Category Archives: Healthy You Challenge

Healthy You Challenge Update Week #10

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Healthy You Challenge Update-Great week for both food and exercise!  I didn’t get a chance to do a workout recap from last week yesterday so here it is:

  • 2/27 Sunday-2.5 Mile Walk 334 Calories Burned
  • 2/28 Monday-Off
  • 3/1 Tuesday-10 Minutes Kettle Bells 72 Calories Burned 23 Minute Bollywood Dance 147 Calories Burned
  • 3/2 Wednesday- Off Could barely walk thanks to 10 minutes of kettlebells!
  • 3/3 Thursday- 2 Miles Treadmill 207 Calories Burned
  • 3/4 Friday- 30 Minutes Kettlebells 211 Calories Burned
  • 3/5 Saturday- Off but I did do a ton of walking!

Since my goal is 4-5 days of working out a week, I am right on track.  I’ve also stayed within my calorie range every single day this week!

The scale isnt moving much at all, so I decided to take my measurements.  I havent taken them since about mid January, so it was nice to see movement somewhere!

  • Waist (1.75”)
  • Hips (1.75”)
  • Thigh (.75”)
  • Arm (0”)
  • Calve (0”)*
  • Chest Over (0”)*
  • Chest Under (0”)*
  • Items marked with a * I’ve just started to track, so there are no measurements yet.
  • Down 3 ¾” in a little over a month!  I’m pretty happy with that.

Some updates:

31,000 Calories in 30 Days:  I am way ahead of schedule so far this month.  The past couple of days I’ve been working out a lot and its showing in my calorie deficits!  So far I have a deficit of 8,708 calories (Mar 1-Mar 7).  Not too shabby!

3,000,000 Steps in 2011: 3/1-3/7/2011 I got in 69,472 steps.  Not exactly a powerhouse week for steps, but, still way ahead of my goal of 8,000 steps per day.  This week was just sort of blah with steps.  This next week will be better with steps!

  • Steps this week: 69,472
  • Average per day: 9.925
  • Highest Day this week: 11,273 (3/3)
  • Lowest Day this week: 8,473 (3/4)
  • Steps so far this year: 649,495 (21.6% to goal)
  • Steps to goal: 2,350,505
  • Days left in 2011: 298

#7daychip /#30daychip : As of yesterday I finished another quest towards a #7daychip and am now confident enough to work on my #30daychip!  Today is day 8 and I already feel great about it.  If you want to know more about the #7daychip & #30daychip community you can check out @BradGansberg on twitter or on his blog.  It’s an incredibly supportive community that focuses on taking it one day at a time to reach our goals, whether it be to not binge eat, workout a certain number of days in a row, track food, etc. 

My goal for the #30daychip is recapped below from last weeks post:

#30daychip: I’m joining in to try to earn my first #30daychip (which is an extension of the #7daychip).  For the next 30 days, I’m going to, regardless of what I eat, track my food AND average a 1,000 calorie deficit per day.  Since it’s a 31 day month and it’s only a #30daychip, my goal is to hit the 31,000 calorie deficit by the 30th of the month!

Healthy You Challenge Update Week #9

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Sorry I didn’t get to post yesterday, it was a busy-busy day at work.  I was having a bit of a down day due to frustrations with the scale and how it refuses to budge no matter what I seem to do.  I did what any smart stubborn idiotic woman does and had a pint of Ben & Jerry’s for dinner as a big EFF YOU to the scale.  That was productive, wasn’t it?  Once I finished the pint, and felt horribly disgusting, I read THIS post by Bella and it prompted me to head straight to the grocery store and get my meals ready for the week.  My fridge now looks like this (camera phone picture):

Breakfasts, snacks and lunches all prepared and ready to go.  I just need to take one of each and I’m ready for the day.  Dinners require more creativity, but 75% of my day is already!

Healthy You Challenge Update-Over all I did well with food this week, with the exception of yesterday.  Because of the work trip last week I did a lot of guestimating on food items.  I did the best I could those days and it was by far the healthiest business trip to date.  I worked out most of the days that I was out there, which I am proud of.  This past weekend was in the 50’s each day and it was sunny so I got in a couple of really nice long walks which felt amazing!

