I'm All By Myself

It's really quite in the house right now, maybe too quite.  I don't feel like being alone.  Yes I have to exercise and finish taking down the Christmas stuff but I don't want to be alone.  I went to make myself a cup of hot tea and while I was in the room I thought I could really eat some food.  No I'm not hungry at all but have the urge to eat.  I have discovered on my journey that when I don't want to be alone I eat.  This is why the team approach really works!  So I kept saying to myself make your tea and go blog.  Blogging is a good way for me to express myself and by putting these feelings down on paper I can realize what I'm doing that makes me eat and put on unhealthy weight.  Yes I just got through another hurdle!  Wow losing weight is not about not eating at all.  So all the people out there who used to say, "Just close your mouth and don't eat" don't know at all what they are talking about.  It's way more than the food, it's why are we eating the foods and when.  It's what we are substituting food for that makes us fat.  I wasn't one of those people but now I know why I yo yo diet and couldn't keep the weight off.  I must say I'm feeling good right now realizing one of the reasons is I have been eating when I'm lonely. 

     We went to Culver's after church because we let my husband pick.  My daughter & I sat and waited while my husband ate a boat of ice-cream.  It looked really good but that is not a tempting food for me.  My daughter on the other hand loves ice-cream so it was harder for her.  I said to her take one spoonful just to get the satisfaction out of the way and it worked.  That's all she needed and she was just fine.  I'm telling you it feels so good to not let food consume me!!

I finally did it, I put a picture of my daughter Rachel below.  That is the weight she wants to get to again.

Below is a picture of my husband Ken, daughter Rachel and myself.  I hate fat pictures so this is huge for me to be able to post a picture.  Of course I have now lost 14 lbs so I look better but I realize I need a before and an after of me. 

The Results

The weigh in went very well, I lost 4 lbs.  I wanted to lose more but I am very happy with the four pounds.  Week two is always the hardest week on the Biggest Loser Show to lose weight so we are no different.  Your probably wondering how the team did, well we lost 13 lbs total.  I should know on Monday what place we are in.  My daughter & I found out some interesting stuff about our food habits.  We went out to eat for the first time in over two weeks.  The menu was really big so it took us awhile to find out what we wanted to eat.  We settled on a ranch wrap even though the chicken was breaded.  It came with a cup of soup but we had a side salad instead.  It also came with fries or fruit and we of course got the fruit.  We were eating our salads, low fat french on the side talking how important it is to have a partner when trying to lose weight.  We both notice that on the Biggest Loser TV show they have the people come in as pairs and we believe that the support of each other is what keeps you going.  We both agreed we might not have made it through some of the days without each other pushing or saying "Don't eat that!"  Our main meal came and the wraps had two halves that were pretty big, I was amazed.  We failed to read that the wrap came fried or something so we missed that.  As we were eating I talked about getting a sub for my husband and saving half of our wraps for later.  Half way through the first half I said to Rachel "why are we eating the other half when we both know it's not that healthy for us.  Condition, we are in such a habit of not noticing what we eat or how much it's like we are on auto pilot.  We learned so much from lunch today, it was another breakthrough.  Just by habit we go through the motions of eating & eating & eating.  Guess what we brought the two halves home for my husband and he enjoyed the wraps to.
     Some other members on teams at work are into heckling us about doing so well and telling us we won't keep up the weight lost.  What they don't know is this is a journey into discovering why we eat wrong and not letting food control us anymore.  So heckle away because this is a life long journey commitment!

2 Weeks!

Tonight will be two weeks, wow the time so goes by fast when your not eating the foods you love and taking control over the food.  So tonight I weigh in and I'm excited because I think I lost 4 more pounds.  My body is taking a beating at work this week so I will be upset if I didn't lose that much.  Today is the last chance workout before the weigh in and I need to work hard.  I'll just pretend I have Jeff (my Bob) next to me urging & pushing me all the way, saying give me 10 more or lets increase that speed.  I can just hear him, your not going to lose weight that way come on push yourself.  Go Jeff Go.
    People need to realize that fat comments do hurt, in fact any negative comments hurt.  Take that split second to see the person's face with the hurt all over it and then you'll see they are upset.  I think we all guilty of these actions.  We need to walk a mile in someones shoes before we judge them.  Just because we might not be as fat this doesn't give us the right to shot insults at anyone.  We all have our faults and I'm sure we wouldn't want someone making fun of them. 
     The 3rd shift at work decided to throw a Packer party and they put up a sign up sheet for food.  I don't think I'm ready yet to join the fun.  There will be way too much food and not good kinds.  Now that I know how much food in the past parties I consume I think I will pass this one up.  I'm proud of myself for realizing I can't just eat small amounts and need to avoid the room. 

