Good morning! I had a good week. Not as fantastic as last week, but it was still good. Which is very good considering I only met my calorie target 4 out of the last 7 days. And this weekend is another doozy. I’m hosting a baby shower here at 11. Tonight I’m going to a pajama/birthday party for a friend, where we’re all supposed to bring our favorite breakfast food to share. There will be donuts.

And I don’t think they’d be interested in my protein shake. What do you think?

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and we’ll be at my in-laws for a large, social dinner most likely. I’ll get through it the best I can.

I’m down .6 pounds from last week. I went up a bit after the weekend, and it took the week to get it back off. I’m down an inch in my hips, up a half inch in my waist, and my chest and thighs are the same. However, My thighs look different to me. Those nasty little pockets of pudge just below my butt are smaller, so I’m probably balancing out the loss with growing quads. (I’m doing lunges). In the front I’m noticing a difference, too. There’s a very unattractive line of sag, low on my stomach that is softer. A little less defined. Woo hoo!

I’m very happy I was able to exercise this week. My back is better. My hip and knee are behaving for now. It’s good!

How was your week?

Happy Mother’s Day!

Why is it so hard to eat? The weekend was bad because I had a social dinner all three nights. So I went over my calorie target by a bit each night, but not nearly as much as I would have without the diet. And I’m learning. But then Monday came around, and I’m back to struggling to get enough. Dinner ends up being a big, calorie catch-up meal after eating almost nothing during the day.

This is ridiculous.

So I’m trying to focus on eating smaller, regular meals throughout the day again. It isn’t that hard, I just have to pay enough attention to the clock to notice when mealtimes come and go.

On the faroese shawl, I’ve finished wrapping up the pattern diamonds, and I’m just doing a few more rows of seed stitch before binding off.

I’m so excited. I want to get back to my Sea Silk Stole, the Uptown Boot Socks, and I need to get started on those fingerless gloves for Mary.

Wow. What a week. I’m totally bugged I couldn’t exercise after Monday, but my back is a lot better. I’m hurting at the moment sitting on a barstool at the computer, but I am much better now than I was on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I’m still in love with CalorieKing. It’s been so interesting to see how calories and nutrients add up in a day. I’m not struggling as much to make it up to my recommended calories, but I frequently have a couple hundred extra at the end of the day, so I enjoy a hazelnut steamed milk, or an italian soda sometimes. Thursday night, I had 32 Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate baking chips (those are the big ones) and was still in good standing with the diet. How is this possible?

Also on Thursday, I wore a pair of jeans that I haven’t been able to wear comfortably in several months. It felt really good.

I weigh 222.6 today. Which means I’ve lost 2.4 pounds this week (only exercising once, remember) for a total of 5.2 pounds in just shy of two weeks.

I thought it would be more, since I was 221.8 yesterday and I’ve been going down every day. But last night we had people over and I ate a very heavy dinner, plus one cookie which put me over my calorie target by 190 calories. I was going to walk it off on the treadmill later, but by the time they left, I was really tired, so I just went to bed.

So here we are again this week. I’m eating more. I’m losing weight. My calorie percentages are as follows

50.8% from carbs
23.9% from protein, which is a little higher than recommended
25.3% from fat

CalorieKing is awesome. It tracks everything. Here are my nutrients averaged since I started

Daily Averages

food calories: 1,798 cals
exercise minutes: 22 mins
exercise calories: 116 cals
net calories: 1,682 cals
fat: 51 g
saturated fat: 14 g
carbohydrate: 231 g
sugar: 80 g
protein: 109 g
fiber: 26 g
sodium: 2,365 mg
potassium: 1,246 mg
calcium: 1,481 mg
iron: 6.3 mg
zinc: 2.4 mg
cholesterol: 122.6 mg
effective carbohyrate: 182 g

This is so cool. And again, it’s easy because they aren’t telling me what to eat. I can eat what’s available (making healthy choices, but still) and I’m losing.

