17 Day Diet

As you can tell by the title and if you know me at all, you know I am going to try this "new diet plan". Here is the reason why, when I went back to work after being on vacation my co-worker "aka" personal counselor Romo said " do I look different to you" I said "you do" she said " how" I said " you've lost weight", her "can you really tell" me, " yes, I haven't seen you in almost 2 and half weeks". She had been doing the 17 day diet!! Now, unlike me she got the gist of the plan from another co-worker and didn't spend $30.00 on a book that contains all the info. Officer Romo has lost 6lbs in the first week and she cheated a bit on the plan. She is not obsessive about her weight like I am and only needs to lose maybe 10lbs if even. I started the plan on Monday, with only the info that she had given me, as I was still waiting for my book to arrive. Basically you eat 2eggs, 2 yogurts, 2 fruits (only a few certain ones)all before 2pm. Along with these items you can have all the protein and veggies you want. Only fat-free dressings and no condiments unless sugar free or sodium fee. The thing with Monday was I did really good during the day but choose to eat a cup of spaghetti and 2 pieces of french bread and spinach for supper, I had also worked out for 60 minutes. On Tuesday I did the same thing, ate well all day then chose to eat 2 tacos for supper, however I did not go to the gym. Today I did the same thing ate well during the day, went to the gym and did 40 minutes on the elliptical then came home and had lettuce with tuna, tomatoes, red peppers and some lite dressing. I was still starving so I melted cheese between 2 tortilla shells. Let me tell you..... something went very, very wrong and I got the worst stomach-ache and ended up in the bathroom. What happened there? Punishment for eating what I shouldn't have had. One day I will learn. hahah The thing with starting on Monday was lack of planning on my part, as I didn't' plan our supper meals with food I could have, like turkey or chicken. Enough with the not planning. As I am typing this blog, I have chicken breasts in the crockpot, enough for the next couple of days.

Here is how I will eat tomorrow. I will have a clementine around 7:30 and another one around 9 or 9:30. At 10:30 I will eat 2 egg beaters omelet style, with spinach, red peppers and celery and banana peppers, seasoned of course with a Mrs. Dash, tomato basil and a yogurt. I will be at work so if they have a cooked veggie I like I will have that as well. Around 1:30 I will have another yogurt and some sort of raw veggies. Supper will be veggies and chicken breast!! I have been drinking lots of water. I didn't have pop for 3 days until tonight when I just had to have it. Romo said no pop, but after reading the book, it says you can have dt. I think she tricked me so I would quit drinking it!! hahah The other co-worker has lost 10lbs and she is still on her 1st 17 days. If it worked for them it better work for me!!!!!! It says that you should exercise 17 min a day. I got that one down. This is a good plan for me, I think, I am such a carb junkie that this will force me to eat better. I have tried cutting carbs before and let me tell you I am not a nice person to be around. Even though I have had carbs the last 3 days I have not had near the amounts of what I would have eaten before. That is a good thing. Gotta go chop the veggies for the omelet. Be tough, be strong, be real!!!

Semi sort of on track

I am on track with the exercise. My goal for weights is 3x a week, today was the first day I did weights. I did a half hour of weight training on the machines at the gym. My intent was to go to the Body Pump class or do the 30 Day Shred DVD. Here is the 411 on that. The gym is SO CROWDED right now, all the people getting back on track. Good for them, but I just can't make myself go to a class that is so packed you can hardely move. I hope the class won't be as full on Friday or Saturday so I can go. Excuse, no because I actaully used the machines so I still got the weight training in. I did 45 minutes on the treadmill as well. I have had a little trouble with the eating, I can't seem to get full no matter what I eat. I try to make good choices, but I seem to give myself to many choices if that makes sense. It will come so I am not going to beat myself up over it, it has only been 3 days for me. I have been drinking alot more water so that is a plus. Be tough, be strong, be real!!!!!

Sugar, it really is in everything.

I have read many diet/nutrition books and articles in the past. They always seem to talk about sugar. I decided yesterday to check this out a bit more. What I really wanted to check out was how many grams of sugar = a teaspoon. Here is is 4.2 grams= 1 teaspoon. So in something so simple as a yogurt, which we think is healthy because it is low-fat and less than 100 calories, it has a bunch of sugar. I did buy one WW Berries and Cream yogurt today and it has 12 grams of sugar so 2.86 teaspoons of sugar. This flavor is low compared to some. So the question I have is how do you eat when trying to avoid hidden sugars and loads of sodium? I do need to google how much sugar one should have in a day. I have always seen it as "limit your amounts". I would like to find a more concrete answer. Anyone know how many grams you can safely have?

One place of focus for me in 2011 will be "hidden sugar". I am more of a salt person vs a sugar. I can pass on the cookies I want the chips. News flash, time to pay attention to sugar grams on the labels!!!
I got a short 35 minute workout in yesterday and today I got in 65 minutes. My plan is to continue to workout like I did in 2010, however I need and will add weight training to plan. I will start out doing the 30 day Shred or going to the Body Pump class. The challenge is the class is at 5:30 or 7:30, I get off work at 3. I will have to force myself to go to the gym when it is dark and cold out!! If I go by 4:30 I am good, any later and I just want to stay home!! I will make it work!!!

I have planned out my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, my first day back at work in 12 days!! It's gonna be brutal!!!

I must say I have a much better mind set and feeling about what I want to accomplish this year. With that, I intend to make some noticeable changes!!!

