Tuesday, 10th of August 2010 at 11:40:05 AM 
The Random Number Generator has spoken, and it loves the Early Bird today. Not the Earliest bird. But pretty dern close. Bird 2, SillyMe, who said, in a comment that made me snork coffee out my nose, “I started the day with a doughnut. After that fail the rest of the day is automatically healthier than that and therefore a win! Yeay, me! I went on to workout hard and the guilt from the (fabulously tasty and so worth it) doughnut will keep me in check all day. -I can justify just about ANYTHING.”
I like how that girl thinks, and I hope she enjoys her fitness goodies, courtesy of Go Red For Women’s Better U program.
Meanwhile, Operation Lose a Schubert if off to a slow, fat, bitchy, old start, which considering I have named the challenge after my slow, fat, bitchy, old 17.5 pound cat is NO surprise. I am taking a page from BETTER U however, and I am doing this one slow, fat, bitchy, old step at a time.
This last week, I got back on the exercise horse, working out like it was my religion. Of course, at meal time I acted like a Donnor Party Survivor cut loose on an All You Can Eat Soilant Green buffet table But, she said primly, getting my eating back under control was not my official GOAL. My goal was to rekindle my love affair with endorphins, and I am calling this week a strong NOT FAIL.
While on writing retreat I hiked the mountains for a mile and a half twice a day, and after the first hike I did plank jacks, sit ups and push-ups. Once home, I have alternated Boot Camp with the 30 Day Shred, and I feel, subjectively, under my post-surgical seventeen and a half pound layer of Schubert, my muscle memory is kicking in. I am less tired. I can run faster and farther. I can do more push-ups and more sit ups in a row. Plank Jacks no longer make me want to kill myself. They just make me want to kill Jillian Michaels, an altogether more mentally healthy and reasonable response.
If you don’t know from Plank Jacks, here’s Becky, a woman I think I could also grow to loathe in a mentally healthy and reasonable way, showing you how to properly do one.
This week, I shall begin working on my food stuff, but slowly, and in an ORDERLY fashion. I STILL have not chosen a diet plan – and I think I need a structured one to make ANY kind of actual headway, my hormones still being all UPROARIOUS and angry about having chunks of my abdominal organs hacked out and carted away. I am JUST not there yet.
I am SO bored of Weight Watchers, I don’t want to go into ketosis so Atkins is out, and as much as I love South Beach, my friends just brought me back teo sacks of fresh ground local whole grain wheat flour from a near-by mill AND bought a bread machine off Woot.com (CUISINART!!! LESS THAN HALF OF WHAT IT COSTS ELSEWHERE!!!!) The idea of having to track everything or not eat bread or WHATEVER; GAH. But I have to do something. Anyone have any NON WW ATKINS SB healthy ideas? I feel like I have SO FAR TO GO and A SCHUBERT is a huge, fat, old bitchy obstacle. I am prediscouraged just thinking of it. LOOK AT IT, sitting by its empty bowls, glaring balefully and refusing to read perfectly delightful literary fiction.
SO! Here is my step: I will eat FIVE servings of fresh fruit and vegetables every day. This week, that is all I can manage, to re-introduce a pre-surgery good habit, not to take away a post surgery incredibly comforting bad one. It is my hope that eating a butt ton of salad and cantaloupe will fill me up so I eat less CHIPS, but hey, this week, I will call just reaching for an apple or leftover green beans first, GOOD. Even if I have the chips after.
If I succeed in this, then NEXT week, bolstered by two weeks of NOT FAIL. I may try giving up… SUGAR. I should do that NOW, I know, but giving up sugar feels, today, about as possible (and as pleasant) as giving up oxygen. Or maybe by next week one of you will have directed me to an ACTUAL diet plan that looks fresh and exciting. *hopeful eyebrows*
Wasn’t Grey all excited about the Mayo Clinic Diet earlier this year? I’d love to have her give a a review of it. Just the fact that the Mayo Clinic is backing it gives it points in my book.
I think you’re on the right track with small changes that turn into small successes which accumulate to big success over time. Have you looked at French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano or Ultrametabolism by Mark Hyman?
Oooohhhhh ULTRAMETABOLISM! I like it!
It sounds fancy and completely invented!
I AM CHECKIGN INTO IT NOW! Because—let’s face it — unless you are on some FAD thing that is likely to destroy your liver and kill you, it is all the same 3 things in different packages. The right foods, the right portion size, and cardio/resistance/activity.
But I am SHALLOW! I need bells and whistles and for someone to say those 3 things in NEW MAGIC SOUNDING WAYS so I can get all converted and cultishly enthusiastic. WHEEEE!
My name is Beki, but I could really hate that Becky’s fitness workout. She’s like a young Denise Austin who I used to watch from the couch as I crunched my way through a bag of chips wondering if she ever ate anything at all and what made her so perky.