CalorieKing also tracks measurements.

I’ve lost 1/2 inch in my chest
1 1/2 inches in my waist
1 inch in my hips
and 1/2 inch in my thighs

since last Saturday.

I can tell, too. The past few days, when I’ve put my hands on my hips, my waist has felt smaller. You can imagine, I’m sure, how nice that’s been.

Blah, blah, blah. Me, me, me. I’m sorry. I’m just so excited. I’ve been stalled out for SO LONG. Months at a time of checking in every Saturday at Health Group only to say, “I’m a loser. I haven’t done anything. I’m eating bad, I’m not exercising…..”

I’m happy to have something different. And I’m thrilled that it’s been so incredibly easy. Surprised that it’s been this successful. Fascinated by what I’m learning.

So, I’m going to try to exercise today. Lightly so I don’t mess up my back more. There’s a big family dinner tomorrow and I’ve discovered over the past two weeks that social eating is when I have trouble. I’m going to try really hard not to blow it.

How was your week?

Good morning. It’s been a very interesting week for me.

You all know I signed up with CalorieKing.com on Monday, so I’m 5 days into it. The program they have me on is a daily calorie target of 1690 calories a day, plus however many calories I burn in exercise. I’m supposed to exercise 150 minutes a week. They suggest 5, 30 minutes sessions. Once a week I record my weight and measurements.

There’s a place to record exercise, water, and food. They break it down into different nutritional elements. One day, although I was well within my recommended percentage of fat, a little tag popped up telling me that I’d had too much saturated fat. I was surprised and looked at what I’d eaten, and the breakdown they do as to what’s in it. It was the dairy. I’d had butter on bread a couple times for a snack, and a cup of 1% milk, and cheese. The butter was the main culprit, but all the saturated fat in the dairy added up.

It’s been fascinating to see how foods add up during the day, and what meals have what calories, and that I seem to eat higher calorie lunches and smaller dinners.

What’s been really weird is to see that I have to work at eating enough. I’ve heard of overweight people that hardly ate a thing, but I didn’t think I was one of them, probably because of the days when I eat a ton. But that’s not my norm. My metabolism must be totally screwed up. I know now that on a normal day, I don’t get enough calories, and then periodically, I’ll go nuts and eat a ton, mainly when desserts or snacks are available. So I’m guessing that my body hangs on to all of it.

The first two days I ate a lot of carbs. I noticed at the end of Monday that I was way shy of my recommended calories and carbs, so I made a huge bowl of pasta and still fell short by 331 calories. (The website of course didn’t believe that I hadn’t eaten enough, so it’s automatically generated comment the next day was to make sure I remembered to record all of my meals).

I was extremely tired in the afternoons on Monday and Tuesday, I assume from the jump in carbs and blood sugar levels, but since then, I’ve felt great. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I’m feeling hunger more. Considering I’m eating more, this wouldn’t make much sense except that I’ve already experienced something similar with water.

I used to live extremely dehydrated without even knowing it, years ago. (I haven’t been very good to my body, apparently). Once I realized, and started drinking water, I was suddenly thirsty ALL THE TIME. The more I drank, the more thirsty I felt. 16 glasses of water a day, and I’d go to bed thirsty. After awhile, it died down but I’d still feel thirsty a lot. If I ignore the thirst and don’t drink, after a little bit, the thirst goes away, too.

I’m experiencing the same thing with hunger this week, in that I feel it a lot more. I feel hungry when I wake up in the morning (this never, ever happens). I’m hungry halfway between breakfast and lunch, so I eat a little snack. I’m hungry at lunch. I’m hungry between lunch and dinner. Hungry at dinner, then I’m good for the night.

So I’m eating. More than I normally do. And I’m content. I’m not craving anything. I’m snacking on good things, watching my percentages on the website, recording everything….

