Back from London

Monday, January 28, 2008
Weight Loss: 12lbs
Mood: Fantastic!

It's been a while since I posted in here - but I had a good reason. As pretty much everyone knows I was in the UK from the 15th until the 25th of January on vacation. It was an amazing trip and I had so much fun. C and I went everywhere and saw everything we could in the time we had. I went there at 11pounds lost and was hoping to maintain and at the most gain 1 pound which would leave me at 10pounds lost and having still met my first goal. I got on the scale this morning (leaving time for the plan ride to wear off and any water weight to dissipate) and I actually lost 1 pound while I was away. I am now officially at 12 pounds lost. I am so happy about that.

C and I packed our meals pretty much every day while we were away. We ate out four times, 2 at pubs, 1 at a fish and chip place and 1 at a noodle bar. I had fish and chips 3 times and a noodle meals with chicken at the noodle place. Our packed lunches consisted of salami sandwiches (2 each), carrot sticks, apple/banana, yogurt and crisps (hula hoops to be exact). they were very good and filling but by the end I was sick fo them. For dinners we had lasagna once, pizza twice (the frozen grocery store kind) and pasta with vegetables twice. We ate two mars ice cream bars while we were there and had cadbury cream eggs too (since they are sold all year round over there - so cool). I think we did very well while we were away in terms of food.

We walked on average about 20000 steps a day. The lowest days were 10000 but there were only two or three of those and they were out of our control since they were days in which we were either on a plane or on buses to and from places. Our hostel room was on the third floor at the one place and the second at the other place and everything in London is piled high with no elevators to speak of so there was a lot fo stair climbing for us. We didn't take a taxi once but did tube and bus most of the time, although there was obviously a great deal of walking from oplace to place as well.

Since this was a budget trip the walking was increased significantly from most vacations to London and the food was also decreased in quantity and take-out'ness - which turned out to be good things for our health (although there was no doubt that this would happen). I am very happy with how the trip went in terms of exercise as well.

Everything was so great about the trip and the fact that I lost more weight is icing on the already fantastic cake (which I won't be eating).

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Weight Loss: 11lbs
Mood: FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!

So today is the departure date for my and C's trip to London, England and I can officially say that not only have I met my London goal, but I have surpassed it! My goal was to lose 10 lbs and I have actually lost 11 lbs! I am so happy. Apparently my altered weight loss plan is working at least for now and until I hit a plateau or something along those lines, I will keep to it. As soon as I get back from London I will hop back onto my weight loss plan - not that I am leaving it while in London, it is just going to have to increase in calories due to the highly increased activity (all that walking around). I am so excited about everything.
I will be posting when I get back at the lastest and I hope everyone has a pleasant two weeks while I am away - my first trip abroad, I just can't wait and soon I won't have to.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Weight Loss: 9lbs
Mood: a little bit of everything

Last night I had one ferrero rocher. I felt sad at the time as I know that I will see that when I go to weigh in (despite the fact that it was only one) but at the same time I was a little happy that I only had one even though there were 6 left in the box. I guess I wish I knew how to be ok with my decisions and how not to dwell on them, but that will come with time - right?
I have reached my exercise goals of doing at least 15 minutes each night though at the moment I have only done it in one go once and the rest of the times I have split it up in a couple rounds. I have been doing more on the nights that I get home earlier from work and have even done it on nights where I had planned to rest (due to a busy schedule). I feel my legs burning everytime I workout and when I get up in the morning and that makes me happy. I just have to keep it up until I go on my trip and make sure I get back to it once I get home.
I have not been eating this amount of calories long enough to see how it has altered my weight loss, so I cannot really comment on that - but my daily menu has been going over well and I have not felt too deprived in terms of treats. Hopefully this will remain true when D comes home and I am no longer eating alone on my own terms.
I have done a lot of thinking this morning about my weight loss. I have tried to figure out why I may have failed in the past and ways to prevent that from happening again, I have thought about what inspires me as I go through this journey and also why I truly want to lose this weight. I have come up with some answers but of course I will figure things out more as I progress and hopefully by the time I lose the weight and reach my goal I will be able to keep it off for I will know then what I do not now. I will know my triggers and how to avoid them (or persevere through them), I will know how to get myself healthy and how and when to give into temptations and how to stop myself from over-indulgence. I hope to know myself better and to be happy with that new me, that improved me.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Weight Loss: 9lbs

Mood: sluggish



I am so tired this morning and my legs really hurt, particularly the left one. I think I might have worked a little too hard on the elliptical and stationary bike the last two days and it has resulted in my upper thighs really aching. The muscles are tight and every movement feels like I am lugging a bag of bricks. In a way it feels good because I know I have been doing something good for myself, but in every other way it is sore and tiring. It was a struggle to get up this morning and come to work - but I am here as I need the money for London.

