Health NSV?

 

I haven't really spent much time blogging about the health issues that go along with being overweight. I thank God every day for my & my loved one's health. I don't think I've ever mentioned this, because it's kind of uncomfortable to talk about, but I figure I might as well just in case anyone else is going through the same thing.

I started my period in the 6th grade (and cried because I didn't want to have to become a "woman" - heck, I still wanna be a kid forever! lol). It has never been normal as far as having monthly cycles goes; I usually have about 2 a year. I've been to the doctor for it a few times, and at the most recent visit the Dr. told me that as long as the tests came back good (they did!) then I don't have anything to worry about. She told me that some women just don't have monthly periods. I was also told at a different appointment that it's likely my body isn't ovulating, which made me sad because I would like to have children in the future. Annnnyyyyyyway.. last month I got my period on the 17th. This month, around the 18th/19th, my tummy started cramping and FEELING like I was going to start.. and in the days since I've been WAY emotional. Then, today... I started! For me, it's both a happy thing (I feel much more at ease when my body does what it's supposed to) and a sad thing (simply because I don't enjoy being on my period, lol).

I wanted to share this because I've read/heard from different sources that being overweight can cause irregularities in the menstrual cycle. Now that I'm eating better, moving more, and losing weight, maybe my body is adjusting and starting to become more regular?? I'm not sure if I will start having one every month now or not, but I'm glad that I'm having one for the 2nd month in a row :).

Sorry if that was too much! If anyone else is going through problems with health issues related to weight, I think this should give us hope that if we work hard, we can turn it all around and become TRULY healthy.

-C a R i S s A  ;]

Weigh Day

 

I'm happy to say that I've been 100% on plan this weekend and though it's up a little from the lowest weight I saw this week (at one point it was as low as 192.8) it's still a 4 pound loss for the week! I worked REALLY hard everyday at the gym (yep, completed my 300 minutes! And I did my comment minutes on Friday) and despite all the temptations that surrounded me, I did not cheat once. I came very, very close, but I didn't :). I've been thinking about food constantly and using every ounce of willpower I have to deny those cravings. I feel drained. But if I keep this up, it's got to get easier. Right? :/

We won't be able to buy groceries until Monday (hopefully. if not then, it will have to wait until next week :[ ) and I'm out of anything that could be considered healthy. This morning I had bread w/peanut butter and a glass of water. Bleh. Looks like it will probably be Ramen noodles for lunch and hopefully something light for dinner. Who knows. It's frustrating to not have control over things like this.

OH YEAH, how could I forget? According to my BMI, I am NO LONGER CONSIDERED "OBESE"!! Now just "overweight" :). 30 lbs until "normal"!!

I guess that's it for now.. I have an incredibly ridiculous amount of homework to finish by midnight tonight. Hope everyone had a great week, and hope you're all ready to make this one EVEN BETTER!!!

as always,

Carissa

OMG!!! :)

I've heard people talking about the percentage of their body weight they've lost, so I decided I would see how much I've lost...

I'VE LOST JUST A LITTLE OVER

20% OF MY BODY WEIGHT!

I was SO shocked! I had no idea that it was that much.. but I'm so happy! It's just another way to measure my progress :). Once I reach my goal of -100 lbs, I'll have lost a bit more than 41% of my body weight.. WOW!

I haven't been keeping measurements from the beginning, but at the end of December I did measure my calf, thigh, arm, wait, hips, and neck. I just measured again to compare, and there was either no difference or a very, very small one (I'm talking like half of an inch). So that's kind of a bummer, but I keep reminding myself that I can't fail if I don't quit. Someone posted that saying on 3fc and I really like it! I printed it out to hang up on the fridge:

What sayings or quotes do you use to keep yourself motivated?? And have you checked out the % of your body weight you've lost? That could be motivation in itself!

xo, Carissa

Nothing Important, Really.

I just got home from my only class today... trying to decide what to have for lunch. I know I didn't post it, but yesterday I didn't go over on calories (was under, actually) and as far as a workout goes I did: 40 mins on treadmill, 20 mins on elliptical, 20 mins weights. It felt pretty good! I didn't want to leave the gym - haha! When I get goin' like that, I always feel like I could do more. I actually felt guilty leaving because I didn't feel like I'd done enough. But my sweaty exterior told me otherwise, ha! Anyway, after lunch I'm heading to the gym for another workout. I think I might try to get a membership at Anytime Fitness once school is out for the summer. Until then I'll probably just keep working out at school... the only reason it's hard to do that is because I live 30 mins away from my college so it can get pretty expensive gas-wise if I drive there every single day.

