Day two gifted me with a welcome surprise this morning.   

8+ pounds have vanished from my body over the last two weeks – just by doing something that makes me happy. 

I love food.  According to my family and friends, I’m a very good cook  Give me a little time, some spices and a new meat or vegetable and I’ll make you a good meal.  I collect recipes the way other people collect stamps — and then dream up ways to morph them into my version of the chef’s dish.  For me, a visit to a new city isn’t complete without checking out the cuisines offered in the restaurants.  The food tells you so much about people’s attitudes and culture.

That interest makes it difficult for me to stick to a diet.  You want me to eat just one type of food? Only meat or vegetables? No sweets?  Well, the sweets aren’t a problem – I’m not much of a cake/cookie/donut worshipper.  Chocolate yes, sugar no.  Still, one or two weeks on a steady diet of salty frozen meals, or proteins, or steamed vegies — and my brain goes into a meltdown of boredom.  We all know to what extremes boredom can drive a dieter.

On the other hand, I want to lose the weight I gained from an ankle injury and the resulting inactivity.  So I stiffened my backbone and tried various diets.  I even joined a gym — although my long hours and hectic schedule at work meant attendance was sporadic.  And then, a few weeks ago, I’d had enough. 

I decided I would follow my own ‘alchemic’ diet — I’d experiment with my recipes, using healthy ingredients to create modest portions of new dishes.  And I would go back to activities I enjoy — relearning yoga, fitting in light weight training and rambling through Valley Forge Park.

I’ve almost lost  a complete dress size.  Best of all, I haven’t had a snack urge or been tempted to eat seconds.  Probably because I know that the next meal, I’ll be eating something that’s delicious that I had fun creating.

Who knew cooking experiments could be so healthy?

One word. Dedication. I am going to this is a million times, I can guarantee it. But, I can also guarantee, that if you understand the meaning of the word, you will get the body of your dreams. Not one thing in this world can ever be accomplished without dedication, along with motivation. If you have no dedication to workout out, why would you? There’s no point to it, right? Wrong! Working out is one of the most important things that must be done as part of your daily life.

Now, the first step to creating a workout program is determining your goal. Do you want to lose 20 pounds of fat? Do you want to gain 20 pounds of muscle? Do you want to get leaner? Do you want to get stronger?

Once you’ve thought of a goal that you like, and will continue to like. Then you can set a goal for that goal, sort of a sub-goal. But make sure that you keep it reasonable, if you do not, then you will be discouraged that you are not getting the gains you hoped for, and you will quit. So don’t try and lose that 20 pounds in a week, cause it ain’t happening alright. Try and make it some thing like 1-2 pounds a week, this is feasible, and you won’t get discouraged as easily. Later on I will go into the specifics of all of this, and how to do it, but lets just get started first.

Maybe you want to put on 20 pounds of muscle. Make your goal 1 pound a week, as this is possible, and you, again, will not be discouraged. If your trying to get leaner. Try making your goal to drop 1% body fat every week or two.

Ok, now that you have your goal all set up and ready to go. You can begin to develop a workout routine, which will be covered in the next post, so stick around! Good luck!

I feel so empowered right now. I am wielding my “no, thank you” around like some sort of super hero weapon. Want some cake? BAM goes the “no, thank you”. How about some french fries? KAPOW! The “no, thank you” smacks another one down! Why dont you eat some… WHAP! Just a little? ZING-KABLAM!

Do NOT mess with my “no, thank you” skills!

As I have mentioned time and time again, my office is full of potluck junkies. There is always an excuse for people to bring in huge vats of food: team building, birthdays, new hires, old fires, clients re-signed, company officers resigned, it’s Thursday, it’s MONDAY, it’s a holiday… whatever happens to be happening. All people need is a day’s notice, and, the very next day, you’ll have a hard time finding space in the fridge for your lunchbox.

Today was such a day. One of the teams in the office had a “just because” potluck, and the manager went around notifying everyone that there was plenty of food for all to share. I was standing with two of my teammates at the time, and when the manager came over with the news about the food bizarre, and I don’t think I have ever seen two people run so fast in an office setting. It was ridiculous how fast they bolted to get this food!

The manager turned to me and said, “You gonna go? There’s plenty!” And what did I say? You guessed it.

My colleague comes back from the trough, fully satiated with a big sugary grin on her face. “OMG! They had SO much food! Fudge, cookie cake (???), dumplings, pasta salad, macaroni and cheese, pita chips and hummus… I think I’m going back for more! You sure you don’t want some?”

