No measurements again this week. It’s interesting how much attending a work conference can set you back not only at work (because you have to catch up on all the work you missed) and in your personal life. I have been so physically and emotionally exhausted to the point that I relapsed into being sick over the weekend. Thankfully, I’m doing better now. There has been some “damage” to my weight loss because of the last couple of weeks, but I’m sure it’ll come off quickly as I get back into the swing of things this week.

Weight

Weight: 233.2 lbs. (+4 lbs.)

Weekly Goals

Here are my goals for the upcoming week:

1. Walk a mile on Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday.
2. Walk/run a mile today, Friday, Saturday, and Monday. I’ll walk for a minute and a half and run for 30 seconds, in intervals.
3. Stay within my calorie limit (1,440 calories) each day and eat no processed sugar. I’ve come up with a meal plan for each day not only to help me with staying within my calorie limit but to help Corey and I stay within our food budget as well. These meal plans include one green juice each day because I know it’ll help me be healthier.
4. Eat more veggies!
5. Go to bed by 10:00 pm and stop using all electronics by 7:30 pm. I’ve been slacking on this and I’ve noticed a huge difference in how I feel both physically and emotionally.
6. Read my scriptures each day, go to church on Sunday, and go to my youth activity on Tuesday.

No weight or measurements this week. I’ve been too busy with my work conference to take the time to do this. Plus, I’ve had a hard week for other reasons and I think measuring would be kind of pointless.

I was sick for most of the week with a horrible intestinal bug. I couldn’t eat anything but a little bit of soup and saltine crackers. And, I couldn’t drink anything but a little bit of Gatorade. And, none of that stayed in my body for very long anyway. Of course, because I was getting nowhere near my calorie limit, my body thought I was going into starvation mode and held onto my weight. *sigh* And, with how sick I was, I couldn’t exercise. But, I did get an awesome day of exercise in on Tuesday last week. So, I did have one success at least.

And, to top it off, Aunt Flo decided to come early. *another sigh* Oh, and eating healthy at my conference is proving more difficult than I thought it’d be. There are hardly any fruits and/or veggies. *bigger sigh*

Weekly Goals

My work conference goes through Thursday, so I’m splitting my goals into two parts again.

Wednesday and Thursday:

1. Walk a mile on Wednesday and Thursday.
2. Make healthier choices with my food options (if I can).
3. Read my scriptures each day.

Friday – Sunday:

1. Walk a mile Saturday and Sunday.
2. Walk/run a mile Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. (I’ll walk for a minute and a half and run for 30 seconds, in intervals.)
3. Stay within my calorie limit (1,440 calories) each day and eat no processed sugar. (Come up with a meal plan for Saturday and Sunday.)
4. Eat more veggies!
5. Read my scriptures each day, go to church on Sunday, and go to my youth activity on Tuesday.

The last time I posted a Weigh-In Wednesday, it was January. I’ve decided I’m going to start them up again rather than participate in Readers’ Workouts. I feel like my Weigh-In Wednesday posts give me more accountability and I can see the results of what I’m doing. As part of my posts, however, I’ll continue to make weekly goals because that has been helpful.

Weight

Weight: 229.2 lbs. (-17.4 lbs.)

Measurements

Neck: 15.5 in. (-1 in.)
Shoulders: 48.25 in. (-2 in.)
Biceps: 13.5 in. (-.5 in.)
Chest: 50.25 in. (-1 in.)
Waist: 42 in. (-3.25 in.)
Hips: 52 in. (-2.5 in.)
Thighs: 27.5 in. (-0 in.)
Calves: 15.25 in. (-1.75 in.)

Weekly Goals

I have a work conference starting on Monday that will limit my food choices. I’m not too happy about it. But, what can you do? Anyway, because of this conference, I’m splitting my goals into two parts this week.

Wednesday – Sunday:

1. Walk a mile Thursday and Sunday.
2. Walk/run a mile today, Friday, and Saturday. (I’ll walk for a minute and a half and run for 30 seconds, in intervals.)
3. Stay within my calorie limit (1,440 calories) each day and eat no processed sugar. (Come up with a meal plan for Saturday and Sunday because I have a harder time on the weekends since my days are less structured.)
4. Eat more veggies!
5. Read my scriptures each day and go to church on Sunday.

Monday and Tuesday:

1. Walk a mile on Monday and Tuesday.
2. Make healthier choices with my food options, including not eating any of the sweets offered at the conference.
3. Read my scriptures each day. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend my youth activity this week.

Last week, I didn’t do as well with my goals as I did the previous week. While I did walk my mile most days (I missed a couple), I didn’t do any running. Truth be told, I’m a little afraid to. I also added an extra day of not staying within my calorie limit and eating sugar. But, I did keep up with my spiritual health goals and for that, I’m proud of myself, since it has been very hard to do lately.