 

Nothing much else to say really... just wanted to give a quick update. Now for some comida :). Love you all!

-Carissa

Nutrition Report

MENU:

B - Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal w/milk

L - Healthy Choice General Tso's Chicken

D - Reduced fat Velveeta Shells & Cheese bowl, honey baked beans

(Isn't it funny how easy it is to tell I'm a college student? Styrofoam dishes and microwavable meals - LOL!)

STATS:

Calorie goal: 1,340 - 1,690
Today: 1,056

Carb goal: 179 - 258

Today: 199

Fat goal: 35 - 62

Today: 11

Protein goal: 60 - 139

Today: 50

V-Day Weigh In

Just like every other morning, today I got up, went potty, and stepped on the scale. 198.0. One pound's better than no pounds, right? So I get my camera and step on the scale again, only to see 198.8 this time. Huh? I figure it must be the camera, so I ask my boyfriend to come take a picture of the scale (lol, i know) and he does. The difference? .2. So I guess 198.6 is the official weight. Obviously the 1/10ths of a pound change by a lot and sometimes for no reason at all, so I've never counted them before and I'm not going to stress over it now.

My goal for next week is 2 lbs.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Haaaaappy ♥ Love ♥ Day everyone! What a perfect way to end the weekend! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Valentine's day :).

I did really well on my calories until Thursday night.. Saturday I did OKAY. We went to eat at our favorite restaurant with my boyfriend's parents. I had a small salad w/fat free dressing and potato soup. I ate the leftover potato soup for dinner with some pita bread:

 The rest of our Saturday was spent running around & doing a little shopping :). Today the honey had to work :(. I put together this little Valentine's thing for him:

He LOOVEEEED it! I burnt all the cookies and brownies :( - but he still ate one! He's so sweet!! There is still some dough so we're gonna make some & decorate them for our families tonight! After our candlelit dinner of course (his idea! what a perfect valentine I have!).

I hope all of you - whether you have a SO or not - have an amazing Valentine's Day!!

Love always,

Carissa


P.S. I HAVE YET TO EAT ONE SINGLE COOKIE OR BROWNIE. COME OOOOONNNNNN WILLPOWER!

Battle of the Sexes

I read an article today on sparkpeople.com about women vs men as far as weight loss goes. I've heard so many different things from so many different people I really wasn't sure what was true and what wasn't. There were some pretty interesting facts! Here are a few highlights:

* "As a general rule, visceral fat (located in the upper body cavity) represents a greater health risk, but is easier to lose than peripheral fat (located in the hips, thighs, and limbs)." (pg. 2)

* While there are differences in the quantity of muscle between men and women (mostly because of testosterone levels), there is no difference in the quality of the muscle or the ability to benefit from weight training/cardio exercise. (pg. 3)

* "The maximum intensity and duration women can achieve during aerobic exercise is typically 5-10% less than their male counterparts. This is because women typically have 5-10% less hemoglobin (an iron-containing protein in red blood cells that helps deliver oxygen to working muscles)." (pg 4)

Read the full article here :).

Thanks for the workout everyone!

Thanks to your comments, I had 30 minutes of exercise to do today. I did 20 mins on the treadmill & 15 on the elliptical. I'm fixing to do the 30 DS just to top it off! :) I forgot to take a picture of the machines showing the mins.. sorry! I'll try to remember next Friday!

Minutes start over right now!!

F&N Report for 2/11/10

MENU:

B - wheat bread w/peanut butter

      milk

      banana

L - two 3 cheese tortilla calzones (recipe soon)

D - brown rice & egg roll

S - Fiber One dark chocolate almond bar w/peanut butter

     milk

STATS:

Calorie goal: 1,340 - 1,690
Today: 1,443

Carb goal: 179 - 258

Today: 195

Fat goal: 35 - 62

Today: 42

Protein goal: 60 - 139

Today: 61

I am on a ROLLLL ladies and gentlemen!!

EXERCISE:

30 mins on treadmill (ran/jogged @ 4.7 for 2!!)

