Use Your Tools- Food Journals

Hey Y'All Divas. I'm down 6.8 pounds so far!!!!! Wooo Hoooo!!!!

I must admit using tools to help and having a plan sure does relieve some of the anxiety and stress that go with trying to lose weight. So far we've had several discussions that have worked to lay some sort of foundation.

We've been doing a lot of home remodeling recently so I'm probably going to sound more like a contractor here when I start going on and on about tools. You can't build a house if you don't have any tools. Just think....how can we get the 2x4's to even stand up if we don't have a hammer? Well the same goes for trying to lose weight. We need a plan just like a builder needs blueprints. The plan tells us what to do, which tools to use and when.

One of my favorite tools is the food journal. I read a very good article in Good Housekeeping online over the weekend. Here is the link http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/advice/food-diary-diet-success

It states that most people who don't journal until the end of the day or not all, but just by recall, are missing up to 38% of their calories consumed. This can put you waaaayyyyy off course and delay your progress greatly. It would be like taking one step forwards and 1/2 step back every day. It will take you soooooo much longer to get where you are going if you are not completely accurate in your journaling. One of my favorite sayings is, "If you bite it, you write it." This is true. Also ladies.... let's be honest here, some us live in a whip cream bowl filled with denial. IF YOU BITE IT, YOU WRITE IT!!!!! YES that means if you eat 3 peanuts at Texas Roadhouse, you write it. YES if you finish your 3 yr old's orange juice box, you write it. YES if you eat one of your kid's chicken nuggets because you felt bad throwing it in the trash when they were done, you write it! Yes you write down everything.

I know this seems cumbersome having to carry around a journal and write EVERY L-I-T-T-L-E thing you pop into your mouth but hey...if that's what it takes for us to finally achieve success then I'm all for it. Especially with all the cool and neat little toys out there to help us. If you can afford it Divas I highly recommend treating yourself to an i-Phone. There are dozens of applications out there for the i-Phone that can help you journal. They range from simple journals to Weight Watchers and other online services that sync up with your phone and allow you online access as well.

My personal favorite is "Food Scanner" and "Daily Burn". You can get them through the i-tunes store. They both work hand in hand on the i-Phone and all you have to do when preparing foods or eating is use your camera and scan the bar code on the package. Then wha-la (choirs of angels singing), your phone pops ups with all the nutritional info you need to record accurately. If the food you eat does not have a bar code such as an apple, then you can just look up the food by doing a search on the phone and it will pull it up. It's AWESOME!!!!! I just love, love, love my i-Phone.

Anyways.....I'll try to keep this one short today. The article in Good Housekeeping was great, tools are AWESOME, i-Phone are Heaven Sent. Now go build yourself a new body and do it right!!! Remember.... IF YOU BITE IT, YOU WRITE IT!!!!

Happy Journaling ladies.

Offsetting A Bad Food Day With Exercise and Water

Thursday was a strange day Divas~ One of those days I'm sure we'll all go through at some point or another. My monthly visitor is almost here and I have been CRAVING something sweet. So..... the sweets monster came out and all reason went out the window. My will power totally broke into a million pieces. No amount of prayers were going to save me. I CAVED. I had about a 600 calorie binge. OMG!!!!!!

What's worse (and lesson learned here). I did not use my tools properly. Usually I keep my iPhone handy and use it to journal my food by getting onto the Internet and using www.calorieking.com. (It helps me make better choices). But NOT TODAY!!!!! Did you know that the Subway Tuna 12" sub has almost 1000 calories? OH HELL NO!!! I did NOT just suck down almost 1600 calories in one sitting for lunch. Not to mention I still had dinner to go and I already had breakfast.

So thank goodness housework was in my plan today. (It burns as much calories as walking at a steady pace). I deep cleaned for 3 hours and then hit a Zumba class. And I drank lots of water. At the end of the day, when all was said and done I consumed about 2800 calories but surprisingly, I burned about 4000 STILL leaving a deficit of over 1000 calories so I made my goal anyways. The Heavens were smiling down on me and they have been watching over me so I have to give thanks for that at the very least.

