I have no idea why it is so darn hard to motivate myself to exercise. I got home again today and I was tired but not as tired as yesterday, yet I didn't do any exercise today. It's like the trampoline sits there laughing at me. I think I really need to find a way to mix it up. Could I already be bored with it? Once I get to my new apartment I'll definitely be getting some work-out videos from Blockbuster. I think I'd like the trampoline more if I could make it through a work-out but as I learned from trying to do Taebo, I'm too out of shape to complete a normal work-out. Ugh.
And now I'm hungry. I've eaten dinner and had basically the same food I had on Tuesday. According to the site I've got about 900 calories left but I want to keep it near 1500 a day rather than what the website says. But I'm hungry. Perhaps I'll try drinking something and see if that works. Oh diets.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Ah the wonders of the internet . . .
Well only a few days into a food blog and I have found that I really have no reason for it. I have discovered this amazing tool called The Daily Plate. I used a site like it during the great diet attempt of 2005 but that site just gave the nutritional details of foods, I think there might have been a tool to track but it was complicated and not nearly as easy to use and helpful as this. You can search for your foods and it's amazing how much is already on the site (brand and food wise) or you can input it yourself. You then add it to your daily plate and can assign when you ate it. You can also group food together as a meal for future use. It also calculates how many calories you should be eating a day to lose or gain weight and I was surprised at how much it said I could eat to lose 2 lbs a week. I think my daily allotment is somewhere near 2400 calories but currently it seems like I'm hovering around 1700-1800. I always though that to lose weight you had to keep it under 1500 at least but it must be different compared on current weight. I still eat a decent amount and I don't go hungry. I don't really feel like it's a diet which it really isn't. I'm just cutting back on the not so healthy stuff and filling up on the good stuff. That doesn't mean I'm not totally craving chocolate right now or some cookies but I don't have it so I can't eat it.
The one thing I really like about the program is that it shows not only calories but total fat, sodium, protein, carbs and some other stuff and gives you the percentage of your daily amounts. What I've discovered is that while I'm always worried about getting enough protein because I don't eat meat, it's not actually so much of a worry. I'm currently getting nearly twice the daily recommended amount of protein. But what I also noticed is I'm eating a bit too much sodium. Need to keep that in mind in the future.
But in order to keep this going, I'll give a brief run down of the food today.
Breakfast was a trail mix bar because I ran out of protein bars. It definitely didn't keep me as full as the protein bars do. Lunch was basically the same as yesterday except I had some apple sauce instead of the 100 calorie pack. I got hungry at work and since I had another trail mix bar I ate it. I also got home and snacked on some goldfish again. Damn those goldfish who are still sitting near my chair. Dinner was a way to large portion of pasta which I cooked because it was the end of the bag and I shouldn't have eaten it all but I did. I also added some meatless meatballs. My sides were a baked potato with an okay amount of butter and some mixed vegetables. And now I'm full. I'm hoping not to do any more snacking tonight.
I also did not exercise today because I'm unbelievably tired to today. At least I should be able to get to bed at a good hour!
The one thing I really like about the program is that it shows not only calories but total fat, sodium, protein, carbs and some other stuff and gives you the percentage of your daily amounts. What I've discovered is that while I'm always worried about getting enough protein because I don't eat meat, it's not actually so much of a worry. I'm currently getting nearly twice the daily recommended amount of protein. But what I also noticed is I'm eating a bit too much sodium. Need to keep that in mind in the future.
But in order to keep this going, I'll give a brief run down of the food today.
Breakfast was a trail mix bar because I ran out of protein bars. It definitely didn't keep me as full as the protein bars do. Lunch was basically the same as yesterday except I had some apple sauce instead of the 100 calorie pack. I got hungry at work and since I had another trail mix bar I ate it. I also got home and snacked on some goldfish again. Damn those goldfish who are still sitting near my chair. Dinner was a way to large portion of pasta which I cooked because it was the end of the bag and I shouldn't have eaten it all but I did. I also added some meatless meatballs. My sides were a baked potato with an okay amount of butter and some mixed vegetables. And now I'm full. I'm hoping not to do any more snacking tonight.
I also did not exercise today because I'm unbelievably tired to today. At least I should be able to get to bed at a good hour!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Elevator or stairs, do skinny people worry about this . .