Some updates:

28,000 Calories in 28 Days:  Even with one day of not tracking (counted 0 calories towards goal that day) and one day of ice-cream for dinner, I still wound up with a 29,306 calorie deficit for the month of February.  This in theory equates to what should have been an 8.37 pound loss.  Not so much.  I did the right things, so I’m going to try to not focus on what the scale says.

3,000,000 Steps in 2011: 2/22-2/28/2011 I got in 74,629 steps (8 steps more than last week…hello consistency!)  Still way ahead of my goal of 8,000 steps per day.  This week was just sort of blah with steps.  Some days were super high, and then there were a couple of low ones. I had two 15,000 plus days and then one day that I didn’t even hit 6,500.

  • Steps this week: 74,629
  • Average per day: 10,661
  • Highest Day this week: 15,382 (2/25)
  • Lowest Day this week: 6,473 (Monday 2/28-my Debbie Downer Day)
  • Steps so far this year: 580,394
  • Steps to goal: 2,419,977
  • Days left in 2011: 305

#7daychip : Technically I did finish my quest for my second #7daychip but I wouldn’t call it pretty.  There was a lot of estimating during those 7 days due to eating in restaurants that I couldn’t find nutritional information on.

Now that two of my personal challenges are done, what’s next? It’s sort of a two-fer since they go hand in hand.

#30daychip: I’m joining in to try to earn my first #30daychip (which is an extension of the #7daychip).  For the next 30 days, I’m going to, regardless of what I eat, track my food AND average a 1,000 calorie deficit per day.  Since it’s a 31 day month and it’s only a #30daychip, my goal is to hit the 31,000 calorie deficit by the 30th of the month!  After having done so well in February, I know I can do it.  Eventually the scale will catch up right?

It’s not too late to enter my 500th Post Giveaway!!!

If you haven’t already read it, Bella has a great post that verbalizes exactly how I was feeling yesterday, you should check it out!

Healthy You Challenge Update Week #8

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Healthy You Challenge Update-I’ve been doing so incredibly well with both working out and with tracking my food that I was starting to feel like I had it.  We all know that feel, we’ve all had it.  You feel like you can do know wrong.  Out of the blue BAM you lose it.  Sometimes it’s an hour, sometimes it’s a week, a month, a year.  Lucky for me this time it was only a day.  I mentioned this some in yesterday’s post.  Saturday was a day off from working out and I turned it into a day of not tracking after lunch.  I didn’t go out of control, I just didn’t track.  Sunday I got back on it though and immediately started my day with 60 minutes on the treadmill.  I got 3.77 miles in during those 60 minutes and it felt great!

Some updates:

28,000 Calories in 28 Days:  I decided to count Saturday as having earned 0 calories towards my goal of a 28,000 calorie deficit for February.  With that taken into account, I am at a deficit of 22,645 with 7 days left in the month.  I’m still ahead of schedule thanks to all of the working out I’ve been doing!

3,000,000 Steps in 2011: 2/15-2/21/2011 I got in 74,621 steps.  Still way ahead of my goal of 8,000 steps per day.  This week was just sort of blah with steps.  Someday’s were super high, and then there were a couple of low ones.  Next week should be better though! 

  • Steps this week: 74,621
  • Average per day: 10,660
  • Highest Day this week: 14,261 (Friday 2/18)
  • Lowest Day this week: 6,930 (Saturday 2/19-Off Day from working out and was completely lazy)
  • Steps so far this year: 505,394
  • Steps to goal: 2,494,606
  • Days left in 2011: 312

#7daychip : I restarted my quest for my second #7daychip on Sunday.  I’m now on the third day and things are going well!  I’m eating within my calorie range everyday and I am making sure to reach my calorie deficit goals each day.

The challenge this week is my four-day business trip that I am currently on.  I’ve packed a workout DVD and am going to keep up with tracking my food and emailing Bella my food journal each day.  How healthy was your week?

