Off Gluten

So I am not sure if I have blogged about this, but on top of my Goodlife Personal Trainer, I have also employed a Goodlife Nutritionist. My trainer had previously taken dairy out of my diet and my nutritionist has added big time to the list of foods from which I should stay away. Most of the things she has done have been pretty easy to deal with, such as drinking water pretty much constantly throughout the day, or portion sizes, but some have been really hard – like eating gluten free. Not only is gluten delicious, but it is in EVERYTHING!! My trips to the grocery store are now at least 50% longer because I have to read the ingredients in everything I want to purchase. I miss gluten.

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Weekly Update

Another loss this week, 2 lbs this time! Really happy with that and feeling good about my goals.
Dave and I went grocery shopping this weekend and got some really healthy food so I have high hopes for getting away from all the fast-food and restaurant meals we have been having lately.
I have to see about getting some exercise in this week, even if it is just something small. Dave and I went for a walk around the Agricultural Museum yesterday and I feel good about that and want to keep it up. That's pretty much everything for this update.

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Cookbooks and Recipes

I have several really great cookbooks. The Podleski sisters books are absolutely amazing. The book shave really great tasting food that is supremely healthy for you and tips and witty comics to boot. I have gotten one on my own and another as a Christmas present (thanks Chris). There is a third (their first one) that I have yet to find anywhere, including most online shopping sites. It is on eBay, but at high prices that I don't want to pay. Anyway, the books are great.
I also have some other healthy-eating books like the vegetarian Company's Coming and a Weight Watchers one that I bought myself and one that Chris got me for my birthday.
All of these books are great and when combined with my personal cookbook and my knowledge of cutting out fat and calories in recipes (which is growing with every healthy meal I make), I am capable of making some really healthy, nutrititous and still very yummy meals.
The problem arises when I go out and buy the ingredients. More often than not, I forget about the ingredients and they end up going to waste. Dave and I finally figured out a way that we can get great ingredients for my recipes and not really have to worry about them going bad.
Monday evening when getting our grocery list ready, we went through the recipes books and picked out a handful of ones that we wanted to try. We wrote down the names and general decriptions of them and will be placing them on our bulletin board. When the meals have been made, we will remove the name and place it somewhere to be used again if the meal was deemed worthy of repeating. This way, I know what recipes we have the ingredients for and will actually remember to make them before the food goes bad.
We are going to test it out this week and next, basically until all the food is gone again and hopefully it will result in us trying out some different meals and branching out from our normal food routine while not wasting money buying food that will not get eaten.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Weight loss: 10 lbs lost
Mood: uplifted

This morning on the drive into work I realized my life is pretty good. The few areas in which improvement are really possible at this point are in fact few. One of the major areas though is my weight.

I have stated my reasons for losing weight before and for the most part they are the same now as they were when I started this blog: I want to be healthier, happier and prettier. I realize the latter one isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things, but I am being honest and that is something that is driving all this, though not as much as the other two factors.

Though I was able to eat properly yesterday, I was not able to get in my exercise. One thing hurting me in this area is the fact that I am not getting enough sleep. I don’t go to bed until 11pm and am awake at 5am and out of bed at 5:45am to drive Dave to work. I am a person who needs at least 8 full hours of sleep to be at my best and I am just not getting that right now. So I am going to have to learn how to work our ‘new’ VCR and tape anything that can’t be watched online and get to bed earlier. The other factor in all this is that I have lost my elliptical. We have someone living in our basement which was supposed to be my gym and I just can’t use it right now. This factor will be gone soon though and hopefully then I will be able to get back on track. I am also hoping that, having not been able to use my elliptical for so long now, it will be like I just bought it again – when I couldn’t stop using it, now that would be really advantageous.

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6 am Salad

I have been on a salad kick for over a week now. If you know me at all you will know that I am not a fan of salad dressing or really any sauce or dressing at al. To be quite honest, I am a fan of bland (aka boring) food. But I have always loved the salad dressing at East Side Mario's and about a year ago D decided to try and find me a similar one that I could get at the grocery store. His main purpose for this, I believe, was to try and help me find lower calories meals that I would enjoy to help me with my weight loss. He convinced me to try the Greek with Feta and Oregano from Kraft. It was, and still is, delicious. I absolutely love it. I stopped eating as many salads as often and only recently decided to put them back into my normal food rotation (for lack of a better term). We have gone through about 3 heads of iceberg lettuce, 1 head of romaine lettuce, 1.5 bottles of salad dressing and 2 cucumbers in about a week and a half. It has been really good for me to get my vegetables in (though I have never really had a problem with this - yummy veggies) as well as have larger meals with lower calorie costs.

Well, tragedy struck as we ran out of everything needed for the salads. I meant to stop by the store on my way home from class last night but I forgot and D forgot to remind me when I called home before leaving. I was very upset as I was looking forward to decreasing my lunch for today by adding a salad.

Luckily, I have a genius for a boyfriend and he remembered that Loeb is open 24-hours. He offered to go into work early so I could have a little more time to stop by the grocery store on my way back before heading off to work myself. Although, the Loeb had put a giant, heavy sign in front of the entrance door making so I couldn't get in - not very 24-hour of them. Luckily, and employee was leaving at the same time and I dared to enter through the exit.

