Elf Fail, Overeaters Anonymous, Hypnosis for Weight Loss

I apologize for my absence, it's been an extremely busy week!

First of all, as my first week as an Elf for Health, I've totally failed, except for Monday.

Tuesday - Send a handwritten note to a friend.

I did intend to do this, but I don't have any stamps left and Walgreens didn't have any more cards with the postage already included on the envelope.  Elf fail.

Wednesday - Try a new workout.

I did not mean to try a new workout, but since I'm healed enough to go back to Zumba, I meant to make it to the gym.  However, I had a very difficult day at work and by the time I got home I was super exhausted and had a headache.  Elf fail.

Today - Get up 15 minutes early to meditate.
Eff that.  I have a hard enough time waking up.  Let's just say I meditated in my sleep this morning.  Elf fail.

So, obviously I haven't been great with my daily challenges.  However!  Monday night I had a lovely chat with a friend and we've decided to join together in our weight loss efforts.  Tuesday we went to an Overeaters Anonymous (yes, it's a real thing) meeting to check it out and see what it's all about.  Will blog more on that next week.  

We also discussed a recent Groupon for weight loss hypnosis.  I recently read an article written by one of my favorite bloggers, so my interest was doubly piqued.  We found a class being held this Saturday so we are going!  I've never been hypnotized so I'm interested to see what's going to happen.  Or, maybe they will focus more on self-hypnosis.  I really have no idea what to expect!

~Also~ we are going to meet with a dietitian on Monday evening.  I've wondered if I need to meet with a dietician, so I'm pretty pumped that we're going to meet with her.

Despite being a Bad Elf, there are a lot of exciting things to look forward to right now!

Elf for Health: Meatless Monday

The Elf for Health challenge starts today!  Today's challenge is Meatless Monday.  To be honest, I'm kind of struggling with this day.  I just haven't figured out what to do for dinner yet.  I thought I had something picked out from the store last night, but I can't seem to remember what I picked up.  Otherwise, here is the rest of the day:

Breakfast - Oatmeal w/ raisins
Lunch - Cheese tortillini
Snack - Pita bread w/ hummus (omg yum!)

I'm already enjoying being an Elf!  (Even though Hubs insists that I'm a hobbit, not an elf.)

Post Thanksgiving Weigh In

Well, I gained.  But I only gained .2 lbs, so considering it was Thanksgiving this week, that's not too bad.  I am quite happy that I didn't extend the holiday thinking by more than one day.  I also didn't over indulge on Thanksgiving, so I feel good about that.  I think I can almost get back to Zumba but every time I think my knee is good enough, it start to protest again.  I judge this mostly by my ability to use stairs.  I've been trying to use stair rails as crutches to get up and down stairs faster without putting too much strain on my knee.  When it starts protesting I pop some ibuprofen and stop trying to use my knee.  So, we'll see.  My friend that has been going to Zumba with me on Sunday nights is back in town, but I'm not entirely sure I'll be ready to shake it by tomorrow. 

Despite knowing that I shouldn't be too upset over a .2 lb gain, today I am feeling rather blue.  Something triggered some negative self thinking so I'm stuck feeling unpretty right now.  I am hoping that my next Gwynnie Bee package is in today's mail so I have a pretty new outfit to wear to work tomorrow.

I think part of the reason I'm feeling bleh about the gain is, again, it reinforces that I have no idea why I'm not losing weight.  I eat about 1450-1550 calories per day and burn between 2100-2300 on a normal day.  I finally scheduled my annual physical so that will be something I'll ask about. 

On the bright side, Elf for Health kicks off on Monday!  The first daily challenge is Meatless Monday, so I'll have to find something vegetarian to munch on.  Maybe I'll take this opportunity to pick up some veggie burgers, I used to have them for lunch all the time!  Yummmmm.  Tomorrow I get to find out who my first Elf buddy is!

Any vegetarian ideas for me?  Has anyone tried making tofu?