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Healthy You Challenge Update Week #6

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Fantastic week for Health!  I worked out 6 out of 7 days last week and tracked my food every day.  While I did have a couple of higher calorie days, I’m balancing them out well by having a couple of lower calorie days.  Yesterday I had a calorie deficit of 1,523 calories!  The scale is also almost back down to where it was last Friday before the over indulgent weekend.  Today I am going to stick to the lower end of my calorie range on Sparkpeople.com again to help keep the scale moving.  Once I can get settled back down I’ll eat back towards the middle of my range.  I don’t want my body thinking the lower calorie is normal and then wind up getting stuck!

Update on the 28,000 Calories in 28,000 Days Challenge: After yesterday’s lower calorie day, I’m right back on track!  Currently at a 7,017 calorie deficit through 2/7.  It took some fighting with myself yesterday to not over eat, because I did in fact feel pretty hungry, so today I’m going to at least hit my sparkpeople.com range.  The extra 200 calories or so will really help to keep me feeling satisfied.

Last week I mentioned ordering the Polar FT4F Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) off of Amazon.com.  After a bit more than a full week of use, I figured I’d give it a fuller review than what I mentioned last week.

Pros

  • I feel like it does a much better job of giving me my calorie count than the estimates on any of the weight loss websites AND better than what the Wii games and the treadmill estimate for me.
  • I really like seeing where my heart rate is throughout my workout.  It’s so easy to check to see where you are at and if you need to push yourself harder.
  • It’s unobtrusive.  With the BodyMedia Fit-BMF (BodyBugg) you have an arm band that you have to wear all day.  While I LOVE the BMF, some days my clothes for work just don’t allow for it.  The HRM is something I can wear for the specific period of time that I am working out, and I like that.  That’s not to say that I won’t go for a few days wearing the BMF to get an update on how many calories I burn on the average day.

Cons

  • It’s not as robust of the BMF however; I already have one of those, so for me personally this isn’t an issue.  If I want more information than heart rate (with the BMF doesn’t capture), calories burned, or how long I’ve been in a training zone with regards to my HR, I would wear the BMF.
  • You have to remember to wet the sensors on the strap that goes around your chest.  Not a big deal, but for me it doesn’t work as well if you don’t wet them (which is what the instructions indicate to do)
  • The watch is easy to use, but while you’re working out, if you accidentally push the wrong button you can wind up pausing your workout.  Not so much a con, but something that I’m getting used to.

Would I purchase this particular HRM again?  Absolutely.  It has minimal bells and whistles, but it does what I was looking for it to.  I like knowing where my heart rate is during my workout, I also really like knowing that its closer to my actual calorie burn than the estimates that many websites use.  Is it perfect?  No, but unless youre in a metabolic chamber, youre probably not going to get perfect results. 

FYI-So far the only game on Wii that is close to what the HRM indicates is The Biggest Loser Challenge (2010 version).  It’s actually within about 5-10 calories after each workout.  Pretty impressive!

The “Stepping Through 2011” Challenge:

2/1-2/7/2011 I got in 82,938 (yet another new record for the year) number of steps this week (354,160 total for the year), so only 2,645,840 steps to my 3,000,000 step goal for 2011. This has been the best week in terms of steps in 2011(I feel like I say this every week but eh, every week gets better!)  My highest day was 16,897 steps and my lowest day was 6,702 which was the day that I decided to become one with the sofa (Super Bowl Sunday.)  I averaged 11,848 steps per day this past week. 

Only 326 days left in 2011, how do you want to look back on the year?

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Healthy You Challenge Week #5

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This just might have been the best week yet of 2011 in regards to Health.  I’ve finally lost the weight that I was gaining on the new Weight Watchers Points Plus program, I’ve been active at least 30 minutes a day (5-6 days a week) out side of walking the dog, I’ve really got my calorie tracking under control, and I really feel the mojo for weight loss moving around me!  My exercise week is Sunday-Saturday, so far this week I’ve exercised Sunday, Monday and will certainly be hitting it again today.

