New Eating and Exercise Plan

So, I was getting ready for work last week and I realized that one pretty standard pair of pants I wear was pretty tight. I jumped on the scale and was appalled. I had gained a considerable amount of weight over the spring and summer.

I'm not going to beat myself up. I've had a lot on my plate:

- Sprained ankle

- Moving apartments

- House sale in Cincinnati 

- New assignment at work that was extra stressful

- Financial concerns

- 5 weekends in a row of items

- Broken toe

So, that morning, right then and there, I decided that I'm going back on my eating plan. 

My official starting weight was 207 lbs on October 11. I have a goal to get down to 185 lbs by the new year.

So, I'm starting with packing a lunch for work like this:

This is my NEW 14 week contract for my eating and exercise plan:

General Rules

- The week begins with a weigh in each Friday morning.
- The week will last 14 weeks. From 10/11/2013 until 1/17/2014.

Eating Rules

- No meat or meat products. Barf.
- The plan encourages fresh, healthy foods over fatty foods and carbs.
- The plan will be loosely based on the "old" Weight Watchers points system to ensure proper mix of food and correct portioning. (I'll bucket breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner points to equal approximately 32.)

- No alcohol during the week.

- Dietary supplements.
- One "cheat evening" will be permitted per week, for mental health.
- Each Sunday, I will prepare several meals for the week (minimum one main dish or soup, and one side dish) to facilitate healthy eating.

Exercise Rules

- a Nike+ Fuel Band will be used to track general activity; the goal is 2,700 fuel points per day.
- Separate to the Fuel Band, I will workout a minimum of 3 times per week (minimum of 30 minute cardio activity or 20 min cardio/20 min weight training.)

Tracking 

- A paper journal will be used to track eating and exercise
- This blog will be updated regularly. Minimally, each Friday, this blog will contain: screenshot of scale, screenshot of diary for the week.

Motivational Tools and Penalties

This time around, I'm not going to focus on public humiliation and penalties. Instead, I'm going to attempt positive reinforcements, as follows:

200 lbs - "Union Jack Suit" - it's a kind of pajama thing

195 lbs- "Segno" tattoo  

190 lbs- Vacation trip to Toronto 

185 lbs- $500 shopping spree for new clothes

Week 8 Weigh-In: Down Another 2.4 lbs

After all that complaining this week, I ended up having a good weigh in this morning, thankfully. I did work for it though! I worked out for over 4 hours this past week (more per week than I have this year.) Also, I met my 3K Nike Fuel Band goal every day. Indeed, I gave myself an A- or better all days but Friday. (Saturday might have normally been a B+, but I worked out pretty damn hard and ate well right up to my cheat meal/evening.)

I would say that I was unnecessarily obsessed with weight loss this week, which is probably not healthy.

I'm down 15.8 lbs and as of this morning and on track to be at my next goal of 190lbs by St. Patrick's Day.

What went well

- I was focused, both in eating and exercise
- 4 days of aerobic activity (choreography practice DOES count as I burned 500 calories in 2 hours!)

- Met the 3,000 Nike+ Fuel point goal every day

- 6 days of "A-" or better 

- I did not go overboard on my cheating on Friday and Saturday

What needs improvement

- Get a full 8 hours of sleep each night

Skinny Bitch in Atlanta

There's this skinny bitch in Atlanta who stays up until late hours of the night thinking how she can demoralize and degrade Americans. She has a cushy job, so she spends 1-2 hours per day in the gym.

"Like! Oh my God! I just love going the gym!" she said.

She works for the CDC and came up with the latest BMI regulations:

As it turns out, at the new year, my weight was such that I was considered "OBESE." Now, I'm just considered "OVERWEIGHT." To be considered "NORMAL," I need to be AT OR BELOW 174lbs (more than 35lb weight loss.) 

You can take that 3lb purple barbell and shove it up your anorexic little..!

Bloated

It's been a pretty good week so far! I've exercised more this week than I have previous weeks (4+ total hours of cardio and weight training) on The Plan to really push my metabolism in light of last week's meager loss.

Even so, I feel bloated. I know I'm not supposed to weigh in during the week but I did and my weight was up a bit.

I fear I'm not going to have a good weigh in on Friday. I am really hoping to be at my next goal (190lbs) by St. Patrick's day.

Theories for being bloated:
- Metabolism slowing down
- Gain in muscle?
- More salt than previous weeks? I have been eating nuts
- Too much sugar? I realized that the the only thing I'm having with sugar in it is my yogurt. I thought because the Chobani yogurt was 0% fat that it would be "healthy"--not with 19g of sugar

I'm a bit discouraged.

Poem II: A letter to G

Dear G,

You are leaving and I'm not going to miss you
Yes. We partied together. Had some amazing meals!
Pizza and lasagna and sushi together
The times we had carousing the town
I  will  never  forget

But you are ugly and you make me feel bad
So you have to go and I never want to see you again

MeV

Sample Dinner: Biryani

This meal came out particularly well. First I fried 1 full egg and 2 egg whites and set the egg aside. In the same pan I friend 1.5 cups Trader Joe's biryani for a few minutes while I microwaved a container of frozen vegetables. I threw them all together for a delicious, not too fattening meal!

Week 7 Weigh-In: Down Another 1.2 lbs

Meh. Not a big loss this week. Just a puny 1.2 lbs. Unlike last week when I lost 2.6 lbs, I do deserve the puny loss. I partied both Friday and Saturday nights. I was crap each of the following days. I also ate out (on a date!) on Wednesday night and went over my points.

I lost focus. But I got up the next day and got back on it.

Oddly, to see how far off I was, I weighed in on Sunday and on Wednesday. On Sunday, I was really bloated and weighed in about 5 lbs heavier than this morning. Wednesday morning and was 2 lbs or so lighter than today. So there have been some pretty major fluctuations in my weight this week.


I'm down 13.4 lbs and as of this morning, I'm halfway through my program!

Being so close to the 190 mark on Wednesday, I got excited thinking about my next non-food reward. I've decided that it will be a small tattoo on my upper right chest. It's going to be of a segno.

Definition: The musical term segno – Italian for “sign” – refers to a symbol involved in a complex system of musical repeats. 

Here's what it looks like:

Not all of my tattoos will be musical in nature. I saw this recently on a piece we are doing for Illuminati and liked the fluidity of it. It's kind of fun to me in that it's a "symbol" of sign. Also, this denotes "complex repeat." Let's face it, life is a complex systems of repeats, i.e. the daily routine.

What went well

- Despite being in a bad mood for a couple of days, I stuck with it!
- 4 days of aerobic activity (choreography practice DOES count as I burned 400 calories in 1.5 hours!)

What needs improvement

- Get a full 8 hours of sleep each night
- No more 2 night party weekends

- Meet the 3,000 Nike+ Fuel point goal every day
- 6 days of "A-" or better (one cheat day is cool)