This week, I plan to:

1. Walk a mile every other day, just walking. On the other days, I’ll walk for a minute and a half and run for 30 seconds, in intervals. Next week, I’ll increase the run time.
2. Stay within my calorie limit (1,440 calories) each day–no excuses and no “free” days.
3. Eat no processed sugar–no excuses and no “free” days.
4. Add more vegetables to my diet again. (For a while, I do really well with eating lots of veggies and then I slowly move back to eating more whole grains than veggies. It’s not as bad as it could be, but I still need to focus on those veggies more!)
5. Continue with getting healthy spiritually–for this week, this includes reading my scriptures, going to church on Sunday, and attending our youth activity tonight.

What are your getting healthy goals for this week?

Meme Rules

For meme rules, click here.

Last week, I did pretty good with my goals. Although, I can’t say that I achieved the “every day” thing. We celebrated my birthday on Saturday, so I indulged a little bit that day. But, other than that, I did accomplish each of my goals. I’m also down 2.6 lbs. from last week, but I’m still losing the weight I “gained” when I was sick.

This week, I plan to:

1. Go on a mile-walk every day while running part of it. It’s my plan to run a marathon before I turn 40 (in six years), so I’m going to start out slow as I’m not a runner. (If Mother Nature decides to grace us with winter weather again, I’ll walk the mile on my treadmill.)
2. Stay within my calorie limit (1,440 calories) each day. I may go over a little on Thursday and Saturday, but I’m making a plan to not go over by more than 500 calories on those days, so that I still make healthy choices.
3. Eat no processed sugar, except on Thursday (my real birthday) and Saturday (when I go out to eat with friends for my birthday) when I eat a small treat.
4. Continue with getting healthy spiritually–for this week, this includes reading my scriptures, going to church on Sunday, and attending our youth activity tonight. (I’m one of the leaders for the youth in my church, so I should be there anyway but that and going to church have been a little difficult for me lately. I’m going to break out of the funk, though.)

What are your getting healthy goals for this week?

Meme Rules

For meme rules, click here.

I’ve decided to join in Readers’ Workouts, a meme hosted by Joy at Joy’s Book Blog. Readers’ Workouts allows book bloggers to report their exercise progress for the previous week and make goals for the upcoming week. I thought it’d be fun to join in since I’m trying to lose weight and progress on my own journey to becoming healthy.

I haven’t made much progress this past week. I still wasn’t feeling up to snuff from being sick with bronchitis. And, it took Corey and I longer than expected to go shopping, so my eating choices weren’t as healthy as I would’ve liked last week. Now that our house is stocked with healthy choices again, however, I’m ready to go and continue this weight loss/getting healthy journey of mine.

Here are my goals for the next week:

1. Go on a mile-walk every day. (If Mother Nature decides to grace us with winter weather again, I’ll walk the mile on my treadmill.)
2. Stay within my calorie limit (1,440 calories) each day.
3. Eat no processed sugar.
4. And, because my getting healthy journey includes getting healthy spiritually not just physically, I’m going to also commit to reading my scriptures each day. I’ve had trouble with that recently.

What are your getting healthy goals for this week?

Being sick for the last week and a half has really thrown me off my groove. First, I couldn’t keep up with my mile walk everyday because I couldn’t breathe. My cardio is bad to begin with, but then add in chest congestion and coughing, and it’s no wonder I survived this past week!  Also, Corey and I were both sick, so we couldn’t go grocery shopping. Over the weekend, we started to eat what was left in the house and it didn’t coincide well with eating healthy. My weigh-in this morning showed the lack of exercise and eating healthy!

I’m feeling a lot better today. I still can’t breathe very well because I’m still getting over the congestion and cough. But, I no longer have the aches and pains that go along with the flu, cold, bronchitis, whatever we had. So, I’m on the mend, which is a good thing.

After work today, we’ll replenish our stock of healthy food and I’m hoping to be well enough to start walking again on Wednesday. I really hope the weight gain is mostly just fluctuation or water weight so it’ll disappear quickly. If not, I know what needs to be done and I’m ready to do it!

I’ve finally started going back down with my weight since I stopped doing the juice fast. Well, I guess I’ve been going down, but I’m finally lower than I was before I gained a little weight back from when I started to eat again. In fact, I’m 16 lbs. down now! Only 4 more lbs. to go before I hit my first benchmark!

Do you know how much weight 16 lbs. is? 16 lbs. is the same weight as two 8-lb. bowling balls, the size I’d typically use when bowling. Two 8-lb. bowling balls of excess weight is gone!

The most I gained back after I started eating regular food again was 2.8 lbs. So, not too bad. It just took me longer to lose that 2.8 lbs. plus the 2.4 lbs. extra that I’ve lost as of today because of my period last week.

Also, I stayed with my niece and her family over the weekend so we could watch the season finale of The Walking Dead together. I realized that I need to be more diligent during the weekends and prepare better when I’m staying at someone else’s house. I basically ate healthy the entire time I was there, but because I didn’t have my regular snacks around me and I was sick of Subway, I did eat some not so good things for me. But, I tried to at least stay within my calorie limit so I didn’t overdo it too badly.