Today was a rather good day, though I must really get food away from my chair. I tend to splurge eat, not so much because I'm hungry but because it is there. After eating a well balanced dinner consisting of a salad (lettuce, cucumber, carrot, green beans and avocado (I forgot the celery because it was hidden in the drawer)), a veggie burger w/ ketchup, pickles, lettuce, cheddar cheese and a bun) and a baked potato (over loaded it a bit too much butter :( ) I wasn't completely full but then again I didn't give it time to settle. I then looked around my chair and noticed the goldfish I had not put away yesterday and started digging into them. I now regret it as I'm overfull. But hopefully lessen learned and it means I won't snack later on.
Since I started with dinner I guess I should go backwards through the day. Got home and exercised for about 10-15 minutes. I tried to do the first timers work out again but my ankle started hurting so I stopped and did my lighter version and worked my arms.
Lunch was my daily allotment of soda and my veggie "chicken" salad sandwich. To go with that was a 90 cal granola bar, 100 cal pack cheese puffs (I must say I'm unbelievable happy they created these) and a sugar free pudding snack. I thought that by adding these protein filled sandwiches, it would help me feel fuller longer but I always start to get hungry around 3-4pmish. Luckily, I have nothing around to snack on and my job doesn't permit me to store snacks in my office. The hunger pains actually go away around 5 so I don't come home hungry.
I'm not really a breakfast person but I've been eating a protein bar when I get to work to stop my tummy from grumbling before lunch and it has been working. So I had one of those this morning. And that's my food day.
In other thoughts, I began thinking while waiting with someone for the elevator today. When I only need to go up one flight of stairs, I usually take the stairs (unless my ankles/knees are hurting) because I feel lazy otherwise and the elevator at work is really really slow. But today I was going up two floors and as I stood waiting for it to come, I looked at the woman who was waiting for it as well. I knew where she worked and figured she was just going up the one floor. She's an average weight and young and while I didn't think she was lazy for only taking the elevator one floor, I began to wonder about perception. Is it really lazy to take an elevator one floor or is it something that everyone does so no one really thinks about it? If people don't make notice of it, do they tend to only think negatively (laziness) to those who are overweight or do they apply it to everyone? While I know that going up the stairs is good exercise for me, I also tend not to ride it one floor because I feel like others will think me to be lazy. Like there's that fat woman taking the elevator one floor because she is lazy, no wonder she's fat. But in my mind they wouldn't say think that about seeing a skinny person doing it. Heck I doubt people actually think that way but it just makes me wonder.
I really need to invest in a scale so I can track if everything I'm doing actually has any effect.
Since I started with dinner I guess I should go backwards through the day. Got home and exercised for about 10-15 minutes. I tried to do the first timers work out again but my ankle started hurting so I stopped and did my lighter version and worked my arms.
Lunch was my daily allotment of soda and my veggie "chicken" salad sandwich. To go with that was a 90 cal granola bar, 100 cal pack cheese puffs (I must say I'm unbelievable happy they created these) and a sugar free pudding snack. I thought that by adding these protein filled sandwiches, it would help me feel fuller longer but I always start to get hungry around 3-4pmish. Luckily, I have nothing around to snack on and my job doesn't permit me to store snacks in my office. The hunger pains actually go away around 5 so I don't come home hungry.
I'm not really a breakfast person but I've been eating a protein bar when I get to work to stop my tummy from grumbling before lunch and it has been working. So I had one of those this morning. And that's my food day.
In other thoughts, I began thinking while waiting with someone for the elevator today. When I only need to go up one flight of stairs, I usually take the stairs (unless my ankles/knees are hurting) because I feel lazy otherwise and the elevator at work is really really slow. But today I was going up two floors and as I stood waiting for it to come, I looked at the woman who was waiting for it as well. I knew where she worked and figured she was just going up the one floor. She's an average weight and young and while I didn't think she was lazy for only taking the elevator one floor, I began to wonder about perception. Is it really lazy to take an elevator one floor or is it something that everyone does so no one really thinks about it? If people don't make notice of it, do they tend to only think negatively (laziness) to those who are overweight or do they apply it to everyone? While I know that going up the stairs is good exercise for me, I also tend not to ride it one floor because I feel like others will think me to be lazy. Like there's that fat woman taking the elevator one floor because she is lazy, no wonder she's fat. But in my mind they wouldn't say think that about seeing a skinny person doing it. Heck I doubt people actually think that way but it just makes me wonder.
I really need to invest in a scale so I can track if everything I'm doing actually has any effect.
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Lazy Gal attempts yet another diet. . .
Well they say the best way to help yourself lose weight is to keep a food diary. Well I tried that and lost interest quickly due to it being boring. I do, however, love to blog. Therefore I've started this blog as a way to keep track of my progress and perhaps to rant about/ponder aspects of dieting. I in no way expect anyone to ever read this thing but the potential of an audience might make me keep on track.
