14 days can change your life...

I have been doing the slim-fast diet for two weeks now.  I am down 7lbs in two weeks!  That is way better than I have every thought I could do.  I still have my splurges, but I try to limit it to one day a week and then the rest I go back to being strict on my diet.  I have also been walking 3mph for at least 30 min each day no matter what.  I do get tired but I am feeling better about it.  I want to start to try waking myself up an hour earlier and getting a morning workout done as well as my afternoon one.  That will give me an hour a day of exercising and they say anything is better than nothing.  I am down to 247lbs!  That is almost 10lbs down from when I started this blog.  I'm not sure if blogging about it is helping with my determination or not but maybe I can change something for someone else out there.  Maybe they will decide to day is the day I will change my life.  Day by day is the only way to do it.  Although I have a goal of being down to 220lbs by December, I only take my diet day by day.  With the help of myfitnesspal.com app on my iPhone I track my daily calories and exercise.  That has been a huge help for me.  You don't realize how many calories you are consuming until you see them listed out for you.  If you don't lie to yourself there you can learn that eating ONE cheese stick has 100 calories!  I know.  It's unbelievable, but before I was tracking my eating habits I would eat a hamburger with 4 or 5 cheese sticks.  That meal alone was worth what most people would have in an entire day.  My body has had that for so long it doesn't know what a good meal should be so with the help of that app I am now eating what my body should have, not what I want.  Give it a try... add me as a friend (morguejunkie), and we can do this healthy living challenge together!

Little by little we march on.

Well, I have been doing ok on the slim-fast diet.  It's hard because I love food and want to eat everything that looks good to me but I am trying to resist.  We are coming onto our second week and I am down 4lbs so far!  Woohoo!  I have been walking for a half an hour each evening on my treadmill and I think it's starting to help too.  My belt needs to be tightened a notch, my shorts seem looser and when I look down I see boobs and no belly!  lol.  Day by day I can do this.  I am only trying to work on it one day at a time and when I am staying at my place alone it works well.  I don't feel the need to make myself eat at night.  When my mom stays with me to work thurs-sat night it's harder because she eats at night.  She won't eat at all during the day but will eat a small dinner and then junk-food at night.  She brings chips or ice cream and then leaves it and it's just temptations I don't need or want.  I am going to make this move to the middle of nowhere count for something!  I will make myself a healthier person here before I move on.  I continue to march on.... 4lbs lighter.

Hard work means nothing without determination.

I have been ignoring my goals.  It happens so easily to me.  I get busy with what is going on in my life and completely ignore everything else that should matter to me.  Lets change that now!  Yesterday an employee of mine said her sister started selling the "Body by Vi" stuff.  Basically it's a diet shake that you drink instead of a meal.  She was asking me what the difference was between doing that and using Slim-Fast.  Basically, I can't think of anything except Slim-Fast has lots of products now and you have 3 snacks a day plus 2 shakes and 1 healthy meal.  Body by Vi has the shakes and some gross cookies you are suppose to eat for a snack.  I'm not sure what a price difference is, but we made a wager about it...  Her sister is using the Body by Vi method, she is going with good ole fashioned diet and exercise and I am going to try the Slim-Fast diet and see what happens in 3 weeks before she leaves to go off to college.  I have done the Slim-Fast diet before and lost weight, but as always, it's a fad diet in which you lose weight while you are doing it but it isn't a healthy way of keeping it off.  Once you quit the shakes and resume eating regular food you usually gain the weight back.  At least that has always been my experience.  Determination has set in.  It is my goal to win this three week competition.  Slim-Fast shall prevail!  lol.....

Humankind is weak

Stress at work makes me starve myself all day. I had a worker tell me they need off all weekend and I have no one to work in their place so I will be doing tripple the work I usually do now. I didn't eat anything all day and then when I came upstairs I ate a big meal and now I am going to bed. It is had for me to change my lifestyle. How do I make the right decisions when accessibility to junk is so much easier?

Mind over Matter

Getting your mind put into a place where it sees food as only a fuel isn't as easy as it sounds.  The logic behind it makes perfect sense, it's being able to eat what is good for you opposed to what your brain tells you is going to taste good is the hard part.  I am armed with the knowledge of what to do, I just need to make the willpower to put all of those concepts into action.  Yesterday was a long day.  Stayed fairly busy all day at the cafe.  In the morning I am not hungry at all and only want my coffee fix.  At about 9 A.M. I make my slim-fast shake and that lasts me until about 1-1:30 P.M. then I start getting hungry.  My mind automatically thinks things like hamburger and fries or chicken strips with sweet & sour.  Both of those things being regulars I cook during the day and know those aren't the healthiest choices I could make.  The last couple days I have been pretty good eating a wrap or carrots to tide me over, but then night time is my downfall.  I have chips, ice cream and candies in my apartment that are so appealing to me before bed.  I need to clean house and move in more fresh veggies and fruits to help me stop the junk food binging in the evening.  I did not walk on the treadmill last night instead opting to walk around the woods at my parents property.  I guess the extra swinging of the arms to swat away the bugs counts are arm exercise too.  Lol

Every day is the first for something

Well, I definitely have come to realize that I like food.  Like all Americans I have been made to look at junk food as good food.  Re-programing ones mind is going to be the difficult task.  How does a "slim" person see food.  I have a friend who lives in Las Vegas and every time we get together we always end up going out to eat.  While eating he thinks about how much he is going to have to run later to work off all of this food.  Afterwards, if he ate too much he complains about how his stomach hurts and he wishes he could just throw-up to release the pressure.  Now, I am totally not condoning any form of eating disorder because I know they are a severe psychological problem that needs to be dealt with but is that how I am suppose to look at food?  How am I suppose to train myself to see food as only fuel and not something enjoyable?  I do not exercise above and beyond my daily activities that quite often are strenuous but realize that it is an important part of weight-loss.  How does one look at a bag of chips and say to themselves, "oh, I will have to exercise an extra hour if I eat those!?"  My mind is just not programmed to do that.  Now my mission is to clear out the junk foods in my apartment and research how to retrain ones mind to look at food in only a body sustaining substance. 

Idle hands are the devils play-things

The day went fairly well. Slim fast for breakfast, a small oriental chicken wrap for lunch and then my work day was over. I went out to tend to my horses and then came home and walked for 30 minutes on a treadmill. Now being left alone, not really tired I have found myself to be hungry. Night time is my weakness. I snack before bed and that ruins me. No evening eating is my first goal.