Saturday, June 25, 2011

I'm just sayin'...

http://caloriecount.about.com/

There's an app. Easy to use.

Not about the counting of the calories as much as creating a true awareness of what you are eating.

You'll see.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Before you get all uppity...

... lets see if this app actually works for me.  So far, not so much.  I downloaded the MyFitnessPal for Android (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/).  There are a few more out there so I'll try a couple out before I either settle or throw my hands up in frustration.  I am less than thrilled with this app because of the following:

  1. I don't like spending too much time futzing about with entries.  This app takes a long time to enter in one meal.  Granted the more you enter, the more options you have for "quick picks" but it's still fussy.
  2. With the amount of cooking from scratch that I do, especially without recipes, it's hard to enter in the caloric value of a meal.
  3. We will HAVE to sit down and discuss exactly how many calories I should be taking in each day... something tells me that 1500 calories is just not enough for a gal my size and that is what this app is recommending. 
I really really really don't like counting calories. I just don't want to be so mindful of it.  Yes it's a good idea to get a bigger picture look at what I'm taking in, but I just want to LIVE, not always be thinking about how many calories this is or what the fat content of that is... I just want to get into the habit of healthy eating, smaller portions and good clean food.  

HOWEVER, the other app that I downloaded is RUNTASTIC (http://runtastic.com/en/users/Rita-Floor) and although I've only used it twice, it gets a solid TWO THUMBS UP from me.  It tracks your exercise routes via GPS and gives you a summary of where you went, how fast you went and how many calories you ultimately burned.  I foresee this app being used a lot in the coming months.  

So back to the food... Someone asked to see what my daily food is like so here goes: 
Today, June 23:
6:30 AM - Fruit smoothie; 1 cup of 1% milk, 1/2 a banana, 3 good sized strawberries, 1/4 cup of blueberries, 1 scoop of Gensoy Vanilla Protien Powder.
9:30 AM - 1/2 cup fresh pineapple, 2 strawberries, 1/4 blueberries, 1 cup of Kashi cereal, 1 container of blueberry Astro yogurt.
12:30 PM - Turkey sammich on whole wheat with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and a bit of cheese
3:00 PM - Fresh peppers and cucumber, 10 whole wheat pretzels (omg nom nom nom)
4:30 PM - 1/4 cup salsa and a handful of chips
6:00 PM - beef stirfry with a crap-ton of veggies, wild rice

According to this app (it took me at least 10 to 15 minutes to upload everything!) I took in 2178 calories, burned 425 with my uber awesome walk, leaving me 213 calories short for my goal of 1540.  

It's all well and fine, but ultimately I just don't care.  I don't care that I ate exactly 2178 calories.  I just know I had a really tasty sammich for lunch, and was served really delicious beef stir-fry for dinner.  I had enough that I was satisfied but not so much that I felt full.  And that's how it should be.  I don't ever want to be obsessed with each and every morsel of food that passes my lips (ha!  I typo'd lisp instead of lips...).

But I'll try it.  My biggest challenge with this will be to remember to enter everything on the day I eat it... I have a tendency to let slip once in a while, and have to back track one day and remember what I ate.  This app doesn't let you go back.  Kind of like life.... right? ;o)
 

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Almost...

... Broke through our first barrier AND made (what I think) is a major breakthrough!

One more pound, which is easy peasy this week, and our first little milestone will be reached. Which makes me happy.

I know, I know, it's not about the weight. However, the decreasing weight IS an indicator that this is moving in the right direction.

So there!

The milestone that I am so very happy that we have reached is that now, Rita is tracking her food using an online app WHICH then let's her see things like sugars and salts WHICH then allows her to make different (better? I think so) choices in the products she will choose.

Again. So there!

Rita - you may now both put in a plug for the App AND admit I was right...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, June 13, 2011

A day in the life...

Well, more like a week. This week actually. This week started off on the tough side. I had my weigh in on Tuesday after work and it was GREAT. I went home and put on my runners... wait, let me digress just a bit:

I have to get new runners. The reason I know this is because I have two pairs of runners that are a billion years old collectively. One BILLION. One of them (Pair 1) has bits of rubber missing from the heel. But they are comfortable. So comfortable. The other pair (Pair 2) is seemingly in MUCH better shape. But they lie. Ok, back to the narrative... 

I put on Pair 2 thinking that since they appear to be in much better shape, they'll be better suited to my increasingly more intense walks. I was wrong. Sooooo wrong. I started my walk on Tuesday but by about 1/2 a block from my place I knew I was in trouble. Pain SHOOTING up my legs. Intense, searing stabs of pain that went up the outside of my lower leg. So bad that I cut my walk short at 10 minutes thinking 10 minutes is better than none minutes. I thought perhaps it was because Pair 2 was a little lacking in arch support so I went to Ye Auld London Drugs and bought a set of pretty decent supports that came highly recommended by my cousin's wife who works there.

Cue Wednesday's walk - started out a little better.  Supports were super comfy, but sure enough, 1/2 a block away the pain started again.  A little less intense, but still there.  I managed 15 minutes before I couldn't take it any more.