Post Thanksgiving Thoughts & First Gwynnie Bee Outfit

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I had a good time without too much over indulging.  I didn't walk away from the day feeling sick from eating too much food.  Today I've been taking it easy, I had a heavy breakfast so I balanced it with a very light lunch.  I am hopeful that I will either pull in a small loss, or stay about the same.  I haven't been back to the gym since injuring my knee but hope to be back soon.  At this point I'm highly doubtful that I'll make my DietBet goal.  I have 12 days left to lose 4.3 lbs, and unless I can get back to the gym, I don't think I'm going to make it.  I'm really disappointed that I haven't been able to work out.  I was getting myself into a good routine.  I'm super proud of Hubs though, he's been going regularly so he can build up some nice abs for me.

Last week I received by first Gwynnie Bee package!  I most definitely want to continue my membership after my 30 day trial is up.  They just added a bunch of new items, and I can see how I will be able to go through the seasons easily wearing one new outfit a week.  This is what I wore this week:

It was so comfortable and I love that I get the feeling of wearing new clothes without having bought new clothes.  By the way, I totally heart the damask print.  Even without the belt it was slimming with perfectly placed swoopy parts of the pattern.  Love!  Next I'm receiving one of Gwynnie Bee's brand new outfits, a sweater type faux wrap dress.  What I'm not sure about is whether I need to wear tights because I really don't want to wear tights, but yesterday afternoon, Winter came.  Gross.  I was planning on wearing nude heels with the sweater dress so I wanted a nude leg.  

Any thoughts on winter time dress wearing?


*Please note all opinions expressed are entirely my own, and I was neither asked nor compensated for them.

Elf for Health - Holiday Challenge

On The Lean Green Bean blog, a holiday challenge is about to start!

Elf for Health

Elf for Health will feature daily challenges starting the day after Thanksgiving, and go on until the first week of January.  All participants receive an Elf to cheer you on!  In exchange, you are also that person's Elf.  Elves are switched out every two weeks, or three times during the challenge.  Elves are asked to email your Elf buddy a minimum of twice per week.  Elves can also do extra stuff and try to win prizes for Best Elf!  Prizes for Best Elf go out at the end of each round.  There is also one grand prize winner at the end for participation and being an all around awesome Elf.  There are also prizes for daily challenge winners!  That's a lot of potential prizes!  To top of all off and help us all be extra motivated, they've put together a Facebook group just for the Elf for Health challenge!  You can also follow by Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Check out the daily challenges here!  I've already signed up ... will you join me?

Friend Makin' Monday: Thanksgiving Edition

Another week of Friend Makin' Monday, make new friends, find new blogs to love, and learn more about me!  This week's questions are Thanksgiving related!

If you haven't participated in FMM, here's what to do:  Copy these questions into a new post on your blog, then come back here and comment with your link.  Make new friends!

Thanksgiving Edition

1. Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?  If so, please share them.  Since my husband and I got married last year, we are still working out our traditions.  We've only developed traditions for Christmas so far!

2. List at least three dishes that are on your family’s table every year. Besides the usual turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls..... cherry pie, sweet potato casserole, and green beans with mushrooms.

3. Do you prefer pumpkin pie or pecan pie?  I LOVE pumpkin!

4. Will you watch football on Thanksgiving Day?  My husband does.  I'll spend that time curled up with Pug and my sister in law under a fuzzy blanket.

5. Do you plan to exercise Thursday?  No........ but I plan to swim tonight, and hopefully get in a work out on Wednesday depending on my knee.

6. Do you prefer ham or turkey?  Turkey all the way!!!!!!

7. Will you shop on Black Friday?  If so, where will you go first?  I try to avoid Black Friday.  I much prefer Cyber Monday!  I'm all about online shopping.

8. Do you take a nap on Thanksgiving?  Not always, but that doesn't mean I don't want to. :)

9. Share one dish that probably won’t be on anyone else’s table.  I don't think we're having anything special this year!

10. What are you thankful for today?  I'm thankful for my little family, and my ever increasingly awesome friends.

Your turn!  Answer these questions on your blog, then post your link below!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Not Losing and Confused

21 days.  21 days is how long I've been counting calories religiously.  In 21 days my weight has barely fluctuated.  What gives?  I checked my history on Calorie Count to make sure I haven't been fooling myself into thinking I've been doing well when I really haven't been.

The green bars are my deficits, the red is when I went over.  The purple line indicates the calories I burned that day, the blue line indicates calories consumed. (The empty green bar on the right is today, and all the check marks across the top are today's numbers so far.)

