52 Weeks

1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 366 days (leap year in 2012, so I get an extra day!) to get off my ass and do something. Finally do something for myself -- not anyone else.

To lose 1 pound each week for the next year would knock off 52 pounds. To get to my goal weight I need to lose 145 pounds. In about 3 years I could lose and HOPEFULLY keep off that weight. 3 years, that's 156 weeks -- seems like a good amount of time to lose that weight. It seems like a reasonable amount of time to lose and keep off weight.

It's an easy enough concept to lose the weight, to exercise, to eat right, but to actually do it is the hard part. For 25 years that's been the hard part -- DOING. But really, to imagine myself 145 lighter is really unimaginable at this point. Unlike you two, I've never seen skinny not even "healthy weight". Ever. Is this what is the mental wall for me? Has this been the blockage for me for 25 years? Diet and exercise, done it, and then I'm right back where I started -- Fat again.

I sit here typing this after I have baked a chocolate cake for no special reason -- just to bake one because it sounded good when I read it in one of my cookbooks. Yes, and I ate a big ol' slice of it -- it's covered in chocolate cream cheese frosting. And it was good. But have I exercised in the last couple days like I had planned and made my goal to do -- no. I haven't even turned on the Kinect to dance, the Wii to exercise, or walked around outside. Lazy.

How do I change this? I need support. Lots of support. Friends, family, strangers. I need someone to truly hold me accountable. A co-worker told me on Tuesday that I looked like I had lost weight. This came from a girl who had never probably seen over weight -- skinny as a rail -- really, I don't know if she has always been skinny or not that's just an assumption. But do I feel like I've lost weight? No. I don't even keep track. I haven't touched my scale in months. My cat has managed to somehow change it from pounds to kilograms -- so when I stepped on the scale to TRY to weight my self I was given this unbelieved and shocking number, and I was like "Whoa, what the crap?" and then I realized it was kg... So yeah, got to get that fixed somehow.

Back to the chocolate cake. It's not that I feel guilty for eating it -- I had to try it to see if it was good. I really just feel crappy after eating it. Too much sugar. Too much everything. 

I don't want to eat the prepackaged diet food, but to be honest, this is what was successful the last time with the addition of fresh fruits and vegetables. I'm going to have to do something to track my calories and junk.

The "No" Diet

I'm not wholly doing a reboot.  I can't afford a juicer right now, plus to afford the juicer and the massive quantity of veggies and such you have to juice...just isn't going to happen...yet.

So...

I'm buying Naked and another brand of all natural juice.  I buy it in the 32 ounce bottle and drink half for breakfast.  I have a salad for lunch.  Dinner has mostly been about three sweet potatoes boiled, drained, and mashed with about a tablespoon or so of organic cream cheese with the occassional ounce or two of chicken or plate of other random assorted veggies (or, like last night, another salad...)  Plenty of water throughout the day.  Fresh fruit and the handful here and there of raw pecans.

No rice, white potatoes, pasta, or bread.  No meat (other than the occassional slice of ham or bit of baked chicken).  No adding butter to veggies (like steam broccoli or green beans).  Very small amounts of cheese (because it's supposed to be NO dairy).  No sweets beyond fruit and juice.  No caffeine.

So far, although I've had moments of seemingly insatiable hunger, it's not really been all that bad.  The hunger gets sated with massive amounts of fruits and veggies.  I've had a piece of candy on one day, a little bit of ice cream on a couple of other days.

And I've lost 6 pounds.

Since Monday.

And that was an afternoon weigh-in versus a morning weigh-in.

Did I mention that I'm terrified that saying this will cause this to stop working?  (And, yes, I've counted.  I'm getting enough calories.)

We went for lunch today, and I ordered sweet potato fries (I know...shouldn't have the fried food.  Sue me.)  and taco soup without the crushed tortillas.  I must say that the three bites I had of the soup was pretty tasty.  Then my child inhaled the rest of it.  I wound up eating two of her tiny chicken fingers to make up for not getting my soup (she wasn't going to eat them anyway.) 

Then we went to Publix, and she found a recipe for Vegeterian Chili that she wanted.  I told her it had sweet potatoes in it (yummy!), but she still wanted to try it. 

What an awesome recipe!  In a dutch oven (or big pot), heat a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add in 3 cups of sweet potatoes (chopped into 1/2" cubes) and 1 chopped onion.  Cook, stirring occassionally, for about 7 minutes (veggies are getting tender).  Add chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic.  Add 1 can diced tomatoes, lime juice, 1 can (drained and rinsed) black beans, 1 can vegetable broth.  Heat until sweet potatoes are soft.  In the future, I could probably do without the lime.  I had mine with a touch of sour cream and shredded cheddar and a generous sprinkling of Tony Chacher's Cajun Seasoning (which is great on just about everything.)

I should note that the rest of the family had a pasta with chicken and alfredo sauce and veggies.  (Of course the child liked the chili, but not the sweet potatoes, and she didn't feel like she could eat around the sweet potatoes.  I was right.  Go figure.)

