn't indulge in the doughy, glazed goodness. Then I thought about the reasons why I was doing what I'm doing. I don't want to feel this way anymore. I want to be healthy when my kids are growing up. I want to be able to go play in the yard without getting tired. I don't want to end up with weight related health issues for the rest of my life. So instead of just starving myself, I decided to find a healthier option in the store. I grabbed a South Beach Diet Peanut Butter Meal Bar. It was really tasty and filled me up nicely.

It felt good to have ignored the temptation of grabbing a yummy donut. Not saying that I won't eat a donut, because I have actually (unfortunately) had 2 today. I will talk more about the weekend further down. But on that day, at that time, I was happy to have said no to the temptation of a donut.

My second temptation came in the second day when Vanessa's boss asked me to grab them some food from Taco Bell for lunch. I hadn't eaten lunch yet and I love a good burrito from Taco Bell. But I resisted and felt better because of it. Went home and had my turkey burger and spinach and felt good about it.

I ate good every day this week. Then the weekend happened. I find it very difficult to eat very good on the weekends because of the fact that we are always on the move. Saturday I had Taco Bueno, but was able to semi decent there by getting stuff off of their new Bueno Choice menu. Plus I tried this new thing of counting to 20 or 30 between each bite. It totally worked! By the end of a small soft taco and a burrito, I was stuffed! Saturday night some old friends came into town and we went to Bros Houligan. Wasn't able to eat too healthy there. Then I had Mazzio's for Sunday lunch and breakfast foods for dinner tonight. Not very healthy at all.

Here's why I sort of okay with this weekend. I know you are probably thinking that no matter where I go I can get a healthy salad or the salad bar. Yes probably. But honestly I don't feel bad about what I am doing. I don't see it as cheating. I am still eating considerably less than I have in the past. I am staying under my calories. I feel fine. I am not going crazy on the weekend. I am able to eat whatever I want, just controlling the portions.

Annnnyways. This was a really long post.

If you have read this far kudos to you. Thanks and please come back!

Mike

The first of (hopefully) many.

Now that I am blogging, I feel like I'll need to keep you guys updated regularly. I hope that happens. For my sake.

So for a while I have been using an iPhone app called Lose It! which allows you to log all the food you eat during the day and times you exercised. It gives you a certain amount of calories you can eat a day that will still allow you to lose 1-2 lbs a week. You're calorie count goes down as you lose weight.

I have done this in the past, but haven't kept up with it. Which is sad. But oh well. 

Anyways. After some encouragement from different people, I decided to follow the app and stay under my calories again. I did this for 2 weeks without losing a single pound. It almost made me want to stop again, but I told myself that 2 weeks can't define the rest of my life. 

So after seeing a change in my buddy CMay in his eating habits, I decided to try to to make an eating change myself. I read over at his blog that the change in what he eats was helping his fatigue, headaches and other things. I get headaches a lot and they are bad. So what's it going to hurt to try to get rid of them by eating healthy? So that's why I've done. After two days, I feel really good about what I'm doing. It might just be mental right now, but I already feel like I've got more energy.

After the first day, I had lost 3 lbs. That is the stuff that keeps you going. Seeing results. After only a day of change. That also gave me more energy for the day. 

Well, if you have read this far, kudos to you. Thanks and please come back!

Mike

I found this article via Yahoo! (CLICK ME!) that talks about how people some people who blogged about their weight loss adventure seem to have more success in doing so. Therefore, I decided to start my own blog about my attempt at becoming a healthier person.


One woman that is mentioned in the article talked about how important it was for her to post "the good, the bad and the ugly" sides of weight loss.


" It gave me a place to face the emotional side of weight loss: I celebrated my losses, cried about my gains and vented when I felt like whining."


So, I really think that's what I will use this as. If you don't like what I have to say, you don't have to read it.

Thanks!!