[Insert Batman-like "KAPOW SMACKDOWN" here.]

She eyes me and says, “I don’t know about you lately, Carla… you’re eating weird.”

My name is Rachel and I’m only 24 years old. I weigh 423 pounds, and I’m ready to get rid of all that extra weight. Yes, I’m contemplating weight loss surgery since it severely effects my health. No, I do not think it is an easy way out, nor do I really want to go that route. In a perfect world I would get my booty in gear and lose the weight with diet and exercise. I’m making my own perfect world, it’s my choice, it’s my world, and it’s my responsibility to make my world what I want. I challenge you to follow me on my journey and lose weight for yourself. I don’t have any secrets to losing weight that I want to use, all I know is I’m eating too much, and not exercising enough. It’s time to change that. I will be brave and post pictures of my weight loss to this blog. I’m done being tired, run-down, and in pain because I couldn’t control my eating. Time to start the countdown folks! Here’s a picture of me at my current weight.

I’m an apple shape, and I think we all know that puts me at risk for cardiac problems. Honestly, that scares the poop outta me because my father died in his 50′s from a heart attack, and he was apple shaped too. What are my action steps for today?

I’m going to eat 3 meals, and one snack; and if I get hungry in between I’m going to drink lemon water with a little agave in it (I’ve noticed that agave doesn’t give me the craving problems that refined sugar gives me).

I’m going to take my herbal supplements (I’m taking spirulina, immune 101, and green drink by New Sun). These I believe are essential to my success because they give me the energy I need to get through the day. A big thank you to Keith Smith for introducing me to these wonderful supplements.

I’m going to make healthy choices about the food that goes into my mouth (no fast food and no microwave food).

I’m going to stretch my muscles, try some pilates exercises, and do my energy dance video by Titanya Dahlin.

Take a good look at myself, and emotions. Today I will be working with Debbie Ford’s book The 21 Day Consciousness Cleanse, as well as Louise Hay’s Positive Affirmation Cards.

Please note that I’m not trying to sell you on any specific thing. I’m telling you what has worked for me so far (I used to be 452 pounds), and I only hope that something similar will work for you too. It’s time to love ourselves and take care of the miraculous bodies we’ve been given! So, those are my pledges for today. Please comment on this post with your own pledge for today, I’d love to hear what you’re doing!

Monday was a challenge. In the heart of the day were two back to back meetings each one with its own pot luck meal attached. This was double trouble. I had two chances to blow it in one day and at one location. Tempting foods were present at the first meal. I managed to do ok but i di rack up a lot of points eating, what felt like, not much food. I only had  points left for the day.

Then the second meal came along with more tempting foods: rich cheese, fried stuff, macaroni salad thick with mayo and brownies. It was horrible. I was the note-taker for the meeting and i had to fight just to keep my mind on what i was writing and off the food on the table behind me. Then came the last stroke of doom. Someone walked in with homemade jambalaya done by a sister who i know can burn. It was apparently the good stuff, just like they make down in Louisiana where my dad was raised.

Oh my Lord! I was so tempted and so angry and so sad. I couldn’t have any. All i could do was smell it and imagine it and listen to the raves of those who were eating it. I clearly recall my recurring thought as i watched: “This is the price for being a fat girl who is trying to get fit and lose weight.” No one said this was going to be easy or fun.

for the day: -1.3

for the week: +0.5

It’s official: I’ve lost 10 pounds!   

(Oh wow, thank you for the applause, this is so unexpected….. I’ll wait for you to stop clapping…. No seriously don’t stand up, no it’s not that big of a…. Ok, fine I’ll accept your standing ovation….  I’d like to thank the academy…..)   

In all seriousness, this is a HUGE deal to me. This validates all the hard work I’ve endured for the past month or so, and losing this much means it’s working!! And now that I’ve come this far, there’s no turning back….   

So I thought I’d really bask in this moment by focusing on how much 10lbs really is. Because when you think about it, 10lbs is a lot of weight! It’s more than most newborn babies weigh, and more than the average watermelon weighs…. and then I got to thinking….this could be a really cool activity! Find some random everyday items that weigh 10lbs to really feel the impact of losing that much.   