Whatever

I have no excuse as to why I have not posted since mid-Setptember. I cannot say that I have continued exercising, taking vitamins, nor eating right. Ironically, it is the New Year. Did I make a resolution to lose weight? Eat right? Diet? Eh, none of the above really or anything else. I have never been good at making resolutions for the New Year and definitely not keeping them. As for now, I really just want to be more active with my son. I want to go out and play, walk, and have fun. I know I need to start eating right. Right now, I feel like I am at least succeeding at the eating right part, but we will take this one day at a time. My goal for tomorrow: drink water, lots of it.

Reboot!

Yep.  I'm seriously thinking about it.  I may even go and buy some Green Machine today and get a day or two in (although, really, I am seriously jonesing for some cream cheese mashed potatoes.  Must find excuse for having them before I reboot.

What gave me the idea to reboot?  Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dying.  I watched it (free streamed from Amazon with Amazon Prime.  Also free streamed from Netflix.)  I'm amazed at the idea of the 60 day juice fast, although I think I'll more commit to a shorter regimine.  Like a week or 10 days.  If that goes well enough, maybe we'll bump it up to longer.  Although, the first stage of "commitment" will be working more fruits and veggies into the meals, less other stuff, and adding more juice.

Which, if the mean green juice is anything like the Green Machine juice, I'm so totally in for this!  YUM. 

There are some issues that I may have to work out, like, apparently kale is a goitrogenic vegetable -- as is spinach???  *sigh*  I may just go for it anyway, and see where we go.  (But maybe I'm just getting sick of hearing "you can't".) 

Thoughts, comments? 

I Am NOT a Mind Reader ~ OR ~ Potential for Sugar Coma Over Here...

...With 3 or 4 dozen or so each of sugar cookies (some frosted!) and gingersnaps, plus a blueberry lemon cheesecakey-type confection and cinnamon-sugared pecans.  And there is that pound cake...

Mostly, they are gifts.  (Especially the pound cake and gingersnaps -- those are for my grandparents.  They will also get samplings of the other cookies and cake.) 

The pecans were an attempt to satisfy my dad.  He has been telling me pretty much since I made those spiced pumpkin seeds at Halloween that he wanted some spiced pecans.  Okie-dokie.  No problem.

What kind of spiced pecans?

"I don't know.  Just some spiced pecans.  I've had a recipe over here for a while."

Where?

"On this computer." 

First I've heard of it...

But we print the page...and it's seven pages!  There are at least a dozen, some spicy, some sweetly spiced, etc. 

Which ones are you wanting?

"Any will do."

So I do some that are savory.  "Not bad, but not what I was looking for."

Hrm.  Okay...  Next up.  Cinnamon & Sugar.

"They're good...but not the flavor I wanted."

...

Well, what flavor did you want????

"Hot."

Hot.  Okay.  I can give you hot.  I put in at least two tablespoons of cayenne.  Black pepper.  Tiger hot sauce and Jamaican Hell Fire (which, CRAP, I'm allergic to, and I ate some of the damn things!).  Red pepper flakes.  Some other stuff.

They seem to have little flavor to enhance the pecans, but they have heat.  Lingering heat.

But it's probably not enough....

Alas...Coursing Through My Veins...

Well...I was the one who said I would always make sure to post no matter what. Well, guess what? I have not abided by my own rule. Somehow, the lure of a book is calling me, and I don't have the heart to post today. Perhaps, Thursday will be a better day.

Falling Behind and Being Mary

So, the last post here was November 11th, and I believe it was me.  Where have my two partners in crime gone?

I always say I'm busy, but I often sit back and wonder how it really appears to outsiders.  Yesterday, I ran into someone I rarely see to speak to.  She commented on how busy I am (or at least say I am) on Facebook between work, baking, crocheting, and writing a book.  What am I most impressed with?  That she reads my Facebook, to be honest.

Today, someone else commented on how I'm always baking something and asked why.  So, I started on my laundry list -- Christmas gift for a lady at work, my child's teachers (3 dance teachers and 1 school teacher, although I never think about how she has a different teacher for math and a different teacher for PE), my grandparents, and a couple of other people.  Plus, my name is permanently etched on the dessert list for pot lucks at work and I think it's better for me to bake every week or two and have some sweets made with items I can pronounce and REAL SUGAR!  I'm not one to go back over and over and over again for sweets, and that cake will last at least a week in the house with 4 of us eating it. 

I'm still dancing, although after tonight's class we've got two weeks off.  I still feel like I'm struggling to keep up with what's going on, feeling like we move forward too fast.  It's great, I'm sure, for those who have been doing this for years, but for those of us who are essentially just starting, it's tough.  I made the decision this month to miss one class per month because of girl scout meetings.  I just have to try to make sure that it's not more than one per month.

And, now, on to being Mary.  There is a thing I want to participate in called a mary-a-thon.  You can do the full maryathon (make a commitment to exercise at least 30 minutes per day for 5 days per week for 26 weeks) or a half maryathon (30 minutes per day for 3 days for each of 26 weeks.)  If you mess up, you have to start over -- it must be 26 consecutive weeks.  It can be done anytime in the year.  (But we are talking half a year here, right?)  What do we think?  Shall we do it?