Again, I cannot help with the diet thing as diets make me want to kill myself. Since health is the issue for me, death is not a win here. Ha. So, while I do my best to eat only good yummy healthy stuff, I refuse to beat myself up over non-essentials. AND I had a big win today. I threw out the second half of a 13×9 cake pan of chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Threw it right in the trash. Of course, I had eaten the first five of six pieces from that pan myself, but the next six pieces will not end up on my hips. So there. Win.
Also, I’ve been tracking my workouts on my phone calendar so I get the lovely ecstatic feeling of marking down my daily accomplishments in detail. Two miles daily on the damn elliptical machine and today I added half an hour of yoga on top, which I also won at because I did not fall down. I’m enjoying getting back into the movement habit.
Mediterranean diet is all popular with the health professionals these days. Lots of variety of good for you food. A little light on dairy for me.
I lost my Schubert by determinedly keeping calories between 1200 and 1500, tracking intake on my homemade spreadsheet. In order to do so and not starve I split intake into 5 mini meals, each one having to contain fiber, protein and a little fat. Fiber usually fruits or veggies, protein and fat usually combined in cheese, cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, fish or chicken.
I found the most important part to be reminding myself that I wanted to reach my goal weight by my 40th birthday much more than I wanted that cookie. Some days the reminder had to be every five minutes.
Here’s the program I tried: http://www.cambiati.com/ What worked for me was that it’s called a Wellness Plan, not a diet. That’s ’cause some people go on it to gain weight in the form of muscle.
It’s worked for me (30+ pounds so far), but then again, I did give up sugar, flour, and a lot of other yummy things. However, it has inspired me to exercise for the first time in my life. Wow.
Keep up the good work! I found just the idea of jack planks scary.
My doctor recommended that I check out the book Ultrametabolism. I liked a lot of what I read, but for me the series of quizzes and huge list of recommended supplements were too much. However, it led me to the idea of clean eating, and I dug out a couple of older magazines that I’d purchased the last time I lost weight (2008). The magazine, Clean Eating (http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/minisite/ce_index.htm ), is full of mostly reasonable recipes and informative articles. Clean eating is less about a diet and more about making healthier food choices. They advocate eating food that has been processed as little as possible.
The things that made the biggest difference to me last time? Don’t eat unless I’m hungry; eat less than I think I want and allow myself seconds if I’m still hungry; cut the snacking between meals; bulk up on veges.
It seems my body doesn’t really care where the kilojoules come from, I just have to cut them down. Bleh.
But it does mean I can have the chocolate as long as I skip the pasta.
I’m calling it “The chocolate diet”. Does that sound snazzy enough?
Oh, and I love Operation Lose a Schubert.
My cat’s small. I need to lose two of her, which is a stunning thought.
If that’s a photo of Schubert, he’s gorgeous.
My sister followed the Biggest Loser diet online – she liked it better than WW as there were more choices and you could trades items on your plan and NO points, also there are snacks. She’s lost at least one Schubert since winter. I have no will power and therefore have lost about one Schubert toe.
I watched the plank jack woman with my mouth hanging open in cartoon-faced disbelief. I definitely don’t want to be lovely and healthy and fit bad enough to even consider doing that. But I said I’d join you over here and I want to be a good, supportive friend. And be lovely and healthy and fit. So, today I will actually blow up the exercise ball that I bought with good intentions at least 2 years ago. Once it’s blown up, I’ll look to see if there are any directions that come with it, indicating what I can do with it besides bouncing on it. Although I’m pretty sure that bouncing on it will be fun. At least until I bounce badly and roll off onto the floor.
Diet recommendation. Hmmm… I’m still doing that Only Eat Dessert Once a Week. It’s still working very slowly, but surely for me. I’ve lost one half a Shubert. It’s taken something like 3 months. Maybe even 4. But I am no longer a slave to sugar. Sugar and I are just darn good friends now.
My DH and DD#1 have both lost 20+ lbs. using Dr. Phil’s diet and doing the Couch to 5K running plan. I have lost 10, with 1 creeping back on, but I refuse to let it stay, so I still tell myself it’s 10!! Dr. Phils’ is the basic more fiber, vegies and fruits, lean protein. Easy to remember. My problem is I’m allergic to all melons, so it’s boring eating the same fruits all the time. (The last time I ate watermelon my throat started swelling shut)
My dog is Zoey and she is overweight at 18 lbs (what did the kids feed her last month while I was gone?) I will need to walk her, so my plan is to walk DD#5 to school at least 3 days a week, and the dog has to come along! I can’t run due to my back and arthritis, but I have been riding my semi-recumbent exercycle 2-3 times a week. I need to lose 2 Zoey’s, but losing 1 before DD#2 gets married this coming winter would be good.
I also need to work on cutting out more sugar, and chocolate… but next week sounds better than this week!!