Thursday night I went for a walk with the Significant Other (aka B-man) and I wore Pair 1 and nary a pain did I experience.  I was able to walk as quickly as I wanted and no pain.

So there you have it.  I need new runners that are exactly the same as Pair 1.   Because with Pair 1 I've gone for 4 consecutive walks with the ever so wonderful Mrs. J. and we've walked I tell you.  We've gone out for minimum 45 minutes almost every day.  Sunday morning was a glorious trek all over our neighbourhood with the beautiful sun beating down on us, conversation flowing as easy as a mountain stream.  Mrs. J pushing me to go faster, harder, more... I love Mrs. J and am ever so grateful that she's supporting me on this journey.

Next post, lets meet my food journal!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

My "i" is sticking

So instead of tryng to fght my way through ths - I need to say that - its not a spellng error. Its my "i" key.
Yes, yes, Rita. I was wrong. Well, not WRONG, but premature (c'mon - we've all been THERE) lol!
Three pounds ths week and another few nches. thngs are defnately movng n the rght drecton.
SO - some sort of cardo actvtes every day. 20-40 mnutes and keep up the great work on portons and sugars.
Great job - I wll wrte agan as soon as I get my keyboard fxed.

Monday, June 6, 2011

I saw it in drafts. Hahaha


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Boo!

What?

How did your post happen before mine?  Are you behind me??!!!!!

Whoa!!!!!

So lets get this straight... I've steadily progressed over the last few weeks, lost weight every week and just because I didn't lose the 5 lbs you wanted me to, I have to start counting calories?  I might not have lost 5 lbs, but I did lose weight.  And inches?  Did I lose some inches too?

A big reason why I like what we are doing together is that I don't have to obsess over each and every calorie I ingest.  I know these sites work great for a lot of people, but I want to see how far I can get before moving on to the big guns.

And most importantly, lets not forget my reasons for doing this:
  1.  BE HEALTHIER - Stop the downward spiral to an early heart attack by changing my lifestyle and eating better, cleaner foods
  2. GET FIT - Get more active.  Move on a daily basis.  Stop being sedentary and get used to doing something physical more often
  3. FEEL BETTER - Get more energy, feel more comfortable in my skin, get more done in the day without feeling like I'm dragging my ass
  4. LOSE WEIGHT - Get into non-plus size clothes because face it, plus sized clothing ain't always that flattering
Notice how losing weight is not the first priority?  That getting healthier and feeling better are more important?  And hey guess what? I DO.  I have so much more energy now and I'm getting so much more done.  I keep going on and on like the fricken Energizer Bunny.  I am ON all day at work.  I am pretty sure that the only reason I haven't run screaming from my job is because of all this.  I've even started annoying my boyfriend with how much energy I've got. 

I've got a little theory as to why last week's weigh in wasn't as successful as you had projected: Work has been unbelievably stressful.  Our workload had increased by over 50% in the last few months and we haven't hired anyone else to help lighten the load.  Increased stress = increased cortisol.  Increased cortisol = less ability to lose weight.

http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm 

Gandhi is quoted as saying “We must become the change we want to see.”  Last week I decided to adopt this as my mantra at work.  I've stopped allowing the little things to get under my skin.  I've started shrugging nasty negativity off and smiling more.  I've made sure to thank the people who make my day better.  When people ask me how I'm doing, I tell them I'm awesome.  And the result has been that nothing at work has changed.  The grumpy, bitchy people are still grumpy and bitchy, but I'm not as fazed by it.  

But I feel better.  And that's all that matters.  So how about we give this a bit more time to see what happens.  I've got years of bad habits to get over.  It ain't going to happen over night.

Ok OK

I know where Rita is going with this.

And no, its not the weight. But things/numbers aren't changing as quickly as I think they should be for all of the major changes that she has been making. I like Calorie Count and if you'd rather find another means thats fine, but part of it is to just bring an accurate awareness to that part of the whole deal.

Am open to suggestions...

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Rita?

So. When I did Ritas measurements this week I did not have the previous measurements to compare against.
I had really high hopes this week. Rita is eating more regularly - becoming increasingly aware and diligent about her portion control (which was her biggest issue) and I think the testing the week before should have shocked her a little into how a realization. Realization of how far she has to go.
Again, I'm not trying to guilt Rita into anything. But I have known her for long enough that I too am very aware of how in shape she used to be as compared to now.
So. The short version of this is that she lost 2 pounds from March 16th to the 30th. That's great - its still two pounds, but really, given where we are starting from and the changes that are being made I would have expected greater results.
Now, according to Rita, there has been both an increase in movement and a decrease in caloric intake. And that may be true, but I think greater change is in order. I think its kind of time to get serious about this - no more wasting time. We've coddled enough and now its time to get agressive.
Here's how this is going to go down.
We are going to track your intake on http://caloriecount.about.com
We are going to track your exercise and intensity DAILY
Somethings not working as well as it should and the only way to know is to track it all. Ok?