Okay.... so two days out of 21 have I gone over.  Why am I not losing?  When I had counted calories previously, and didn't lose, I thought maybe I was still eating too many calories and that I don't burn what Calorie Count believes is average.  Hence, my Bugg.  In using my BodyBugg I discovered that I burn around 2100-2300 calories on a day that I don't exercise.  On Calorie Count, I actually had to change my activity level from Sedentary because the daily burned calories didn't match what I actually burned.  On days that I work out, I add the activity to Calorie Count and make sure that my calories burned for that day equal to roughly what my Bugg says that I've burned.  So, this chart should be pretty accurate.  My therapist and NP friend have encouraged me to make my appointment for my physical, so maybe I do need to make that appointment so I can bring this up.  This honestly doesn't make sense to me, and it's frustrating.  What am I missing?

Struggles

I've been weighing myself daily (which I do not advise) and find the scale once again slowly but surely creeping up.  Seems that I hit a peak low a couple of days after the weekend, then the numbers creep up through the rest of the week.  Considering what I know about calories in versus calories out, this doesn't make sense to me.  Theoretically I should be down because I am still having consistent deficits in my calories, so this challenges everything I've found to be true about weight loss.  I've been reflecting on the past week and how I've eaten, and there were some choices I made that had room for improvement.  Usually when I'm binging, I have a little inner voice that says things like "Maybe you don't really need that." "If you keep indulging in impulses like this, you'll never lose the weight."  When she speaks up I know I'm in trouble.  I haven't heard from her much lately.  I think because I still fell under the number of calories I've burned, she hasn't had much of an issue with what I've been eating.  Maybe it's the alcohol.  Maybe this week I won't pick up a bottle (or two) of wine, because when it's open, I'll drink it.  Maybe this week I won't eat out so much.  Thanksgiving is coming up this week and I hope to dear God that I can control myself.  For my goal on DietBet, as of today, I still have 19 days to lose 5.7 pounds.  I can do that.  I just need to be more focused.  Deeeeeep breeeeeeath.......

 

Friend Makin' Monday (On Wednesday)

I've been reading new blogs to expand my blogging circle, and I came across this -

Friend Makin' Mondays!

Every week a blogger posts a question on their ... blog ... YOU answer it as a post on your own blog, and comment on the original blog with your link.  Yay, new friends!  *BONUS* You get to learn a few new things about your favorite blogger.  Here is this week's topic:

What’s in Your Fridge??

1. List a few common items that can always be found in your fridge.  I often vary what I eat, so the only consistent item in my fridge is soy sauce!


2. What kind of milk do you drink? 1% usually.  I tried skim, I really did.  I just can't do it.

3. Do you prefer fresh or frozen vegetables?  I buy frozen for convenience, because fresh veggies go bad so fast!

4. What do you currently have to drink in the fridge? Wine.  But I mostly drink the filtered water from the fridge door.

5. How often do you clean out your refrigerator? When Hubs begs me and starts asking what the hell does the tupperware contain.

6. What’s the healthiest thing in it right now? Greek yogurt.  Yummmm!


7. What’s the most unhealthy thing in it right now?  Fuzzy food.

8. What do you wish you had in it that you don’t have now? A cheeseburger.

9. How often do you shop for groceries? Once a week, less if I can help it.

10. What’s the weirdest thing in your fridge right now? ....See question 7 :)

Bonus:  If you could choose one thing to put in the fridge and make it calorie-free what would it be?  ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now tell me, what's in your fridge?  Answer in your own blog and put your link in my comments below!  Then, check out the blog where I got this idea, www.alltheweigh.com !

Flukes, Shoes, and Injuries

I started to weigh myself daily and I'm down.  Like, down down.  This morning when I weighed myself at 206.8 lbs, I thought for sure this is a fluke.  Any time I lose weight, it's a fluke.  If the scale continues to reflect downward numerals, then it's less of a surprising fluke, but still a fluke nonetheless.  Time will tell if this fluke is a fluke fluke or if it's actually loss.  My pants do feel less squeezy though.  I attended two Zumba classes this weekend!