So I guess I should start with a bit about me and why I'm dieting. I'm 25, almost 26, about 5' 11" and around 300 lbs. It's been a rather slow but constant weight gain since I was really young. It has to be genetics but I'm not going to blame this on that because then I'd feel helpless. Over the years I would slowly watch my size go up and my physical activity go down. I've always had the bad self esteem associated with the overweight but that's not exactly why I'm starting this diet.
I like me and it's taken a long time for me to get that way. I'm comfortable with my size though I do wish I was skinnier. I know I'll never be a size two but I want to be healthy. That's what this diet is about, health. I've got diabetes and other horrible health things in my family and I've noticed that my ankles and knees hurt more (heck I'd hurt if I was carrying this much weight around). I want to eat better and exercise more. In fact this is more an exercise program than a diet. While I'm going to try eating healthier I want to focus more on actually exercising or moving more.
I'm a lump, a cough potato and as you can guess by the title of the blog I'm lazy. Normally this would be considered a negative to eating healthier and exercising more but now that I've identified this negative I'm using it to in fact help my progress. I shall explain that later.
My biggest obstacle food wise is that I'm a vegetarian or as my mother likes to call me a pastarian. As the Atkin's diet has so nicely in grained into our society, carbs are evil. So plan one is to eat more vegetables. For budgeting purposes, I only go grocery shopping every two weeks and I have decided that I shall try a new vegetable or fruit each trip. I think the reason I give up on veggies is because there are only a certain few that I eat/cook. I want to change that. So occasionally you'll see me update with my current new vegetable of the bi-week. These might not necessarily be something I've never had but something I've never bought/cooked with. Like this time it's avocado. I've had them before but I've never tried using them at home. I also need to do some more research into vegetarian diet recipes. Most vegetarian meals are nice in that they tend to be low fat/low cal but usually not low carb. But they can also be really fattening as well, so it gets tricky.
In order to help me eat better, I've stopped buying the junk food so that it's not here to tempt me and I'm buying more veggies. It dawned on me a few weeks ago, that while the crisping drawer keeps veggies crisper longer, they also hid them from me. I'm totally a grazer when I'm hungry. I usually open the fridge or the cabinet and grab what is easy and I can see (remember lazy). So those carrots hiding in the drawer are easily forgotten about while that cookie batter is right there. Therefore I've decided, veggies and fruit get center stage in my fridge and those not so good occasional foods go in the drawers. The veggies don't stay crisp as long but then again they don't stick around as long as I eat them. It also reminds me that I need to have them with lunch and dinner. I have noticed however that they good bad quicker so perhaps I'll have to get some of those Green Bags to keep them fresher but in view. I have also cut back on caffeine so that I drink more water/water based drinks (iced herbal tea, home made so no sugar). In order to do this I only buy cans of soda so that I can have one can for lunch and keep them in the car. My lazy butt won't go all the way outside to get soda when there is ice tea in front of me. It's sort of sad the lack of will power I have but at least I'm lazy!
The exercise department is the hard part. My apartment complex has a "fitness" center with like 5 pieces of equipment. I keep meaning to go but it's that lazy factor that stops me. When I get home I don't feel like changing and heading over. If I have someone to go with like when I use to go to the gym with my sister on the way home from work, it was okay. But here on my own, it's tough. Therefore I've decided to invest in a piece of equipment at home, this way I just get changed and use it and not have to worry about getting to the gym and back. Also when I feel like doing something while watching TV it's great because it is right there. I wanted to get a recumbent bike or elliptical but try finding an inexpensive one that has a weight limit high enough for me. *rant time* I don't get how they expect the people who really need to exercise to exercise if the equipment won't hold them. The gym quality ones do but they are expensive and what fat person wants to work out in a gym with people who really don't need to be running hours on a treadmill. My decision was to get the Urban Rebounder. It actually is a pretty good piece of equipment and gets my heart rate up. I haven't been able to build up to more than 15-20 minutes, which surprises me because I can easily do 45 minutes on a recumbent bike. Guess this is more of a workout. The first week I was really good and did it for at least 10-15 minutes each day. Then I went away on business and it's been hard getting back into it. But I'm going to work on doing it at least 4-6 days a week. Now that I'm going to work earlier and getting out earlier I think I'll have the time to use it more. In a perfect world I'd exercise in the morning but I have a hard enough time getting up in the morning let alone motivating myself to workout.
Well I think that's enough for now. The plan is each night I'll write an entry with what I ate and did but hopefully in a more fun way of just listing it. Who knows!