I’ve been using sparkpeople.com to track my calories and am currently set to eat between 1600-1850 calories per day.  If I have an exceptionally high day (over the 1850) I am balancing it out by having a day or two of lower calorie days which seems to be working out pretty well.  I was feeling like that calorie burns that sparkpeople.com was giving me for working out seemed a bit high, so I ordered a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) off of Amazon.com.  After lots of research on various HRMs I decided to go with the Polar FT4F.  My criterion was that I wanted it to be less than $100, I wanted to be sure that it would fit me at my size (both the chest strap and the watch), I wanted it to track calories burned AND track my heart rate and I wanted it to not include a monthly fee.   This is what it looks like:

Not a huge fan of the color, it’s sort of copper/brown but since it’s not something that I’m wearing for its amazing style, I’m ok with it.  I used it last night when I did 36 minutes of Walk Away The Pounds and found that I burned 269 calories during those 36 minutes, about 200 fewer than what sparkpeople was giving me for low impact aerobics.   I sort of wonder if the 200 additional calories that sparkpeople.com includes are calories burned during the exercise period as well as the higher calorie burn that your body has for the time after your workout.  I’ll have to research a bit more!

I’m going to use it for another week or two and then do a more indepth review of it!  At this point I wouldn’t say that I like it more or less than my BodyMediaFit arm band, but it is less intrusive and isn’t something that I will be wearing all day long, instead I’ll wear it when I’m exercising.  It’s nice to know where my heart rate is and how high and low it gets during my workout.  It is a reminder of when I need to push myself more.

The “Stepping Through 2011” Challenge:

1/25-1/31/2011 I got in 81,819 (a new record for the year) number of steps this week (271,222 total for the year), so only 2,728,778 steps to my 3,000,000 step goal for 2011.  Adding the 30 minutes of additional activity a day has really helped my step count.  This has been the best week in terms of steps in 2011.  My highest day was 15,053 steps and my lowest day was 7,087 which was one of my days off from working out.  I averaged 11,688 steps per day this past week, not too shabby!  Only 333 days left in 2011!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Time flies when…

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you’re sick, out of town, super busy at work and trying to figure out what to do about Weight Watchers.

After getting back from my work trip last week, I woke up feeling like I’d been hit by a bus.  I had a sore throat and a really stuffed up head, so I decided to take a partial sick day/partial work from home day.  I wound up getting about a half of a days’ worth of work done and then sleeping the rest of the day.  I barely ate, but did get up for Weight Watchers Saturday morning.  I was down on the scale, 1.5lbs, which should be a big YAY!  But after having not eaten very much the day before, it was expected.  When I hoped on the scale on Sunday morning, after a more normal eating day on Saturday, I was up 4.0.

I’m getting frustrated.  I LOVE what the new Weight Watchers Points Plus program is promoting.  They are really focusing on whole healthy foods, fewer processed items, whole grains, you know, the foods we are supposed to be eating.  And with free fruit, it felt like a jack pot.  The only problem?  With the exception of the very first week back in December, and then this Saturday’s fluke I have gained instead of lost….every week.  I decided to throw Saturday’s food into Sparkpeople.com to see just how many calories I was consuming. 

The answer?  When I still have 5 points left for the day, I was already at 1,843 calories.  So once you count in those extra 5 points, I’d be well over 2,000 calories a day.  That doesn’t even account for the 49 “weekly” points, which could easily move me up to an average of 2,300 calories a day.  No, I do not abuse the free fruit rule, I eat 2-3 pieces a day.  There seems to be a good portion that are doing amazingly well on the new plan, and then what I’ve been finding through more blog reading, another faction that is doing horribly on the new plan.  I’m beginning to wonder if those of us who aren’t being as successful on the new plan are the same people that were already focused on eating the way that the new plan is encouraging.  That may or may not make sense, it’s really just my guess.  On the old plan, I was eating approximately 1,800 calories a day on average which included calories for fruit.  I was already at a point where I was eating fewer and fewer processed foods every week and I really focused on knowing my food and what was in it. On the new plan, I am eating easily 400-500 calories more a day than I was on the old plan.

The new plan just isn’t working for this lady.  I know there are others of you out there who are running into the same issue.  I also know that Weight Watchers is a fabulous company and that this plan will work amazingly well for other people, those other people just aren’t me.  I had promised myself that I’d give myself an entire month on the new plan before I gave up on it, but I am doing everything right.  There are only 2 days in 2011 that I haven’t tracked, and one of those I barely ate because I was sick.  I’ve even reviewed my food journals with my Weight Watchers leader (who is probably the most wonderful WW leader that there is!)  I can’t continuously track and “do the right thing” and gain each week.  Instead I need to re-adjust and figure out what isn’t working for me.