Which is a great segue into my next topic; Shoes.  As I previously blogged about, I was thinking about getting shoes for Zumba.  I've been wearing my regular tennis shoes because they have a smooth sole and aren't clunky like athletic style shoes.  However, they're just casual every day tennis shoes, not workout specific supportive tennis shoes.  Which lead me to go ahead and buy Zumba shoes.  (Besides the fact that my feet didn't like doing lateral movements in my tennis shoes, they are also kinda starting to smell like funk.)  The problem with a running-type shoe is that the soles are too sticky to pivot on a wooden floor.  I also just prefer shoes that are more low-profile (read:less noticeable) than clunky running shoes.  So I googled my options and ended up with these beauties:

They also come in all black, all white, and white with a touch of blue, but I like the fun of grey and pink.  I think I'll add pink laces to make them extra fun.  What is Zumba if not for fun?  RIGHT!  I'm super excited to get them in the mail, and since Zappos is freaking awesome, if I need to go up a size then I can exchange for free.  SCORE!  Despite their unholy price, but let's not tell my husband that.  The pink circle at the bottom makes them good for pivoting during Zumba.  They are my first ever fancy brand athletic shoes.  I am quite happy that I'm working out diligently enough to render buying fancy brand athletic shoes.  Which in turn is a great segue to my next topic....

Injuries.  This weekend we got the slightest kiss of snow on the ground.  It is cold, and the snow is already gone.  HOWEVER, the day before it snowed, it rained.  One of the streets in my neighborhood tends to collect puddles, but I forgot about this while walking my Pug in the snow.  So.  My heel, quickly followed by my knee, found the only patch of ice in our neighborhood.  I landed directly on my knee, followed by a twist of my ankle.  This left me couch-bound for the rest of the day and I started to worry that I had sprained my knee.  I don't think I did because this morning it felt better instead of worse, but I am still having trouble on stairs and going from a sitting to a standing position.  Which worries me about working out.  Which is ironic considering I've never really been concerned about an injury effecting a workout before, until of course, I'm two weeks into my gym membership and manage to hurt myself.  So, I'll play it by ear, and maybe do water aerobics Saturday instead of Zumba.  I imagine the water would be much more gentle.  But I waaaaaaaaant to do Zumba.  I should be going to the gym Wednesday night too, but Hubs and I have to take Pug to the vet, therefore missing my Wednesday night water aerobics.  Again.  C'est la vie.

Current weight - 206.8


*Please note all opinions expressed are entirely my own, and I was neither asked nor compensated for them.

WI Fail, Gym Success, Gwynnie Bee

So, I gained this week.  Mid-week weigh in was right.  This prompted me to think, when I lost a bunch of weight before, despite advice telling me to do otherwise, I did weigh myself daily.  And tracked it.  So I might try that.  I don't always have time in the morning to weigh myself, or am awake enough to remember during "prime weighing time" (which means before I do anything except pee and rub sleep crust from my eyes).  So.  We'll see.  Friday I did join a game at DietBet.  The pot is currently at $300 with 20 players.  According to the game, I only have to lose 4.5 lbs in the next 25 days.  I think I can do that!  I started to get anxious about whether I would win, then I realized that if I lose the weight, I win at least some money.  That's what is so cool about DietBet!  Check it out!!

Yesterday I made it through a WHOLE Saturday morning Zumba class!  I am quite happy with myself.  I am also sore in my abs and shoulders today.  Well, no pain, no gain!  I'm going to another class tonight too.

I'm also pretty pumped because I signed up for Gwynnie Bee, after reading about the new service on one of the blogs I follow.  This service is just plain genuis, it's like Netflix for clothes sizes 10-26.  Fan.freaking.awesome!!!  If you sign up this month, you get a free 30 day trial.  Check it out, and let them know I referred you!


Current weight - 208.0


*Please note all opinions expressed are entirely my own, and I was neither asked nor compensated for them.

Mini Challenges

Today I was reading my current guilty pleasure chick lit, Confessions of a Failed Anorexic.  The lead character is struggling with her weight and internally wonders if she's so overweight that even if she loses 20 pounds, will anyone notice?  Will her husband notice?  I think exactly the same things.  With almost 80 pounds to lose before I reach my ultimate goal, it feels like it will be forever before anyone (or even myself) starts noticing any weight loss.  So, my very very dear friend and fellow blogger suggested I set mini-challenges for myself.  I've thought about doing mini-challenges before, but I never know what goal to set.  I know what my ultimate goal is, so having mini-goals seems anti-climatic.  This time though, maybe I need to try something different.