I have realized that my changing my goals for exercise I eliminated my old calorie low. I used to want to burn either 150 or 300 calories a night minimum - well this works out to about 5 minutes on the elliptical. My new minimum is 15 minutes which last night was 450 calories and I was only pushing hard for the last 5 minutes where I set the machine to incline 30, resistance 12 (the highest settings). It is not a bad thing, in fact it is a good thing - I just have to get used to it is all. Tonight I will be taking it easy, still using at least one of the machines, but on low settings.

I am still at 9lbs loss and am really proud that I have made it this far. Even more proud since I am gaining muscle while I am losing fat - I know because I am losing major inches from every part of my body, much more than I have in the past at this point in my weight loss. My clothes are fitting much looser and most of my dress clothes just hang, the slightest tug and some of my pants would be around my ankles, haha!

No one has really said anything about my size, like there have been no comments, which is a little disappointing. I don't need positive comments like that to keep myself going, it is just nice to hear that it can be seen - but maybe it can't be seen yet. Oh well, given enough time, some people won't even recognize me!

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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Weight loss: 6.6lbs

So I am thinking the 8lbs weight loss was a fluke on my scale. Or perhaps it wasn't and my scale doesn't work properly at home. When I was at my parents place I seemed to lose weight in the beginning and then gained it back by the end - that is okay because my goal was to maintain and I did just that yay! *happy dance* mini goal achieved. My dilemna now is that I stepped on the scale this morning to find that it is up over 2 pounds from what it was when I left my house yesterday. Now it is impossible for me to have gained 2 pounds in that time frame so I have to think about what I ate, was it salty and therefore would cause water retention - hmm well I had stew, stir fry, a couple tootsie rolls, a small cookie and cinammon rolls so not any more salt than usual. Then I thought that perhaps the scale is acting differently in the two places due to level issues. The floor int he bathroom at my parents house is linolium or something and has some bumps in it so maybe it wasn't completely level although I did check it before each time I used it and their own scale said that same numbers as mine (which means I didn't actually have to bring mine but oh well). So when I get home tonight I am going to check to see if my scale is level at the house here because maybe that is the problem. I know when I stepped on it with carpet under it my weight was almost my goal weight - which was neat to see but obviously incorrect. Any way, this is my scale dilemna and I am going to have to resolve it ASAP as I need to be at 10lbs weight loss before I leave for London on the 15th which is coming up really soon. I will check the scale tomorrow and find out if it was just a fluke measurement which is probably was.

Today I re-adapted my weight loss spreadsheet and re-did all my calculations. My goals (both short term and long term) will need to be re-adjusted like this several times throughout my journey and it does not represent a loss in myself or that I have fallen of the wagon or anything like that. It simply recognizes the fact that there are times that I am not going to be able to lose and maintaining will be my goal then (for example while I am in London and when I was at my parent's house for the holidays). There are also going to be several plateaus in my weight loss that I am going to have to work through and it may take a couple weeks for that to occur. I am not going to let these things get me down this time around. Last summer I lost 20 pounds but then plateaued and gave up (I'll admit it, I gave up). This time around there will be no giving up, temporary breaks (max 1 week in length) from exercise or something perhaps, but no giving up. I honestly beleive that if I go into this thing knowing that my expectations will need to be altered and changed as my life changes, I will be able to succeed and reach my long-term goals, it just might take me longer than initially planned.

As for my holiday goals, well I already mentioned that I met my goal of maintaining. I also met my goal of drinking proper amounts of water each day (it was easy because of the water distributor on the fridge). As for my exercise goals, I was let down a little by both myself and the conditions. The new puppy doesn't really like walks and doesn't get very far before he is carried. Not a big problem I carried him on one of our walks, but he gets cold easily and begins to shiver (even with a little coat on) so I didn't want to torment the little guy and we went home most trips out. There was one successful walk where he and I ran (yes that's right I, Stephanie, ran down my road) down to the gas line and then walked all the way back. Now I could have gone out on my own and this is where I let myself down, because I didn't. I also realized on the last day I was at the house that there was an old exercise bike and it still worked (I knew it existed before but thought it was broken), so unfortunately I could have been using that while I was there. I am getting my Dad to bring it up for me when he comes up next since it is light and small. It will be added to my collection of equipment (and used too) and eventually when D and I get our own place we will make a gym for the two of us and we will have free-weights, a weight bench, the bike and my elliptical (and one day I want to get a really nice treadmill but I currently don't have the room or really the funds for it) - it will be so nice to have a proper space for it all.

Anyways, that is all for now. I hope all my readers had a great holiday and continue to have a wonderful New Year - Happy 2008!