So in short, there was a 6am salad run this morning. Yay salad!

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Top Ten Reasons to Lose Weight

Listed below are the Top Ten Reasons I want to lose weight.

1. To be truly happy (Happy and fat do not go together)
2. For a healthier future (Overweight individuals are more prone to disease)
3. Better (and healthier) self image (to love me for all of me and not have to exclude aspects)
4. Better personal life (It is hard to becomfortable with others when you aren't comfortable with yourself)
5. Increased confidence in my relationship (not have to wonder if people think "what is he doing with her" or "what does he see in her")
6. Increased energy (One shouldn't get winded going up more than 2 flights of stairs)
7. More respect from those around me and the general public(Though it shouldn't be important to me - it is)
8. More accessible, affordable and fashionable clothing (Perhaps I would actually be able to tell people where I got my clothes, or even receive them as gifts without huge worry)
9. To eat in public and not feel judged ("she's eating a salad so she must be on a diet - figures" or "she's eating those chips, that's why she's fat")
10. Better resistance to the elements (no longer sweat buckets when it is hot out, or get heat stroke at the drop of a hat)

Though they are listed almost as equals, or at least in a fashion that would show a linear change in importance, some rank much, much higher than others.

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A Bit About Me

I am soon to be a graduate of Carleton University. In under a month I will have Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering. I am currently working for the City of Ottawa as an engineering assistant though I am unfortunately not in the environmental department. I am from a small town on the border of Canada and the United States (what other border do we have) and have been living in Ottawa for 4.5 years now. I am in a serious relationship (coming up on 4 years in January) and have a great system of friends (though it is small – that’s how I like it). My family is healthy (finally) and though I do not see them often (due to hectic schedules and distance) I feel we are close.

I am losing weight for many reasons where health is number one. I do not want to be overweight any longer, I realize it has shortened my lifespan already and I don’t want that to get any shorter. I cannot deny the fact that I also want the aesthetic properties of not being overweight – to easily find clothes and be able to shop with anyone because I no longer fear people knowing my size would be a dream come true. The social implications of being overweight are starting to annoy me, people assume I am unhealthy and eat junk when I really do my best to watch what I put in my mouth and keep my activity level up. I realize I got this way on my own through mistakes and errors, but I also realize that I can go back just the same. All in all, I just want to be a normal, healthy size – I want to stand out because I choose to, not because I have to.

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The Journey Begins

My story is not unlike all the rest out there. But it is mine and I feel that I have to share it, if only for my future (healthier) self.

I have always been larger than everyone else. When I was in elementary school I was taller than everyone and it was about in grade 4 or so when I started getting teased for being fatter than everyone else too (although at that time it was barely noticeable). When I got into high school the pounds really started packing on. I am not sure if it was lack of knowledge about nutrition, peer pressure situations, stress from school, family and friends or a mixture of all of these things (and more I am sure) but the came so fast it felt like there was nothing I could do about it. Eventually it got to a point where the amount I had to lose was so large that is felt unmanageable – it was just so incredibly overwhelming. I realize now that I also did not have the proper support system around me to deal with all of this. I had incredibly low self-esteem and though I never thought about suicide, I was never truly happy. I thought I had great friends, but high school kids are mean and it is a time in life where even your best friends can be your worst enemies.

When I was in OAC I learned a little about what friends are supposed to be. This fact was reinforced when I left my small town home for the big city and the university therein. I met the person who would change my life for the better, someone I never knew existed, C. As soon as she walked through the residence door I knew I had made a friend for life. She slowly started fixing my self-esteem (though I am not even sure if she knew she was in the beginning) and taught me what a true best friend was.

During the first 4 months of university, I lost an incredible 20 pounds without even trying. The bad thing about that was I was doing nothing good for my body so I really didn’t learn a thing. I was eating junk most of the time (at least 2 of my 3 meals during the day) and snacking constantly. My walking was increased significantly but not nearly enough to counteract the food going in my mouth. I think it might have been due to all the new stresses entering my life, but who knows really. The weight stayed off during the second term and I met the next person who would change me for the better, D. He became the love of my life and without my best friend I never would have had the courage to start anything (I owe her for him too I suppose). He loves me for me and it is because of him that I am now able to make a good commitment to bettering my future.

Unfortunately when I returned home for the summer all the weight came flying back and it seemed impossible to lose it again. When I returned to the big city for my second year I had pretty much given up and decided that I didn’t need to lose weight.

It was about this time that my mom was getting knee surgery after knee surgery to try to lessen the pain she experienced when she walked and when she was diagnosed with breast cancer I (and everyone in my family) got a big scare. Not only could I lose my mom, but if I kept on the path I was on cancer and painful joints would likely be my future as well. Luckily my mom fought and made it through everything (proving to me that she is the bravest and strongest person I have or will ever know/n).

I lost weight last summer (about 20 pounds) and all but 5 came back, but I did manage to keep the 5 off which is a good thing.

I am now officially recognizing how much weight I have to lose to be classified as healthy (although I am taking it one teeny milestone at a time) and I know I can do it.

I do not expect many people to read this or really to care about my journey, as it is similar so many others out there, I am really just keeping this journal to help myself. :)

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