Having reached my highest weight ever, I'm going to set my first goal as getting back into ONEderland.  Now, I really hate that phrase.  Alas, getting back to "ONEderland" is what I need to do first.  I'm adding a new ticker to my blog to track my current mini-challenges.  The ultimate loss ticker and chart just seem too depressing to me, too far fetched.  I'll keep those, but I need to see some sliding action happen faster than the ticker for my ultimate goal.

Hooray to my friend for suggesting it!! xo

Never Weigh Yourself in the Middle of the Week!

Last night Hubs and I went to the gym, and I swam for about 20 minutes.  Now, I'm not the strongest swimmer, so I acknowledge that this doesn't burn a whole lot of calories for me.  However, since I power-housed through (almost) three classes over the weekend, and plan to go again this weekend, last night's swim was more of a bonus workout than anything.  I feel like I didn't do well on my calories yesterday, but I still had a deficit of 547.  Actually, that could be my lowest deficit since tracking, now that I think about it.  Anyway, this morning I felt like I have been doing fairly well overall so I wanted to weigh myself to see how progress is going.  I never log mid-week weigh ins since they are not "official" but sometimes it's nice to have that encouragement.  Somehow, I just never learn.  Whenever I do this I either see a great number, but a not as great number on my official weigh in day, OR, I weigh in even higher than my last weigh in.  This morning was a SCARY high number.

My friend has this pic on her blog, I think it's hilarious.

Now I am doubting myself.  Are my deficits too low?  Did my body somehow absorb pool water which made the scale lie to me?  Will I ever be able to shed this unwanted weight?  Time will only tell.

Raspberry Ketones

I'm going to say it, I think Dr. Oz is full of crap.  I think he promotes items that are not actually proven to be effective and gets a slice of the profits once a product's sales have skyrocketed after being on his show.

~HOWEVER~

I also think that there are some more controversial diets and/or products that are judged before a person looks into them for themselves.

Last night I received a bottle of raspberry ketones to try out.  Before I ordered the supplement, I did some online research and a lot of it revolved around the hype that Dr. Oz produced.

~AGAIN, HOWEVER~

Based on my very own thoughts, I decided to try out a raspberry ketones product anyway.  In the past I found a company called Creative Bioscience.  I found this company when I was trying to find HCG*** drops that weren't full of fake crap.  It was their Facebook page that ultimately made me go with their HCG product.  Their Facebook page had a lot of helpful information, but more importantly, had an active following.  Fans posted on the page and Creative Bioscience would actually respond!  They didn't delete that hard questions, they didn't avoid them, they answered anything.  I really, really liked that.  To me that shows that they back up their product, they're not just in it to sell a false product and reap the benefits.  So, back to raspberry ketones, I was looking for a product that wasn't from a company only looking to make profits off people who are lead to believe that raspberry ketones are a miracle pill.  What do I expect out of them?  I expect that they boost my existing diet and exercise plan.  Not that they will magically make my weight drop off.  Since I had already used a product by Creative Bioscience, I thought I would see if they had a raspberry ketone product available.  And they do!  Their product also contains green tea extract, african mango extract, and acai berry.  All of these ingredients have at least been rumored to promote weight loss, so it seems like a good mix to me.  I started taking them last night because I wanted a diet boost ASAP.  We'll see how this goes!

***The HCG diet (at least in this part of the country) is considered a scam.  Most people in this area only think the diet is to eat 500 calories a day, which most people also know is unhealthy.  After doing my own research, I found that an HCG diet is actually supposed to be supplemented by HCG drops which counter the fact that you're not consuming enough calories.  They essentially release extra calories that you're already storing, so you're really not starving yourself.  I did lose weight on this diet but ultimately it was too restrictive for me to follow.


*Please note all opinions expressed are entirely my own, and I was neither asked nor compensated for them.

A Fantastic Weekend

I had a freaking blast at Zumba last night.  My BFF has a few weeks left of membership at the same gym as me, and she came down from her too far away house to shake it with me.  I went to a class lead by one of the top Zumba instructors in the state.  I loved it.  I'm actually looking forward to going again.  After a weekend of THREE aerobics classes, I am pretty sore today.  My calves and my shoulders are yelling at me.  I can also feel it in my inner thighs when I walk.  PAIN IS GOOD!  Let's keep this up!