So first I looked online to see if I could find some standards, and I found this gem:   

This got me very excited. I’m only 2 pounds shy of a bald eagle? And only 1 pound away from losing the amount of weight the average house cat weighs? I thought my cat weighed more than that… This is so exciting! I obviously wanted to be reminded of what 10lbs actually feels like in your arms, so off I went to the local grocery store with my friend Helen (thanks Helen for not making me ask random strangers to take pictures of me!), to see what every day items we could find that weigh 10lbs. And the results were astonishing………   

3 bags of clementines!

10 bags of baby carrots!

 

A whole wheel of brie cheese!

2 bags of Potatoes!

 

10 bags of candy!

 

10 boxes of cereal!

 

1 bag of kitty litter!

 

A watermelon!!

 

 Ok, I’ll stop. But you get the idea….. 

With our friends heading home this morning, I focused on the events of the day such as riding my bike, walking my dog and heading to Spartanburg for a job interview. It was going to be a 3.5 hour drive each way.

Since my daughter is heading back to New York this Friday, I asked her to join me. She doesn’t drive, but I looked forward to the company and hours of chitchat. Hanging with my daughter is a constant laugh. We are each other’s shadow and accept each other’s quirks and imperfections as they are our own. We chatted about her new classes, her sophomore memories and her hopes for another great year. I probably bored her with my hopes and aspirations for the next year too – weight loss, full-time employment, a pool boy, winning the lottery – the usual.

We arrived an hour ahead of schedule, so I took a side tour into the heart of Spartanburg. Being the third largest city in South Carolina, I was surprised at how tidy it was with everything in its place. It was also deserted. I felt like I had driven into the town of “Persons Unknown.” I imagine if I had ventured further down the road I would have gained a different perspective, but we were running out of time.

While I interviewed, Anna waited patiently in the lobby reading a book. After the interview, we headed toward Greenville. It took 40 minutes to reach Main Street. I wanted to see the Reedy River waterfall that runs beside it. We found two-hour parking and walked to the Liberty Bridge for a bird’s eye view of the falls. It was really beautiful and worth the drive. The expansion bridge hangs two stories above the falls providing an incredible view of the crashing water surrounded by stone sculpture carved by nature’s own hand.

My daughter was craving chilli so we found Smoke on the Water that featured a chicken and bean chilli. We sat outside enjoying less humidity than in Charleston until the bugs came out. Once inside, we discovered another annoyance. As we walked our shoes stuck to the floor. It obviously was painted over the weekend and hadn’t dried. Black epoxy paint was being tracked all over that restaurant. We felt like bugs on sticky paper. As our food was already ordered, we settled by the bar to shared crab dip, salad and her chilli.

But we weren’t alone. We first saw this lanky, 40 something guy on the walking bridge, then he was walking back and forth in front of the restaurant’s patio as we sat outside. When we moved inside, he came in and sat at the bar. He seemed friendly enough with the bartender, but he was creepy. I imagined that he was a loner, with an overbearing mother in his past and lots of dead small animals buried in his backyard. Yep definitely creepy. We paid our bill and found our way to the car looking over our shoulders the whole way.

We arrived home around 11. I was grateful to be home safe and looked forward to the outcome of the interview.

Confession.  I had pizza last night. Not just pizza but the most AMAZING pizza ever!!!!  Pineapple and pepperoni: my favorite!!!  Mmmm delicious!!!  I pigged out… I didn’t eat the whole thing of course but I ate til I was stuffed!!!! I didn’t even feel guilty.  It was so delicious!  Today I only gained .2 lbs and I know it will go back down tomorrow so YAY!!!  I think I’m at the point where I am testing out how much I can eat to maintain my weight.  Now I just gotta go back to eating healthy so I can lose more.

Good news… went to the gym at 4:30 am yesterday to workout.  Why the insane early hour?  Was having horrific nightmares all night, woke up like 10 times, and finally just couldn’t stand sleeping anymore.  Go out of bed at 3:50 am and figured I had no more excuses.  There was nothing else to do at that time but go to my gym that’s open 24/7.  So I did.  There were only 4 other people in the entire gym but I felt AWESOME!!!  HARDCORE, man!!!!  lol  Yeeeah!  I walked on the treadmill and cycled on a bike for 45 min.  Not bad considering I haven’t worked out in like a month!!!  I felt soooo good afterwards!!!!  I showered at the gym and then I even had time to stop at Starbucks for some tea before work.  So proud of myself.  Today was a different story.  I was so tired.  Just couldn’t do it.  We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

It’s just been so hard cooking!  I did cook some tofu lettuce wraps yesterday and brought it to work to share with coworkers and to have for lunch the next couple days.  Everyone enjoyed it and I was so glad I had something to eat besides just a sandwich.