Here are the fine points of today's lessons learned, if you gotta binge and you just can't resist, then a) do it in the morning so you got all day to burn burn burn or correct b) exercise MORE to offset the calories already consumed c) pick exercises that you know will burn more cal/hr. d)drink lots of water e)watch the rest of the calories for the day by using your tools, know what's going in instead of figuring it all out later. You might be pleasantly surprised in the end. I know I was when I stepped on the scale. I still lost weight when I got back on the scale. Woooo Hooo!!!!

Top 10 Reasons to Lose Half of Me

Hey Divas. I thought it would be a fun exercise to make a list of the top 10 reasons why it would be good, nice, fun, whatever to lose half of me. Then.... on those hard days when we're feeling tired, sore, lazy, self loathing and all those other excuses we use to not get up and do what we KNOW we need to do.... I'll have this nice little list to refer to, which I shall post on my refrigerator door near my scale. Deep breath.... here goes.

1. It will be a good example for my daughter to be healthier.
2. My feet, knees, back and other parts won't hurt as much.
3. My long term health costs will be lower and I will save $$$$.
4. I'll hopefully live a longer, fuller life.
5. It's a lot more fun to play in the game than to sit on the side and watch.
6. I'll fit into smaller places, more comfortably, like planes, movies, bathrooms.
7. I'll be able to reach my unreachable parts and see unseeable parts.
8. Better sex, better sex, more sex...get the idea? LOL
9. Let's face it, shopping, shopping and more shopping.
10.I will become more employable and strangers will treat me differently.

I know some of these are cheezy, but hey the list is actually a lot longer than this, but these were the top 10. Make your list today and refer to it often so that you can always remind yourself of why you are taking this journey.

Have a beautiful day.

Never Take Advice From Someone More Screwed Up Than You Are.

OK Divas, this is my "make up" blog since I missed yesterday. And since I just finished writing today's blog, it really got me hot steaming mad as I wrote about my husband's unconscious sabotage efforts.

He really is the most wonderful husband in the world. But let's face it ladies.... My mama always told me to find a set of flaws you can live with and then live with them. Because there is not one of us out there that's perfect. Well... my husband is no exception. I'm sure I'm not either.

When we got married he was a string bean. Six foot and 6 inches tall with a weight of about 205 pounds with a 34 inch waist. He was very disciplined at getting up at 5:30 every day and he used to love running. It was very nice. I on the other hand was always a little on the plump side starting our marriage out at five feet and six inches and weighing 235 on my wedding day. A size 20.

Well over the years, my husband has taken to being my personal advice therapist, telling me all sorts of things I'm doing wrong and right and he goes from one extreme to the next. His mantra has always been....."Honey, never take advice from anyone more screwed up that you...."

Well I just have to laugh at that one. We've been married almost 13 years and in that time his waist has stretched from 34" to 48" and his weight has gone from 205 to 335. A net gain of 14" and 120 pounds in 13 years. My stats are bad, but not as bad as his. I started out with a 44" waist and I'm now at 55" and my weight has gone from 235 to 300. A gain of 65 pounds.

So, REALITY CHECK Mr. Wonderful Husband...... I'm not taking ANY MORE DIET advice from you. You've gained almost double the amount of weight than I have in the same period of time. NOTHING you can say can help me. Honestly... I don't know how he thinks he's an authority on weight loss when his addictions to things like greasy hamburgers and Dr. Pepper have put him in his own predicament. And he thinks that just because he's taller that it makes him "healthier". Well all I can say is HA!!!! to that.

The same would apply to all you lovely ladies. I believe in truth. I believe in others telling me the truth, but it's a hard pill for me to swallow when the person giving you the pill acts Holier Than Thou and their situation is worse than yours.

Be selective in whom you take advice from. If their advice makes you feel anxious, nervous, angry or resentful, then it's not good advice. Just go with your heart and gut instinct. The saying is true, "Don't take advice from anyone more screwed up than you are." Good words to live by honey, now please be quiet and stop telling me how to lose weight.

PS. I love you.

Sabotage

Whenever I start a new diet/health program, there are always those people in my life that, for one reason or another and either consciously or subconsciously, will try and put a kink in my plan to get healthy. For years (and I do mean YEARS), I have allowed those people control in my life. Well here we are at yet another new beginning and all the naysayers come out from the woodwork. My husband is the worst about this.