It’s very labor intensive, and the first half of Monday, it was a total pain in the butt. But then it became fascinating, and now I feel like I’m learning a lot about my body and how to take care of it.

It feels weird being on a diet and eating pretty much whatever I want. The best part is that I’m not afraid of food. I don’t have to feel guilty for eating. As long as I keep track of it, I know where I am in my daily allotment. In the afternoon, I can look at my percentages and see what I should focus on for dinner (ie more carbs or more protein). It’s completely awesome.

So, I’ve lost 2.8 pounds since Monday.

And I’m eating more.

I had two soft bean burritos from Taco Time for lunch on Tuesday. How is this possible?

Yesterday was my first day of Calorie King. I was supposed to eat 1690 calories, plus whatever calories I burned exercising (295 I think, depends on where you look). I couldn’t do it, and it felt stupid to eat something sweet just to meet my calories, so I ended up being 331 calories shy of my target.

That is just so weird to me.

We’ll see how today goes. I added 2 oz of banana to my shake this morning to give me a little more calories. I like that the program tracks water consumption. That’s something I like to do anyway, so it’s nice to keep it all in one place.

On the faroese shawl, I’m about done with skein #5. Two left, but I’m thinking I’m going to need more skeins.

It’s so pretty. I can’t wait to see it blocked.

Sorry I missed Saturday again. BUT, April is essentially over! At least in my mind, so I can relax. The wedding was wonderful. The reception was wonderful. We won the softball game on Saturday. The baptism was wonderful. The huge family gathering afterwards was wonderful. The visit with my family has been wonderful.

It’s all good.

In sad news, my neighbor died, so I wasn’t able to give her the shawl as I was hoping to. Lesson learned, next time (if this kind of situation comes up again), I’ll make a pair of socks. I’m actually quite irritated at myself for thinking too big and not going with socks in the first place. It didn’t occur to me until I was well into the shawl. Considering the time I’ve put in, I so could have finished a pair of socks in time to gift them and express the love I was hoping to. Dangit.

Health Group-

I’m joining Calorie King today. Now that the craziness of April is over, I feel like I can actually devote some time and energy to my health again. I’m very excited about it.

How was your week?

I think I’m going to sign up with CalorieKing.com. It was recommended to me, and I’m going to give it a shot.

How was your week?

Sorry. I’m not discussing my health this week. I’m refiguring, and am not yet at a place of conversation.

I’d love to hear all about how your week went, however. Do tell.

Happy Easter! May you either have the strength to refuse or the ability to guiltlessly enjoy. However you choose to spend your holiday, have a wonderful one.

Good morning.

On Thursday I started a “home” version of the Pro Club’s 20/20 Lifestyles diet. Or something similar. I have two friends that have done really well on it, and they’ve been coaching me. Basically, it’s similar to South Beach, it’s similar to what I’ve been trying to do anyway, but more strict. Shakes, and lean protein for two weeks. Then add vegetables. Then add moderate dairy. Then add beans and legumes. Then brown rice. Then slowly add in everything else you like to eat, watching for blood sugar and craving triggers.

You HAVE to exercise to chemically break up the insulin resistance built up on fat cells (as far as I remember from hearing about it 8 months ago).

You HAVE to drink at least 8 cups of water a day. (Which I’ve been doing on and off forever).

So, I’m two days into it. It’s going great. I’m feeling great. It isn’t that much of a change for me because like I said, I’ve been sort of doing it for months, but not strictly. So now I’m really doing it, with no indulgences. No desserts. No simple carbs. No slip ups.

I’m pretty excited, of course, tonight is the semi-annual “banana splits for dinner” party my mother-in-law throws for the women and the children in the family while the men go off to a church meeting. And I’ll be eating a strawberry shake!

Yesterday, I hit the treadmill for 35 minutes. Thursday, I went for a couple short walks up big hills and did lunges. Today is a physical therapy and weights day. I weighed in at 223.4 which is pretty low for me.

Here we go.

How was your week?