So I guess I should start with a bit about me and why I'm dieting. I'm 25, almost 26, about 5' 11" and around 300 lbs. It's been a rather slow but constant weight gain since I was really young. It has to be genetics but I'm not going to blame this on that because then I'd feel helpless. Over the years I would slowly watch my size go up and my physical activity go down. I've always had the bad self esteem associated with the overweight but that's not exactly why I'm starting this diet.
I like me and it's taken a long time for me to get that way. I'm comfortable with my size though I do wish I was skinnier. I know I'll never be a size two but I want to be healthy. That's what this diet is about, health. I've got diabetes and other horrible health things in my family and I've noticed that my ankles and knees hurt more (heck I'd hurt if I was carrying this much weight around). I want to eat better and exercise more. In fact this is more an exercise program than a diet. While I'm going to try eating healthier I want to focus more on actually exercising or moving more.
I'm a lump, a cough potato and as you can guess by the title of the blog I'm lazy. Normally this would be considered a negative to eating healthier and exercising more but now that I've identified this negative I'm using it to in fact help my progress. I shall explain that later.
My biggest obstacle food wise is that I'm a vegetarian or as my mother likes to call me a pastarian. As the Atkin's diet has so nicely in grained into our society, carbs are evil. So plan one is to eat more vegetables. For budgeting purposes, I only go grocery shopping every two weeks and I have decided that I shall try a new vegetable or fruit each trip. I think the reason I give up on veggies is because there are only a certain few that I eat/cook. I want to change that. So occasionally you'll see me update with my current new vegetable of the bi-week. These might not necessarily be something I've never had but something I've never bought/cooked with. Like this time it's avocado. I've had them before but I've never tried using them at home. I also need to do some more research into vegetarian diet recipes. Most vegetarian meals are nice in that they tend to be low fat/low cal but usually not low carb. But they can also be really fattening as well, so it gets tricky.
In order to help me eat better, I've stopped buying the junk food so that it's not here to tempt me and I'm buying more veggies. It dawned on me a few weeks ago, that while the crisping drawer keeps veggies crisper longer, they also hid them from me. I'm totally a grazer when I'm hungry. I usually open the fridge or the cabinet and grab what is easy and I can see (remember lazy). So those carrots hiding in the drawer are easily forgotten about while that cookie batter is right there. Therefore I've decided, veggies and fruit get center stage in my fridge and those not so good occasional foods go in the drawers. The veggies don't stay crisp as long but then again they don't stick around as long as I eat them. It also reminds me that I need to have them with lunch and dinner. I have noticed however that they good bad quicker so perhaps I'll have to get some of those Green Bags to keep them fresher but in view. I have also cut back on caffeine so that I drink more water/water based drinks (iced herbal tea, home made so no sugar). In order to do this I only buy cans of soda so that I can have one can for lunch and keep them in the car. My lazy butt won't go all the way outside to get soda when there is ice tea in front of me. It's sort of sad the lack of will power I have but at least I'm lazy!
The exercise department is the hard part. My apartment complex has a "fitness" center with like 5 pieces of equipment. I keep meaning to go but it's that lazy factor that stops me. When I get home I don't feel like changing and heading over. If I have someone to go with like when I use to go to the gym with my sister on the way home from work, it was okay. But here on my own, it's tough. Therefore I've decided to invest in a piece of equipment at home, this way I just get changed and use it and not have to worry about getting to the gym and back. Also when I feel like doing something while watching TV it's great because it is right there. I wanted to get a recumbent bike or elliptical but try finding an inexpensive one that has a weight limit high enough for me. *rant time* I don't get how they expect the people who really need to exercise to exercise if the equipment won't hold them. The gym quality ones do but they are expensive and what fat person wants to work out in a gym with people who really don't need to be running hours on a treadmill. My decision was to get the Urban Rebounder. It actually is a pretty good piece of equipment and gets my heart rate up. I haven't been able to build up to more than 15-20 minutes, which surprises me because I can easily do 45 minutes on a recumbent bike. Guess this is more of a workout. The first week I was really good and did it for at least 10-15 minutes each day. Then I went away on business and it's been hard getting back into it. But I'm going to work on doing it at least 4-6 days a week. Now that I'm going to work earlier and getting out earlier I think I'll have the time to use it more. In a perfect world I'd exercise in the morning but I have a hard enough time getting up in the morning let alone motivating myself to workout.
Well I think that's enough for now. The plan is each night I'll write an entry with what I ate and did but hopefully in a more fun way of just listing it. Who knows!
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