I’ve stayed the same weight all week.  I need to lose more!!!  Need to stop eating bad.  It’s easy to lose motivation when I am pigging out on my favorite foods and I am not gaining weight or barely gaining. 

Anyways… that’s all for now

Roger Troy Wilson found a way to lose weight, write a book about his life and provide his readers with a weight-loss plan that worked for him and others.  Many readers will identify with Wilson’s many, many attempts to lose weight on various diets, pills and formulas spending vast amounts of money in the process.   They may be drawn to the subtitle, “Eating all the CALORIES and CARBS you want to lose weight!”  However, that is misleading and you won’t realize it for several chapters when he goes into detail about which foods you can and cannot eat. 

There is only one diet that will let you eat everything you want and how much you want, and that’s probably the one you are currently following.  If you have self-control and willpower, you may be able to deprive yourself of sweets and chocolate and caffeine most of the time. You may be able to avoid breads and potatoes sometimes, but all of the time?  I’ll admit I don’t have enough willpower in the world to give up potatoes or bread, and no one wants me to give up caffeine especially as menopause has crept up on me. 

He does have some good suggestions, like eating fruit with your breakfast and eating your biggest meal at lunch.  And some of the meal plans and recipes sound good.  He gives good advice for eating out especially for the fast food restaurants.  He offers suggestions on how what to substitute for some of your favorite fattening foods and what to do if you mess up for a day.  

This is definitely different from any diet on the market.  It’s definitely cheaper (just under $25.00 for the book).  He also provides a website with additional information, recipes and interaction with others.  Just a note:  All proceeds from his book is donated to charity.

 Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Book Review Blogger Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

This weekend ran together for me. I managed to keep up with my biking and dog walking, but the calorie counting and writing ran short. I was enjoying myself a bit too much.Friday night we headed downtown for a drink and a little live jazz music. I checked out a few places on SCIway.com and then remembered a small little jazz bar off Calhoun across from Marion Square.  We pulled in around 8 and settled at the bar and for the next two hours sang with a local musician who offered to play anything “on his list.” It started with a few blues and Caribbean tunes and ended with jazz tunes from his youth. Our friends are all retired, so the night brought memories and a lot of out of tune singing. It was a nice way to end a relaxing day.

On Saturday, several of the gang went golfing at Patriots Point while my daughter, Rudy’s wife, Regina, and I went shopping! My daughter swore that you can lose up to 200 calories an hour shopping, we lost at least 600. We took advantage of the pre-Labor Day sales and headed home in time to make dinner. Sunday wasn’t much different. Our FL friends, Ed and Monica, headed to Fort Sumter for the historic tour on a windy day that made Charleston’s humidity bearable. I joined my fellow shoppers and we headed out again. Why not, more calories to burn!

As I cooked salmon on Thursday, steak on Friday and pulled pork on Saturday, we were ready to enjoy the night out on Sunday. It was Rudy and Regina’s 40th anniversary and the catalyst for bringing us all together. Rudy selected Magnolias in downtown Charleston. It offers contemporary southern meals and a nice wine selection. What I really like is their “smaller plate” options featuring blackened fish, pecan chicken, crab cake and more. I settled on the crab cake. It was served with a small portion of Jasmine rice and spinach. Small portions, but perfect for my diet. I resisted the wine and offered to be the designated driver.

Downtown Charleston offers couples a wide variety of romantic restaurants that aren’t afraid of flavor. I often think of my days in Sarasota, FL with all the retirees in the area, the restaurants leaned toward less seasoning to meet the needs of their constant audience. But it left the food blah. At least here in Charleston, they aren’t afraid of adding a little seasoning to the mix and you can especially taste it in the sauces. I guess if you’re going to start with something so bland as grits, you’ve got to know how to add seasoning to make it the No. 1 dish ordered at local restaurants – usually as shrimp and grits. Being from Baltimore, I prefer my shrimp solo and spiced with McCormick’s Bay Seasoning, but there’s something special about a serving of freshly caught shrimp right off the local shrimp boats something else Charleston is known for locally.

Good eats, good company, good friends in beautiful historic downtown Charleston…a great recipe for a reunion and a memorable 40th anniversary celebration for Rudy and Regina.