We’re going up there again this weekend for my great-niece’s birthday party. I’ll make sure that I bring snacks and my regular food so I don’t have to even make the choice of what to eat while I’m up there. I think that will definitely help.

Anyway, I’m doing really well. I’m excited to feel these changes. I’ve noticed that my clothes are becoming looser and my face is looking thinner as well. (I’ll post another Weigh-In Wednesday next week so you can see my progress.) I can’t wait to see what I look like in another 16 lbs!

In my latest post about my juice fast, I said that I was ready to go the whole 60 days having received a green light from my doctor. However, I made the decision that two weeks was a good amount of time to detox and went ahead and started eating again yesterday. You may feel that I gave up. I can understand that. And, I don’t think I did. I assessed the situation and made the decision that was right for me. I didn’t make it lightly either.

At the end of Day 14, I was trying to figure out the best course of action. And, I realized an important fact. My multivitamins that have helped me feel better more than anything in the last week require a full stomach. When you’re doing a juice fast, your stomach is never really full, even after just having drunk a juice. I noticed that I’d get an upset stomach shortly after. It’d go away and I’d feel better, but I didn’t like the idea of having an upset stomach every morning for the next 46 days and since the multivitamins are more important to me than juicing, I sided with the multivitamins.

I’ll keep juicing. On some days, I’ll have a green juice for the added nutrients from the veggies in it. And, every few months, I’ll do a week long detox. I’ve learned a lot from this juice fast and how much eating mostly veggies and fruits can help me.

As I began to eat food yesterday, I made several decisions to help me progress with my weight loss. I’m still eating mostly veggies and fruits, but I’ve added in nuts, seeds, legumes, and some whole grains. I’m staying away from dairy and other animal-based products. However, once a week, probably even less than that, I’ll have a lean meat such as fish or poultry. I’ll also continue to stay away from all processed sugars. The only sugar I’ll be consuming is from fruits and those naturally found in the healthy foods I’m eating. (By the way, I can say definitively now that it’s dairy causing my digestive issues as after having eaten a whole wheat tortilla yesterday, I’ve had no issues whatsoever.)

Yesterday, I felt fantastic. The food I ate was so yummy and it was so healthy for me. I stayed below my calorie intake and I even turned down a delicious and decadent looking piece of chocolate cake at my cousin’s farewell.

Although I’ve gained 2.2 lbs., I know it’s because of the solid food and hormones. Let’s just say a relative is coming to visit in the next few days that’ll wreak havoc with my weight for about a week. I’m sure those pounds will go away quickly after the visit’s over, if not sooner.

I’m in a good spot and can’t wait to see my progress as I continue this healthy lifestyle with real, solid food.

Day 12 (3/7/12)

I got a call from my doctor today. My vitamin levels are normal, so I don’t have any deficiencies. And, I actually feel much better today. I was still tired this morning, but that’s because I just don’t sleep very well at night. I have as much energy as I normally do today, so I think the multivitamin is helping.

At this point, I have no excuses to not continue on with the juice fast since all my levels are normal and I’m feeling better. I’ll continue forward as planned in 10-day increments.

PS–I discovered definitively last night that milk or wheat is the culprit for my digestive problems because one of my vitamins contains milk and wheat. Fortunately, it’s just a digestive helper (ironic, no?) so I don’t need it. I can narrow down the culprit after my fast.

Day 13 (3/8/12)

I’m still going strong. I dropped another 1.8 lbs. and add that to the .2-lb. loss from yesterday and I’m now down 12.8 lbs. total! I’m almost to my first reward, which I’m very excited about because I have some books in mind to buy.

I’m still feeling a lot better. The multivitamins must be doing the trick. (Thanks, Debbie, for suggesting them in the first place. I should’ve listened to you a lot sooner. And, thanks, Corey, for making sure we bought some right away!) I did realize yesterday, however, that I haven’t been consuming enough calories for the last few days, barely 800 calories if that. I should be consuming at least 1200, so I’ve upped my juice intake today to see if that makes any difference too.

When the weather is nice, such as it is today and was on Monday, I’ve been going for a walk for about 30 minutes. It’s nice to get outside and soak up some vitamin D and enjoy being outdoors a little bit.

Day 14 (3/9/12)

I discovered last night while I was drinking my last juice that I miscalculated my calorie intake. I was actually getting enough calories because I wasn’t taking into account the size of my juices. I drank over my calorie limit by quite a bit yesterday. Oops. And, as a result, I gained .8 lbs. today. Oh well. I’m sure it will go away quickly since it’s all liquid based.

It’s hard to believe tomorrow’s Day 15. I’ve been contemplating whether I should continue on. There’s no reason I shouldn’t since I got the green light from my doctor. The only reason I’d stop now is because I miss chewing or eating real food. But, I can do this for at least 15 more days. It’s not that bad now that I’m used to it. I just have to stay in this frame of mind and remember what I’m trying to accomplish.