So what do I do?  Do I go back to the old WW plan since I know that works for me?  Well I would but I threw out all of the old material while “embracing the new plan.”  Which is funny in a way because I had a whole stack of points slide rules which were how I kept track of how many times I rejoined?  So what is right for me in this moment is to go back to sparkpeople.com and count calories. 

I don’t want to give up on tracking my food daily, I don’t want to give up on weight loss and lose the momentum that I feel for 2011, but I also don’t want all of my work not to produce results.  I emailed with Bella about this, I told her I was worried that some of you would be upset that I’m leaving WW, but she said to be honest and remember how awesome you all are.  I should know that you will all support me and know that I have to do what is best for me, so that is what I’m going to do!

Thank you all so much for being so amazing, supportive and also being such an inspiration to me.  Howdy Sparkpeople.com – Goodbye Weight Watchers (tear.)

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

PS-Wasn’t able to do a Healthy You Challenge Update post yesterday.  I got in 49,555 steps last week.  I had a couple of really good days and the days I was sick were low.  I am now up to a total of 129,188 steps in 2011.  Only 2,870,812 more to go!

Healthy You Challenge Update

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Two weeks into 2011 and everything is going well! 

Update on the  Me You Health Challenge:

I’m still really enjoying the challenge.  The tasks are so simple.  The weekday ones tend to be less time consuming and easier than the weekend ones, but even the weekend ones are easy and sometimes necessary, ha!  The one for this past Sunday was to clean out a cabinet in the kitchen.  Most of my cabinets are in good shape, but the pantry had gotten a bit out of sorts through the holidays.  Between having lots of people over, cookie decorating and being a bit lazy when putting groceries away, the pantry really needed some attention.  Here are the before and after pictures:

The “Stepping Through 2011” Challenge that I am putting myself through is going well.  I plan on updating weekly as to how far I am on steps.

1/4-1/10/2011 I got in 55,297 number of steps this week (79,633 total for the year), so only 2,920,367 steps to my 3,000,000 step goal for 2011.  My average steps per day is a bit low (by about 100) for me to reach my goal, but I’ll work up to it and more as the year progresses, so I am not at all worried about reaching my goal.  355 days to go!

Weight Watchers and Food Tracking: I have tracked each day so far this year AND emailed my journal to Bella, even on the weekends, which tend to be the hardest for me.

Moving onto Week 3 of 2011 and it’ll be another healthy one!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Healthy You Challenge Update

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Isnt it amazing how quickly we go from doing so well at living a healthier lifestyle to reverting back to old bad habits.  Guess what?  It goes both ways.  I feel like I went from being incredibly over indulgent and sloth like through the last two months or so (wedding/honeymoon/etc) to feeling like I’m going full throttle and life couldnt be any brighter.  It’s shocking how quickly you can lose your endurance and shocking how quickly you can build it right back up.

If only we could bottle the endorphines that you feel when you exercise and the great feeling you get from filling your body with good healthy foods, we’d all be healthy.  We wouldnt be a nation with an obesity epidemic.  I wish I could pass on to each of you how great I feel right now.  I have an extra pep in my step, and extra joy each morning, knowing that today is going to be another day of being healthy and living a happy life. 

I do need to remind myself though, that this feeling comes and goes, and there will be a day not to long from now, or a week or a month, when I’m faced with challenge after challenge.  When I am not as strong and find myself saying yes to more things that arent good for me and skipping one walk and then two.  I need to remember that coming back to being healthy is a CHOICE and it’s my CHOICE and no one elses.  Just like saying yes to endulgent things, not once but over and over and skipping workouts is also a CHOICE.  It’s up to me to make the right choice.

So how is it that you make the right choice day in and day out?  Do you have an old photo of yourself posted somewhere?  Do you have a comment made by a family member that you bring to mind?

Photo Food Journal August 30th, 2010

Breakfast: Overnight oats w/ 1Tbsp Chia Seeds, 1 Tbsp PB2 Chocolate Powder, 1 Tbsp Mini Chocolate Chips/Lunch: Turkey Meatloaf w/ BBQ sauce & Zucchini/Snacks: Banana, Blueberries/Raspberries/Blueberry Greek Yogurt.