I found out about this cool site today - http://dietbet.com/  In a nutshell, you sign up and can either join a game or start your own with friends.  People in the game place bets and have 4 weeks to lose 4% of their weight.  Everyone's money goes into the game's "pot" and at the end, whoever has lost at least 4% wins a slice of the pot.  There are several open games with varied amounts you need to bet, and have a varied amount of players which of course means a bigger pot to win from.  I'm not sure yet if it's something I want to do, because if I'm honest with myself I'm not sure if I can lose 4% in 4 weeks, but I really like the idea of it.  I really, really like the idea of it.  After looking through the website it looks pretty freaking cool!

Yesterday I ate out for lunch, AND had fondue for dinner with Hubs.  Since I burned 665 calories during Zumba, I came out with a deficit of 701 calories.  Not too shabby considering those two meals!  I am looking forward to this week because I am starting to pick up work lunch and snacks in the lower calorie range, helping me out with staying in range of my daily calorie goal.  Last week I tracked, but the snacks I had were still fairly high calorie.  This should be a good week!  I also brought in my gigantor water bottle today, so I'll start drinking from it and peeing a lot.  Back when I lost a bunch of weight several years ago, I had the most success when I drank 60oz water per day.  I can't remember how many ounces this has, but it's massive!

Maybe I should bet on myself.  Hmmm....

Yesterday's totals
Calories consumed - 2018
Calories burned - 2719
Deficit - 701

Weigh In & Partial Success at the Gym!

This morning I burned approximately 750 calories at the gym.  Woohoo!  I completed the water aerobics class, but I left the Zumba class 20 minutes early.  I went to the gym on an empty stomach so I stopped in the cafe to have breakfast.  I had a smoothie before water aerobics, and I bought a protein bar for between classes.  Well, I ate the protein bar before I went to Zumba and I don't think it agreed with me.  My stomach was all sorts of swishy during class and there were a few times I had to pause and linger over my water to let my stomach settle back down.  I was also developing a massive headache, which didn't help.  I tried to stick it out but Zumba was getting too jumpy for me.  So I used the time at the Member Services desk to finish adding Hubs to my account.  Then I went to Caribou to pick up some real food (since I don't really have any at home) and coffee to help both my head and my stomach.  Even though I left Zumba early, I am proud of myself for making it to the class in the first place.  During water aerobics I just wanted to leave, but I kept thinking to myself that I HAD to go otherwise I would be disappointed with myself. 

I also had a successful weigh in, down 1.2 pounds from October 20th.  I am annoyed that I forgot to weigh myself last week to get an actual number of pounds lost in one week.  But ... I guess down is down, right?  So, woohoo for me again.

I did feel good about being at the gym on a Saturday morning and burning calories during a time I would usually be lying in bed or just lounging in my house.  Maybe I'll add Saturdays to my routine too, but let's take it one at a time, shall we?

Weigh in - 207.4
Lost 1.2 lbs

Finally, some success!

Yesterday actually ended as a good day.  Woohoo!  I was under calories a bit, so I had a pretty good deficit.  Tomorrow will be my first weigh in day after logging and tracking again.  Also, since the class I was going to the other night was canceled, I plan on going to water aerobics at 9am, then Zumba at 10:30am.  Phew!  Wish me luck on that.  To help keep up my motivation, after Zumba I get to sit in the eucalyptus steam room after I'm all done.  Ahhhh, peace.  Feels so good in there.  I'm debating whether I should buy new shoes for Zumba because when I did Zumba before, my shoes were hard to Zumba in.  I couldn't move or turn quickly because my shoes stuck to the floor, and as a result it always hurt my ankles.  I've been googling shoes to wear to Zumba and I could get dance sneakers, but there are also less obvious but still good for dancing sneakers available.  I want something with a low profile and that isn't too bulky.  Something I can move well in.  Something that's not too obvious to me that I'm wearing shoes.  Decisions, decisions.

Yesterdays totals:
Calories consumed - 1361
Calories burned - 2156
Deficit - 795