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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Thursday, December 27, 2007
Weight loss: 8lbs
Mood: good


Today when I stepped on the scale I was expecting it to be a little high for a couple diffenret reasons but to my surprise it was down! yay! I am now only 2 lbs away from my London goal and have enough time to reach it (I think). I am so happy about that.


I have been eating more (calories) than I did at home but they are extremely well balanced healthy meals and I think that is helping the weight loss. I am eating about 3 or 4 points more than usualy which is only about 150 or 200 calories but I am getting proper amounts of protein which I don't usually get that much of at home. I will have to keep that in mind when I return in the New Year. I have been drinking more water than normally too since it is so convenient hereas the fridge has a dispenser and it comes out filtered and at the perfect temperature.


I haven't been getting proper exercise as Comet doesn't do long walks and it has been nasty weather any of the times I wanted to go on my own. I did go Boxing Day shopping yesterday and that was a crudload of walking so that should help and I have been doing little workouts around the house once or twice a day but nothing serious.


As I have mentioned before I have my weight loss plan and exercise plan all scheduled out in a big spreadsheet which I love. I am however, planning and redoing this spreadsheet to reflect changes which have occurred in my plan. The exercise plan has to be restarted as I totally fell off the wagon on that right before the holidays and will need to start slow again and work back up. That's not a big deal though since I am sure it will happen many times during my journey. As long as I get back on it in a short period of time it doesn't really matter that I took a week off now and again. I also need to readjust for the fact that I no longer have to take school into consideration. I got my last marks while I have been here and did really well in them and as long as I haven't missed a class or something I am done my undergraduate degree. I also have a lot of work to do to get ready for London so I am not sure if my workout schedule is too heavy considering how much preparation time is needed - but I will figure that out probably when I get back home and have all my stuff sitting in front of me.

I hope everyone's Christmas went well and that the New Year looks good.

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Monday, December 17, 2007

Weight Loss: 5lbs
Mood: sad and ashamed

I have been avoiding posting recently since I have experienced my weight gain. For about a week I have not been exercising well for different reasons - excuses really. At the beginning of last week I had exams and I always tend to gain weight during this period. I don't exercise because I feel I don't have time to not be studying and I only eat one maybe two meals a day so my body probably thinks I am going to starve it or something and stores the food instead of using it. Then since exams I have been shopping for Christmas and hanging out enjoying my freedom from academics. I have not really been eating badly (though I had a slice of cheesecake the other night with C), I have been within my points every day. I need to get back to exercising. I just got off the elliptical and am planning on going on it again in a little bit (after I catch my breath a little).

D is gone for a day or two and I am hoping that not having someone around the house to hang out with will mean I workout more again. I am also starting to plan my workouts for when I go home for Christmas as I will not have my elliptical machine or really anywhere to do my videos. So far I am planning on doing sit ups and whatnot and walking the new dog everyday - I just hope the little guy can do that as he is only 5lbs and I don't know anything about it yet.

I am still thinking I can reach my goal of losing 10 pounds before London, I just have to get my butt back in gear, this recent weight gain should not be a big problem as I have caught it before it even hit 2lbs - which is a good thing.

I have heard that people are surprised I am doing this - being so open on the internet where everyone and their dog can read all about it. I guess I take it as a compliment, although I thought I was being a little reserved by not posting my actual weight - well not yet at least. Perhaps when I have reached a couple of my first goals I will be able to be more open with that factor - but not yet. Anyways, to all of you who I am told are reading this, thank you - it helps to know that people are actually there (hopefully wishing me well) - makes me more accountable.

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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Weight: 6.2lbs (3.8lbs from London Goal)

Mood: doing well thus far

When I got home last night I got right onto the elliptical. I only burned about 300 calories, as I didn't want to go to hard when I have taken over a week off from it, but I did something and that is what matters. I felt much better about myself afterwards. I talked to D about my plan of him coming downstairs with me while I work out and he does too and he seemed to like it - don't know if it will happen though. Until it does I am going to keep getting on the elliptical when I get home from work and doing 300-500 calories and then hopefully if I do anything later on in the night, it will be a bonus.I ended up not eating all my of points last night because I screwed up the math in my head. I had 2 left (though I think I over counted a few things to try and make it not so low – in reality I think it was more like 5 or 6 left). I usually eat all of my points no problem.

I have done the math and I need to lose 0.7lbs a week to reach my London goal. Even though I am a slow loser (extremely slow) with a lot of hard work in terms of exercise I can lose about 1lbs a week and therefore I should be able to make it even with a couple weak days (which gives me comfort).

As for today, my plans are to start studying for my two exams next week (the last two of my undergraduate degree!) and workout some when I get home. Right now I have to get back to work - haha.

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