30 mins on elliptical

My workout was so good! I pushed hard and felt really great afterwords. Hope today's goes just as well! :)

Nutrition slash Fitness Report for 2/10/10

MENU:

B - peanut butter on bread, yogurt, grapes

L - Subway

D - Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti Marinara, corn

S - Fiber One Dark Chocolate Almond Bar

STATS:

Calorie goal: 1,340 - 1,690
Today: 1,309

Carb goal: 179 - 258

Today: 222

Fat goal: 35 - 62

Today: 33

Protein goal: 60 - 139

Today: 53

EXERCISE:

Jillian Michael's 30 DS (20 mins)

Biggest Loser 2 DVD (40 mins)

Exercise Shmexercise

Ughh.. I do NOT want to work out. But I'm going to make myself. sigh. be back to update in a bit.

........

Done. I couldn't find my copy of Leslie Sansone's 5 mile walk, so I just did the Biggest Loser 2 workout. I did parts of it that I've never done before... it was really hard! Most of it I couldn't even do (especially since I had just killed my muscles doing the 30 DS), so I just marched/kicked/walked in place.

I really wasn't into this workout today. But I guess the important thing is I did it. I'm gonna try to keep busy for the rest of tonight... maybe cleaning or something... just to try to burn some extra calories since my workout wasn't as intense as it could have been.


Hope you're all getting some type of exercise in.. I bet most of us regret NOT working out a lot more than we regret just doing it.. even if we're miserable the entire time!




xo, Carissa

Fitness & Nutrition Rpt

MENU:

B - Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal w/nonfat milk

L - Healthy Choice Grilled Basil Chicken (review coming soon)

D - Grilled chicken salad

Dessert - Cool whip w/dark chocolate chips & strawberries

Guess you can't really tell... but it was SO GOOD! :)

STATS:

Calorie goal: 1,340 - 1,690
Today: 1,428

Carb goal: 179 - 258

Today: 200

Fat goal: 35 - 62

Today: 35

Protein goal: 60 - 139

Today: 96

2nd day in a row to meet all my goals! Holla! I felt bad eating the dessert.. it's not very healthy, but it did fit into my calories. I try not to beat myself up over eating, but it seems like I'm either outofcontrolovereating or stressingovereverysinglecalorie. Ahh well.

EXERCISE:

30 mins on treadmill

30 mins on eliptical

Quoteage

You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there. ~Anonymous

"We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are."
~Adelle Davis

"You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind."
~Author Unknown

"Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose--
a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye."
~Mary Shelley

"Your mistakes do not define you now; they tell you who you're not."
~3 Doors Down

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self."
~Aristotle

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” 
~Helen Keller

"Each day is a new canvas to paint upon. Make sure your picture is full of life and happiness, and at the end of the day you don't look at it and wish you had painted something different."
 ~Author Unknown

Fitness + Nutrition Report

MENU:

B - Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal (read the review here) w/nonfat milk

L - Subway ham & cheese 6 in on 9 grain honey oat

S - Apple w/crunchy peanut butter

D - brown rice & egg roll

STATS:

Calorie goal: 1,340 - 1,690
Today: 1,496

Carb goal: 179 - 258

Today: 237

Fat goal: 35 - 62

Today: 52

Protein goal: 60 - 139

Today: 62



I think this is the first time I've met ALL four make that FIVE (see below! :]) of my main goals! waaaahooooo!

 

EXERCISE:
Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (20 mins)
Biggest Loser workout DVD (40 mins)

Exercise

I've challenged myself to complete 300 minutes per week of exercise. That's 1 hour per day, Sunday - Thursday. I feel like it's a realistic goal; it's what I was doing before my surgery and I'll still have Saturday off to relax! And what about Friday, you ask? Well, on another blog I follow the author does 1 minute of exercise for every comment left. So, from now on, for every comment I get I'll do 1 minute of exercise on Friday. So it's kinda up to you to get me in shape, too ;) ha ha. I'll put up a counter somewhere on my blog so everyone can see how many minutes have been added so far and I'll restart it every Friday. I'll also start reporting what exercise I did for the day on my nutrition reports.. so look out for that.

What are your fitness goals & what's your plan to reach them?

Better Yourself Tip

I've been chewing so much gum lately to keep me from eating when I'm not hungry... and Extra's doing this Biggest Loser contest giveaway type thing, so I went on their site and entered & looked around.. they have weekly healthy living tips that are really good! In part of today's tip was something I hadn't thought of before:

BYT #13: If using cans isn't heavy enough, try filling

up milk jugs with water and using those as weights.

