I can has weight loss

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 191.2 lbs
Weight Variance: -3.6 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 112.0 lbs

So I tracked how much food I ate this week and low and behold I lost weight. Check it out, almost four pounds this week. Not rocket science I know, but after dieting for so long you begin to think you can do it all in your head. Well you can’t, you forget the little things and those little things add up. I suggest that if you are struggling with your weight loss journey to write everything you eat down. On weight watchers we are allotted a certain amount of points a day and we track those points. I find when you have to write it down and be accountable then you are more mindful of what you put in your mouth. Also it is a great tool for you to see what types of food you consistently eat. “Oh hey, I do eat a lot of chocolate.” Or “Um… I don’t think I am eating enough veggies.”

Fresh

Quite a few of my friends are vegan so our dining options are limited. For the longest time I was very resistant to trying and liking the soy options, however over the years I have discovered that there are a variety of meatless options that are delicious. Fresh has three dining locations in Toronto and my friends and I enjoy the menu selection and atmosphere. I love their mushroom onion burger (which I had last night) and their banana pancakes. While they promote nutritious ingredients, they do not post their nutritional information on their website because they think that we should not be focused on the calorie content of their food. Although I agree that healthy ingredients are important over calorie content, I am a little frustrated that it becomes difficult to calculate the WW points for their items. Even though it is meatless doesn’t necessarily mean that it is lower in points. Chickpeas for instance can be very high in points, coconut milk if added to item have a lot of points associated with them. As long as I do not have the tasty sweet potato fries with my burger I feel like I have a least made a healthy option.

Start Walking

On Friday I went to the Queen/McCaul Goodlife with my good friend Alison to do the Body Combat class together. It had been a while since she did the class and since I was helping her move her piano later that night she decided to join me. It is a shame that she is moving because it would have been great to have another work out buddy. I really like this class, it is a great cardio workout and my muscles are sore afterwards. After we went for sushi and we saw all the people lining up to see Jack Layton laying in state at city hall.

Body Combat Video Promo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVw5s8G0Jww

Now a message for my readers who are not fans of exercise and the gym. Let me point out that I lost the majority of my weight (approx 100 lbs) walking and doing the occasional Biggest Loser DVD. It wasn’t until recently that I joined a gym to help with gaining muscle. So go buy a pedometer, try to get at least 10,000 steps a day. Start of slowly and work up from there, just start moving. Get off the bus early or try not taking the bus at all. Make sure you are wearing the right type of shoes and bring your iPod.

Podcast Review: Inside Out Weight Loss

Today I want to review an awesome fitness podcast called “Inside Out Weight Loss” by Renee Stevens. The things I enjoy most about IOWL is that Renee is more like a life coach then a fitness trainer in her approach to this health related podcast. She doesn’t talk about calories or exercises that you need to do to be thin. She gets to the root of the reason why you might have a weight problem in the first place. Dealing with the mental reasons why you over eat, which is half the battle to permanent weight loss. She focuses on how to think like a naturally slender person, something which I am trying to do more often. The show is around 15 to 30 minutes long usually, perfect for my morning commute. Her tone is so soothing that at times I zone out and forget to listen but for the most part I would recommend this as a podcast to add to your iPod any day. You can subscribe on iTunes or find it at personal life media.

Gym Bag

VS.
I have been going to the gym after work for the last four weeks now. My regular satchel bag is too small to carry my fitness clothes and running shoes. I have been bringing my fitness stuff to work/gym in a President’s Choice cloth bag and it is not the most professional looking bag around. I hate carrying two bags around plus I forget that I have two bags. Case in point yesterday I left work and got all the way to the gym before realizing that I had left the cloth bag with my gym stuff at work on my desk, so I had to go back. So after my workout I went to BQM to get chickpea burger (So good and healthy too) and I stopped by Queen Street Lululemon and sitting there on the display calling to me like a siren song was The Groove Bag II. I have been looking for a bag like this for a while and it looks like it will fit everything. It is a little expensive but I haven't really bought anything for myself in a while and I felt like indulging. Plus it’s pretty……

Weigh In Day (WID) Ritual

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 194.8 lbs
Weight Variance: +2.4 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 108.4 lbs

It is interesting to note that all Weight Watcher members develop a ritual on the day they are to weigh in. For me it started off with the clothes I wear to the meeting; first I would wear the same outfit every week so that if I fluctuated in weight it cannot be contributed to the change of my wardrobe. Then it changed to wearing my lightest clothes that I own. Then it is how much water I consume on the day. You would be surprised how drinking too much water can affect the scale. Some people have a cut off time; others have a limit of one cup of water or coffee. Speaking of coffee some drink that on weigh in day to promote a good bowl movement. Then it comes to the food someone eats on WID, if you attend a meeting in the morning you might not have breakfast until after your meeting. If your meeting is later in the day, some might eat lighter foods or perhaps not as much until their meeting and have a nice dinner afterwards.

I knew I was going to gain this week, so I am not letting it affect my positive mood. I am going to focus on tracking and living a healthy lifestyle. I bought a new tracker so I will count in a book and online. Being redundant can be good sometimes. I was going to throw out the pie that was in the fridge; however my sister decided to eat it instead. I got her to hide the cookies and original maple syrup somewhere in the house. LOL

Picture on the "Fridge"

Alright, thank you for letting me get my rant on yesterday. I decided two things this morning on the way into work:

1) I am going to start tracking my points back on the old Weight Watcher points system. I lost 80 pounds on that program and I am not getting that success on the new system. This means that I am going to have to do it in a book as opposed to online because everything has switched. On the old plan I have 26 points to eat a day and 35 weekly points. Let’s see how this will work.

2) I need to have a better game plan. Smaller goals which will make me feel good. I think to start I am going to get back into the 80’s, then back to 186 (my lowest point of weight loss), then to 183 and then into the 70’s and then to my 125 lbs loss goal of 178.2 and then 175. That is 6 goals. Perhaps I need some visual imagery to inspire me to my goals. Before when first started out losing weight I had the picture of “The Behemoth” as my background on my computer and I found it helped me to focus on my goal. I don’t know what to put now…. some lady in a bikini? I don’t think that is very work place appropriate. I do not have a magnetic fridge where I can place pictures on it to prevent me from going for the pie (which is still in my fridge!!! I am totally throwing it out tonight). Perhaps this blog will be my fridge. So I will first place a bad photo of me:

And now I will put something for me to use as an inspirational motivation. I remember back when I was 300 pounds I was watching Heroes a lot, and I was going through a Sylar/Claire shipping phase. Seeing this promo made me want to look and be like Hayden Panettiere. She looked fit and pretty in this clip and made me hope that I could someday look like that. Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX_T3VzP6IA