Thirteen days ago I announced my weight loss initiative. I have learned so much in such a little time. I am pretty disheartened that it took me 28 years to learn these lessons, but better late than never I suppose. Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. Keep them coming as I have learned so much from you all that have already vastly improved my health.
When I began this process, I really did not want to calorie count. It wasn't that I was scared of counting, I just believed that if I ate healthy meals and listened to my body when I was hungry that I would be good. Well, as I am sure that is a very good approach for some, after one day of attempting to calorie count I realized that my body has no idea what it is talking about. My friend recommended a really awesome website that makes calorie counting quite easy and not very time consuming. This website, www.caloriecount.about.com, informed me that if I want to lose the amount of weight I want to in a healthy time frame, I would need to be moderately active and eat only 1600 calories a day. Well, after I entered in my information for that day, I admit I was feeling hungry and wanted to see how much more I could eat. Well, it turns out I was already +200 calories over the recommended allotment. I went to bed hungry.
So, all this to say, if you are like me and you are trying to get back to a healthy weight, "listening to your body" is probably not the way to go. Listen to someone else who is actually healthier than you.
Another realization through this calorie counting website (I have only been using it for a few days), is that I have an exorbitant amount of sodium in my diet. I was shocked to find this out as I don't add salt to anything and I am avoiding junk food like the plague. Well, it turns out the meats one normally eats to "be healthy" like turkey and tuna have a huge amount of sodium in them. What do you all eat that is low in sodium but still filling? I realize that I do need to up my intake of fruits and veggies as well. I eat a lot, but I can eat even more.
On the exercise front, God is helping me make great strides of improvement. I have been more consistent with exercise in these past two weeks than I have been since high school. Still, I have a long way to go. I ran two miles this past week without walking. I know that may sound like nothing to many of you, but for me, this is a small victory. I am continuing to push myself and only wish I had more time to give to this endeavor. But, the good thing is I haven't given up yet. Usually by this point I get so discouraged by how slow I am or how hard it is to run, that I just give up. Pray that I continue to get stronger and that I have a positive attitude. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to exercise.
You can continue to track my progress here. As you will notice, I started to track my calories earned and burned. I have lost one pound thus far and got my first compliment yesterday at choir practice that I am "looking svelte." Haha, I do think even though the weight is slowly coming off, that my flab is turning into muscle. At least I sure hope that's true. Otherwise, I'm going to go have a chocolate milkshake.
5 comments:
You go, girl! So proud of you. I know it's tough, but you've got the gumption to do it. I always thought the first three weeks of trying to get into shape via diet and exercise were the hardest. After that, it will begin to get easier, and your body will begin to anticipate running. And two miles is no slouch of a distance. It's going to take me a while to get back to that when I do that again!
Way to go Lauren! I tried that calorie counter a couple months ago and got too obsessed about trying to fulfill all the daily requirements. I'd probably go broke if I really tried to do it better.
But keep it up and you'll lose the weight :D
You inspire me! I need to get my blog back up in running. I've lost about 60 lbs since october. Still going. I work out 6 days a week and I write down everything using the daily plate on www.livestrong.com. I totally agree that it really helps to make you realize just what you are putting into your body! One thing you need to make sure of though... log your activity too. That 1600 is net calories. So if you walk for an hour and burn 300-350 you can actually eat 1950. You don't want your body to go into starvation mode!
With the sodium, the easiest thing to do is avoid canned and processed meats (ie lunch meat). Chicken, pork, fish, and beef are not bad at all on their own but avoid sausage. Oh and those frozen dinners, canned soups, etc are also really terrible. A great way to get a filling cheap meal is to go with a lean protein (grilled) and a plate of grilled vegetables for dinner. If you must have a starch i always do a sweet potato. I've pretty much cut the rice, pasta, potatos out of my diet and after a while really don't miss them.
Good luck and i can't wait to read up on your progress!
Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone. And thanks for the sodium tips, Aubrey. Congrats on losing 60 pounds. That's awesome! Send me the link to your blog sometime.
That is great, Lauren. You are quite right about "listening to your body." Our bodies are as deceitful as our hearts -- they want, and want, and want.
Aubrey has excellent advice on the sodium. Eating fresh food as opposed to canned or preserved food is the best way we have found for dealing with sodium. So, for lunch meat we've started doing a 2 lb. roast on Monday and then shredding it up for lunch meat the rest of the week -- no sodium in that and it tastes just as good (better, really), than store-bought.
We also don't shy away from carbs and starches -- I don't know if you're going with a low-carb plan (I haven't read down to all of the rest of your weight-loss posts), but there are lots of carb foods that are low in calories for how much you get to eat. You can eat a plate full of baked potatoes (with only a _little_ butter and nothing else), rice, pasta, or legumes and yet only have eaten 300 calories. Of course, those foods aren't the tastiest, so we would recommend adding some good spices -- curry power from Sahara Mart makes for some awesome dishes.
Anna is back to the weight she was the summer we got married -- I am sure you could hit her up with any food or exercise questions that you have. Blessings to you and Brandon,
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