Week 1 Update

Tweet Week 1 is over! Yay!

Today is my official weigh-in day. I lost 1.8 pounds! I have now lost 3.4 pounds overall since I began exercising 5 weeks ago. This week I began "dieting" and/or making a concious effort to eat better and that is what made all the difference.

Here is my recap of what I accomplished this past week:

*5 workouts at the gym
*1 trip to the grocery store
*Only 4 meals from restaurants (only 1 fast food)
*Cooked more meals
*Ate nothing processed or from a can
*Dramatically reduced unhealthy carbs (a few handfuls of sunchips, one flour tortilla and one serving of whole wheat pasta is all that I consumed)
*Lots of lean meats, eggs, veggies, fruit and yogurt
*Took body measurements and calculated body fat and waist-to-hip ratio
*Switched to light salad dressing
*Started mixing juice half and half with water

Negative Experiences:

*Feeling hungry often between meals
*Frequent headaches
*Low energy
*Cravings

Goal for this week:

*Drink more water
*Eat better breakfasts

Would love to hear about your ups and downs.
Do you have a new goal for the week?

Love,
Blondie

Stress -n- Sugar

Tweet Lately I have been able to recognize my two main sources of frustration linked to food issues. Today I am going to set two goals for myself for this week. 7 days. Then I will report back my trials and triumphs.

The first is stress. Life has peaks and valleys. My brain knows this. But for some reason it can feel like I am not going to ever get out of this valley. Logically I know I will - but it's just that feeling of being completely overwhelmed and not trusting my judgment. It seems the more stressed or worried I am, the hungrier I get.

I'm not exactly sure how to battle this. I have meditated before for short-term calmness is high pressure situations. I have read many people talking about it as a life-saver. Ok meditation. I will set a 3 minutes a day goal.

My second huge problem is my addiction to sugar. Chocolate, bread, chocolate, pasta. I'm a vegetarian and it seems that I am substituting protein with starchs about 70% of the time. The fact that I am hypoglycemic and my blood sugar is dangerously low does not help. So my sugar goal is to take my medication everyday.

This weeks goals: 3 minutes a day meditation and 1 blood sugar balancer pill everyday. :-)

What about you? Post in the comments your goal for this week so we can support each other thru this!
~Sammi

I'll go first!

Tweet There are five of us posting on this blog. That means we will have 5 stories, at least 5 lessons to learn and 5 goals to achieve. Hopefully in our triumphs and trials you will see something you can relate to. I will start by telling a little bit of my story and how I got to where I am today.

I'm a big girl. But from what I've seen, not the typical big girl. I'm not a yo-yo dieter. I don't shy from the camera and you will hardly ever hear me say a word about my weight or my calorie intake. I'm sure part of this is denial. But most of the time I have other things on my mind. It's just not something I think about. 

I'm very close to 40. And I am starting to notice a few signs of aging ;) I'm not a paragon of health. I am medicated for high blood pressure and sometimes when my eyesight it blurry I get nervous. I have horrible heartburn that I have denied for years had anything to do with what I ate. I am finally coming to the realization that just because I don't talk about it, or stress about it - doesn't mean there isn't a problem. 

So thanks to Dream for suggesting we diet cross-country together. And thanks to my pathological desire to blog we have this online journal. Join us in our journey. Comment. Ask questions. Start your own blog (we'll link to you!) and let's lose this weight before we lose our minds! :-)