I'll work out hard during the day. I'll be sore and tired and sometimes, I'll just not feel like cooking dinner. So sue me. So I always have some quick healthy choices on hand like sandwiches, fruit, eggs, etc. There are some nights that if I've had a rough day, I consider it a success to sit and just eat a quick tuna sandwich on whole wheat with some strawberries and grapes and call it a "healthy" dinner. My husband refuses to accept this. He wants a MEAL, "a Man's Meal", he says. A freshly cooked, hot meal. Not something re-heated in the oven or microwave. And since I don't have the energy to get up and make meat and potatoes, he wants to take us all out to eat for pizza, Mexican food, whatever is the unhealthy. Hoorrraaaayyyyy. NOT!!!!!!! Sometimes I just wished he cooked. (Note to self- In the afterlife, I want a husband that cooks. Oh wait, I'm sealed to this one for eternity so I guess I'm stuck. Anyways....It's the little things like this where his support would be really nice.

In the past, BEFORE I had my epiphany, I would actually get in the car and give in (give up my power) and go with him out to eat because I didn't want to argue and secretly I guess I just didn't care all that much. Of course, on the way there I would tell my self, there are lots of healthy choices I could make like salads, chicken breast and on and on. But once we got seated at our table and they bring the bread or whatever goodies are served before the meal, I would not have the strength to resist french fries, ranch dressing, grease, steak, butter, salt and the whole lot of it all. So I'd eat. BAD, BAD, BAD. Then I'd feel guilty. Then I'd feel like a failure and then I'd be angry, not only at myself but at him as well. Because I thought that if he "loved" me that he would not put me in harm's way of sabotaging my good sense.

Well, it has already begun. Twice this week he's wanted to eat out. So what can I do? I'll TELL you what I can do. I can call him up on his cell and tell him BEFORE he comes home that I don't feel like cooking, here are his choices and if he doesn't want salad or something quick at home then (on his way home if he wants to eat),he can he just drive by and pick up a salad/chili from Wendy's (a healthy choice). Get Subway. Another healthy choice or pick up whatever his heart fancies.... but if it's fast food and he wants to stuff his face with junk till he's sick, at least I won't have to be an accomplice or be tempted. Then he can drive home AFTER all the drama is over and keep me out of it? I really prefer not to have the temptation. It's just safer that way for me.

Stand your ground Divas. Remove yourself from the danger if you need to but remember, The Big Fat Truth #3 is that you have to look out for #1 first if you're ever going to be around to continue taking care of everyone else. Don't be hard on yourself because you exercised hard and your body is too tired to cook. You can maybe plan ahead and put some freezer meals in the fridge..... but there will still be those days when you just have to say, "Hey, I can't do it all so this is how it is."

Introductions Please!!!

Okay, so here's The Big Fat Truth......I've been contemplating a blog for a long, long, VERY long time and have just been too lazy, tired, busy or preoccupied to get started. Yeah, yeah, yeah. WHATEVER!!! Blah, blah, blah.

So here I am, a 38 year old morbidly obese (I hate those words) mommy of a precious 3 yr. old princess and CEO wife of a very successful busy, busy entrepreneur. My life is crazy! Full of madness and absolutely NO schedule. I come from a wacky pack brand of looney toon relatives and the list goes on and on. As you can read, my life to this point has been full of excuses. And excuses...., quite frankly, have gotten me nowhere. So recently I had that moment, you know.... the one where the light bulb goes "bing!!!!" and all of a sudden you can see EVERYTHING in your life that's wrong and you see clearly the reasons why. Well my moment, (which I shall share later) struck me so hard to the very core that all I could do was cry..... for DAYS AND DAYS!!! I cried. And I realized for the first time that everything that I have blamed on everyone else for so long that was wrong in my life is and has been because of ME!!!! Because I LET IT BE that way. Shame on ME!!!! And the tears fell and fell. So with the beginning of this blog is the beginning of a new me and a journey that I hope you will take too as we go along.

So let's start our journey together and realize that WE are the only thing stopping ourselves from achieving our dreams. Whatever they may be. Nothing can stop us... not excuses, fear, laziness or uncertainty. Let the journey begin.