Ending 2010

This will be my last post of 2010, I must say that I am happy that this year is coming to and end and I hoping that 2011 will be filled with exciting things.
We are leaving town to spend Christmas with our families in ND, we will be coming back to the cities early on New Years Eve to ring in the New Year here at home.
2010 had many happy things happen throughout the year as well as a handful of sad. One thing I am truly happy for is that it looks like my sister in law might make it back to ND to spend Christmas with the family. the Dr's in TX just have to give her the go- ahead that she is strong enough to get on a plane and fly back!!!

For 2011 my hope it to kick my health and fitness on to a road with less bumps and potholes. I will choose to take the curvy roads when challenges arise. Easier to overcome than bumps and potholes, thus taking some of the pressure off. In 2011 I will challenge myself to remember daily what is important to me. It is not the number on the scale it is being healthy and spending time with friends and family, being the bigger person, digging deeper to find the ability to do something when you really don't want to. These are just a few of the things I have in mind for 2011. I will use the rest of December to come up with the rest of my blue print for 2011.

Happy Holidays to all of you!!! See you back in 2011!!!

Stress, can getcha!

What has been going on with me? Oh, where should we start. At the beginning of the month I was sick, my 1st day at the gym was Dec 5th!! As of today that is my only day at the gym this month. I had really good intentions they just didn't pan out. My sister came into town on Dec 6th for work, I knew that I would be hanging out with her a few nights but thought I could make it to the gym. I went out with her two nights in a row and did not go to the gym first. Bad idea. I was going to meet up with her on Wed after I had gone to the gym, however this is what happened instead. I had called my husband from work Wed morning and he told me that my sister had called him and said that we needed to head back to ND as my sister-law, who has cancer was probably not going to make it through the night. We knew she had been in the hospital but had no idea that she was doing so poorly. My sister and I took off for our 8 hour drive to see her. We arrived at the hospital about 9:30, she was still holding on and we were able to sit and talk with her. We spent the night at the hospital. We stayed until Saturday, she was and is at this time still holding on. Actually they are sending her from ND to Texas to the MD Anderson hospital today. This past week has been so stressful and emotional I can't even discribe it. When I look at all the physical and emotional pain my brother and her are going through it makes me realize I really have nothing to complain about. Not even my weight, or unhealthy ways. I also realize I have done this myself and I am the one who can fix it. I have options and choices, my sister in-law really doesn't have that anymore. So when you are down on yourself and frustrated just remember there are more things in life than the the size we want to be or feel we should be. As long as we are healty we have so very much to be thankful for.

Help me understand this

I have had this tug of war going on inside my head since Thanksgiving. Good to know it has been since then, otherwise I would attribute it to all the cold medicine I have been taking. Anyway here goes. As humans we are always looking for that "magic" or "quick fix' to weight loss. Reality tells us that there isn't one. What works is eat less, move more. So on to the eating less. My friend started selling this weight loss product called Monovie. They have many products, but the one that is interesting to me is the Monovei RVL. It is for weight loss and all natural. It is 2 shakes in the day, a protein bar and a meal of 500-600 calories in the evening, along with this you take a supplement twice a day. She said she was discourage when she first started it and didn't see the results others were having, however when she stepped on the scale she CRIED she had lost 16lbs. ( I think she said she had been using it for 2 weeks). Half my mind screams "try it" and the other half screams "scam". This is where I am confused most diets say you should eat around 1200 calories a day, this shake made with skim milk is 280 calories ( you do 2 a day) and the bar is 100 calories then you eat a 500-600 calorie meal this =1260 calories. So you are getting just as many calories as you would if you were eating fruits and veggies. What would be the difference if you blended up a bunch of veggies and added protein powder, isn't that the same thing? If you look at any diet out there you are suppose to eat more fruits and veggies, have good carbs and limit fats to only the good ones and avoid sugar. Why do we say that diets like this Monovie, or the newest one out there " The 17 day diet" are all quick fixes and the weight will come back on. Doesn't the weight come back on because we don't continue to eat like we should? Or is the problem the fact that we didn't learn to eat real food? Or does if have nothing to do with either of those two and it is all about what is in the supplement? People don't seem to have any problem taking a multi vitamin daily when on a diet plan so what is the difference with this? http://www.monaviervl.com/ If you look at this web site you can click products and it tells you exactly what is in all 3 products, shake, bar and supplement. Help me understand this!!

It starts out good

I made it to the gym both Monday and Tuesday and had great workouts. Not because I had to but because I wanted to. I was off yesterday so that I could do a little Christmas shopping with my husband. I assumed we would go to the gym before shopping, we decided to go after. This is never a good thing for me, I never want to go after being out all day, however I went when we got back, I told him " if I don't go now I won't go at all". Off I went. During our shopping, we had to eat, not a "good choice" we choose Taco Johns, remember it was Taco Tuesday. I never have a taco I always have a meat and potato burrito. As I was eating it, indulging in something that I knew wasn't a good choice, but tasted so darn good, I could hear this clipping noise. Yep some old fart in the corner across from us was clipping his finger nails. SERIOUSLY , why don't you floss your dang teeth to that's just as gross and disgusting. Thank goodness I was almost done with my "guilty pleasure". I am still grossed out by it!! Today my intent was to go to the gym when I got off work, well I went to work for an hour then came home sick. I have a really bad sore throat, runny nose and cough. Laurie did you send me your cold through cyper space? I thought I had virus protection!! Ha ha trying to be funny, it must be the cold medicine taking over my head!!! My co-worker seems to think that I won't be in tomorrow either, she had this and it gets worse before it gets better she said. We will see what tomorrow brings!