Low-fat Cheeseburger Pie

Low-fat Cheeseburger Pie

Ingredients:

1 lb extra lean ground turkey
1 cup Nonfat Cottage Cheese
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
1 Clove Garlic (chopped)
3/4 Cup Kraft 2% Shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup of Heart Smart Bisquick (mix only)
4 Slices of Tomato

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Brown Turkey Onion & Garlic in a pan. While turkey is browning mix Bisquick and water to form a dough. (add water gradually as needed for dough)Roll dough flat enough to cover a pie pan with rolling pin. (may have extra dough). Place dough in pie pan. 

Mix Worcestershire Sauce in with turkey mixture. In a separate bowl, mix cottage cheese with egg. Pour turkey mixture into pie pan.

Pour Cottage Cheese mixture over turkey.

Top with Shredded Cheddar Cheese.

Then place Tomato Slices on top and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Makes 8 servings, 164 calories each.

I MADE THESE CHANGES:

*Substituted 1 lb turkey with 1 lb 97/3 hamburger

*Left the onion out because we forgot to get some.. but onions definitely would have been good in it!

*Substituted Bisquick with 1 roll Pilsbury Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls

*Left out the tomato

*Added seasoning to the meat.. actually could have used a little more, so we're remembering that for next time! :)

***The changes we made added about 30 calories & 2g of fat per serving.

Since it was the only thing I ate for supper, I had more than just one serving. The meat was a little too much for me but probably would've been better with more seasoning & onions. Otherwise I really liked it! The boo loveeed it :). It's very easy to make and doesn't need a WHOLE lot of crazy ingredients.. so yeah, a winner for sure!

Source: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=458851

Oh, the irony

You know how Subway's main advertising theme is the fresh fit subs, and how Jared's always telling us how he lost weight eating there? Weeelllll the boo & I went to Subway for lunch today, and check out what I saw at the register:

Uh, yeah, ONE WILL HURT! At least me anyway, ha ha. Just found it kind of ironic that they advertise being a healthy option, but once you're there they try to convince you to buy all the unhealthy things too! Ah well... I still love my 6 inch subs.

Reevaluating

Obstacles are what you see when

you take your eye off the goal.

I've needed to write this post for a long time, but I'm still not sure exactly what to say. It feels as if I'm at this crossroads in my life. It's time to reevaluate not only my weight loss but just my life in general.

I lost a whopping 3 pounds in January and am sitting at 199, my first plateau since starting this WL journey. I don't even know if I can really call it a plateau because I've been eating terribly and not exercising at all. I've been discouraged, lazy, out of control, unhappy, lost... it seems as though all the things that led me to being overweight will never go away. I'm sure a lot of you have gone through this... just being TIRED of thinking about food and exercise and calories and muffin tops and just ready to LIVE. However, I know that I can't live the life I imagine until I am happy with myself. So this week I sucked it up and have been putting forth an honest effort. I still feel overwhelmed.. but refuse to allow a couple of months off plan to turn into a couple of years.

As far as everything else goes.. I can't even put it into words. It's like... ugh, idk. I want to make a difference in the world. I want things to be better because I've lived. Right now it feels like I'm doing the same things day after day and not getting any satisfaction from it. I don't like the thought of just getting by every day... inside, I know there has to be something more. God? Charity? Traveling? Friends? Family? Career? I don't know what it is, but something is missing. A lot of these feelings are feelings I've always had, but they're of this new intensity that makes them hard to push to the back of my mind. It's like time is ticking and my life is just passing me by. I want to change it, but I'm afraid. I've lived like this for so long that I don't really know how to change it or how I would emotionally handle it (geez, it all sounds really crazy when put into words like this... I hope this makes some kind of sense).

Writing all of this brings me to tears.. I'm so thankful and appreciative of the life I live and the wonderful, amazing people in it, and in no way am I saying that they're not enough; I simply feel lonely and lost. Maybe I'm just growing up and starting to realize there could be so much more to life... or maybe it's just a phase. I don't know.

I'm pretty sure I'm rambling so I guess I'll end this... I'm already behind on reading for my classes so I need to get to that! I'm back though, for sure. Want proof? Check out this sweat I worked up doing the 30DS a little bit ago:

I don't think you get the full effect from the picture (I was seriously drenched), but there you have it! If anyone else is going through a hard time right now, let's do this together. Get back on track, get back to being healthy, and get back to reaching our goals. No more excuses - only actions. :)

as always,

Carissa