I'm so cold

Have you ever notice that when you start to lose weight you get cold.  I am cold right now and had to go put on a fleece.  Why is that?  Maybe one of my followers could shed some light on this.  At least typing warms my fingers up!  Today was a good day.  I worked out for 40 minutes on the elliptical.  I almost went 2 miles I just came up short.  Wow I feel great and it felt great doing it.  I've come a long way in my short two weeks.  Remember I hated the thing before I started.  I do believe losing weight has helped.  I think by the end of the ten weeks I might be able to hold my breath as long as my oldest son can.
     Saturday my son went back to school.  I was sad he had been home for almost a month.  I have encourage him to watch what he eats at school.  We also have talked about how many calories are in alcohol.  I couldn't believe it either.  I have not had a drink since starting the biggest loser.  I don't want to drink my calories right now only eat them.  I'm thinking though I could have a glass of wine during the super bowl, go pack go. 
     So I thought I was only eating 1400 calories and it turned out I'm eating 1800.  The weight is coming off and I think I'm starving so I am going to leave it alone right now.  So far this week I have lost 3.5 lbs.  Funny I was talking with my healthy son about my journey and he yawn a huge yawn on me.  What's up with that??  I made an awesome salad I like to share.

Eye Opener

It's amazing how we see only what we want to see.  We can kid ourselves that we are not that heavy or I'm not that overweight but in reality.....I was.  I was one of those people, I'm not that heavy.  I have small legs and a small butt my weight is just in my stomach.  Since I have started my journey I realize I am overweight and need to change my life style.  I must say I'm feeling much better, more energy not so sluggish since I started.  So my oldest daughter came home this weekend and I thought I share my new books with her.  Well she wasn't in the mood but pretended she was and opened and closed the books in two seconds.  I at first was hurt because at first I thought she didn't care and then she told me she was tired.  The old me would have went and ate some comfort food thinking I was being rejected.  But I didn't!!  Big moment for me.  So I want to eat all foods just eat it in moderation so today for my snack during the game I have 15 pringle chips fat free of course. They were great and they tasted so much better now that I don't eat them as much.  So I am learning so much on my journey.  Look tomorrow for pictures.  I have decided my daughter & I will go and buy some new clothes in 9 weeks to celebrate!  I challenged my oldest daughter to lose some weight & join us in the celebration. 

First Weigh In

Yes I did it!!  I had my first weigh in and guess what, I lost 9 lbs!!  Better yet my team lost a total of 32 lbs.  We are pumped!  Jim lost 11 lbs and Kim & Andy each lost 6 lbs.  You couldn't ask for a better start than that.  We felt great and are motivated moving forward into the next week.    I couldn't believe when I heard people talking about us behind our back.  I heard some negative talk about the weight lost.  I watch what people eat on break partly to see what they eat and partly jealous because I know if I eat those brownies or donuts I will stay at my current weight or grow.  I want everyone to get healthy but unless they want it I keep my mouth shut and drool.  Sometimes I feel like Homer....yum donuts.   It had been hard work with the exercising and changing the eating plan.  I realize when I get tired I would eat food as a comfort.  I'm sure why because I was only tired and needed rest not food.  I have begun the process on changing that eating urge.  When I get tired I sit down for a few minutes or if I'm at work I have a small container of pretzels & rice crips and eat just a couple to keep me going.  
     Exercising is going really well.  I think it really helps to work with a partner.  Having my daughter working out and watching what she eats is a support I can't be without.  We motivate each other and say do you really want to eat that?  Yesterday I did my Gold's Gym while she was on the elliptical and after we did yoga on the Wii.  After the yoga I challenged her to the obstacle course and was that fun.  Even though we were tired we pushed through two rounds each and in the end Rachel beat me but I had so much fun.
     One of our favorite fast foods was the potato boats from KFC and everyone knows we don't eat them any more.  We created our own yesterday and were they good.  Check out my recipe's to see the new & improved boats.

Food Shopping

Today I went grocery shopping with my daughter and we were hungry.  They tell you never to shop when you are hungry but I must admit we did pretty well.  One thing that struck me odd was it cost a lot more money to eat healthy than to stay fat!  The prices on fruits & vegetables is quite high and if you are going to lose weight you need to buy fresh fruit & veggies.  I bought some blackberries, blueberries, grapefruit, pineapple and apples. Now that I eat salad without cheese, eggs I bought spouts, carrots and cucumbers to make the salad more fulling and exciting.  It took us much longer to shop because now we read each box to check out the servings, fat and calories.  Before the life long journey to change my eating habits we would walk along and toss boxes into the cart without reading anything.  I feel much better about shopping because I now know what I'm consuming.  I feel more in charge of my life.  I believe this is another break through.  As we were moving slowly through the store we had to find something to eat in the car because we were starving.   We found bit size chocolate rice cakes that tasted really good.  7 pieces were serving size and that held us over until super was ready.  The old me would have bought a donut, chips and maybe string cheese with a soda to hold us over, wow.  I am starting to feel much better, not so sluggish.   Big day tomorrow!!!!  First weigh in!!