Dinner: Orzo, Bay Scallops, Red Peppers, Asparagus, Onion, Parm, Brummel & Brown and a little real butter (sigh real butter!)

Total for the day

  • Calories: 1626
  • Fat: 32 (even with the butter I was still under the minimum for the fat range)
  • Fiber: 35
  • Protein: 101

Per GoWear Fit

  • Calories Burned: 3272
  • Calories Consumed: 1626
  • Calorie Deficit: 1611
  • Steps: 10814

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Healthy You Challenge Update

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Since it’s only day 2 of being back to living a healthier lifestyle, I dont have much to cover here, but I’ll list a few things I’m trying to keep in mind on this journey.

  • I’m stopping trying to keep a set weight in mind as a goal.  Instead I’m going to look at 10 pounds at a time.  I even created a ticker for it.
  • I’ve put my 7N7 for this week on a computer sticky note (the ones you can post on your background on your computer) so that I look at it while I’m at work.
  • I’m trying to post on a regular schedule.  I know that the more organized that my posting habits are the more conscious I am of how I am eating and moving.
  • Day 1 is DONE!  Ate within my calorie limits and walked on the treadmill.  Not too shabby!

Yesterdays Photo Food Journal

Breakfast (Overnight Oats with Flax Seeds, Raisins, a bit of Cinnamon and pecan pieces), Lunch (Jamaican Red Beans and Rice and left over pork Carnitas side of sauted veggies) and Snacks (banana, and berries with yogurt) all in one photo.

Dinner Sole (fish-wasnt a fan of this type) roasted baby potatoes and roasted veggies (zucchini, onions and asparagus):

Not pictured, 1 cup of 1% milk and 4 Fig Newtons. 

Total for the day

  • Calories: 1735
  • Fat: 38
  • Fiber: 36
  • Protein: 98

Per GoWear Fit

  • Calories Burned: 2945
  • Calories Consumed: 1735
  • Calorie Deficit: 1210 (YAY!)
  • Steps: 9301

It was a good day!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Healthy You Challenge Update

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I feel like I just dont have much to say here right now.  I dont know why.  I seem to go in spurts where sometimes I have 100 things I want to blog about and then other times where I feel like I cant figure out what to say.  I am still keeping up with all of your blogs (even if I dont comment…bad I know!) 

Healthy You Challenge Update…Since my goal between now and the honeymoon is to meet 6 goals daily, let’s check in on those shall we?  I havent updated them since last Thursday!  So here is how I did yesterday.

1-Drink 100 oz of water a day.  I had 96oz in by lunch, so yeah, I met this goal!

2-3 Meals & 2 Snacks a day and no eating after 8PM.  I met this goal yesterday, but didnt make great food choices.  Sunday was a spot on day for me regarding food though!

3-No drive thru fast food (Chipotle or Subway are OK…..no water people!) I’m rocking this one.  I thought I wouldnt be.

4-Pack my lunch and breakfast everyday.  Well I’ve been doing really well on this one, but yesterday I didnt pack my lunch (snacks and breakfast though.)  Fireman had to be at the airport super early and I got up with him and then feel back asleep.  One too many taps of the snooze button did me in.

5-Revamp the New Years Goals.  I’m in the process of doing this.  You can check out the draft in the “2010 Promises” Tab up top.  This is still a draft so things are bound to change. 

6-One lap around the neighborhood or one mile on the treadmill daily.  Well I cant say I’ve done this one.  I didnt yesterday.  I have gotten back to taking my dog on his normal walks each day.  The treadmill is cleaned off.  I will get on it tonight while I watch “The Bachelorette” on DVR.

My hope is to remain in the 260′s between now and the honeymoon.  My goal should be to lose weight between now and then, but my focus just isnt there.  These small steps are helping me not GAIN weight during this time and they are helping me to not lose all focus. 

Fireman is on a business trip this week, so everyday but tonight I have plans in the evening with friends.  I miss him dearly of course, but it’s also been fun catching up with everyone! 

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare