Carissa's "Let's Get Healthy" Journal!

[carissanboys]

I'm a long time lurker here at the Disboards, but am finally ready to start posting more as we're planning our first trip for early 2007. I'm almost 32 years old and have 3 boys. On January 1st of this year, I decided it was time to get serious about getting healthy. I am 40-50 lbs overweight and because diabetes is a very real possibility in my future if I don't do something about it, I decided to do something!

I am doing WW at home. I'm mainly just trying to eat healthier foods...more fruits and veggies, lean meats and fish and whole grains. Eating that way makes it easy to stick to my points each day. I'm also doing Walk Away the Pounds workouts in the morning and then walking most evenings for 30-60 minutes. I have a friend who lives across the street who is also trying to lose weight/get healthy so when my husband is home (he does shift work) we go for an hour walk together. It's very motivating having someone counting on you each day to get off your butt!

I currently weigh 187 lbs. I'm not sure what my final goal will be. The lowest I've been as an adult was 150, but I'd like to try and get to 137. My first goal will be 170 which is what I weighed when I got married and before I got pregnant with my 2nd son.

I hope to use this journal to track my progress and get support and ideas from others. So please feel free to leave me a note.

Here's to getting healthy in 2006!!

 

[carissanboys]

~Sunday~

A good day today. Took the boys to the pool for an hour or so. We came home and I did the WATP 3 Mile workout. I won't be walking tonight since dh doesn't get home until late and my friend is on vacation so she can't walk with me. We prefer to walk when it's dark as it's very hot here during the day, but I won't walk by myself in the dark.

What I ate:

Breakfast - two eggs, one slice of wheat toast with a small amount of jam and some cantelope

Lunch - Leftover squash, spinach and a salad with tunafish

Supper - Lean Cuisine meal

Snack - grapes and popcorn

 

[carissanboys]

I stepped on the scale again this morning and absolutely no movement. I'm starting to get a bit discouraged. I've been working out regularly and eating healthier since January 1st, but I'm not losing any weight. I'm hoping the reason is that I'm building muscle AND losing fat so I may not see a loss for a little bit. But it's really hard to stay on track when you're not seeing the results. My body DOES feel a bit different and I'm by no means giving up. I just wish that scale would move!

I thought I would post a bit about my history. As a child I was always stocky. My middle son is built just like me so it helps to look at him with that perspective. He's always been a big boy, but he's far from being fat. He's just solid. I know I was the same way, but most people thought I was fat...my own mother included. I had a lot of issues with self esteem growing up because of her. But thankfully I also had a Dad that told me I was beautiful.

I can remember weighing 116 in 5th grade, which doesn't sound all that heavy now, especially since I was probably fairly close to my final height at that point (which is 5'5"), but I know I was either the heaviest or the second heaviest in my class. As a teenager, I weighed between 145-160 lbs. I know I flucuated a lot and was always trying to lose weight. Growing up in a house where good food habits weren't taught made that difficult. We had large portions for supper and rarely any salads. I would skip breakfast and lunch many times, only to stuff my face when I returned home from school.

My lowest weight as an adult was between 150-155 lbs. At that weight I felt I still needed to lose some, but I also felt pretty good about myself. When I married my husband, I weighed 170. At this point, I wouldn't mind weighing that again, which is why it's my first mini goal. I got pregnant with my first son and gained 42 lbs with him. I gained about the same with all 3 of my children and all 3 were very big babies, with my last weighing 10.5 lbs. It took me a year to lose the weight with my first, but I did and felt great. With my 2nd, I never lost the extra weight (at least not all of it) and then got pregnant with my 3rd. I lost all of the pregnancy weight from my last pregnancy, but I still have the weight from my 2nd. And of course, I know that 170 isn't a healthy weight for me. So that's where I'm at at the moment.

Here's to a great day!

 

[gradtchr]

Welcome!! So glad you are here with us!!

 

[carissanboys]

Thanks for the welcome Beth I need to go visit some other journals. I've read a bit of a few, but haven't had a chance to post anything.

Breakfast: Two wheat banana pancakes with raspberry jam

Lunch: My Grandfather's recipe...shredded wheat biscuits mixed with eggs and cooked like a pancake with ketchup on top. Sounds weird but very yummy! Had a salad with that.

Snack: Yogurt

Supper: Ate 3 small chicken tenders that were cooked with apples...very yummy.
1/2 cup of brown rice, broccoli and leftover squash.

I decided to give myself the day off from working out. Haven't had a day off in a while and I have a paper I need to write for my children's lit class. However, now that it's toward the end of the day, I'm actually feeling like I WANT to do something. I might just do some crunches later and lift some weights. It's funny that already I'm starting to miss working out when I don't do it. I definitely am missing my walks with my neighbor!

 

[carissanboys]

I just did a short 20-25 minute workout. It had a small amount of cardio..mostly stretching, crunches, lunges, pushups, etc. I can't believe I did that!

 

[Lucky Lucy]

I'm joining the gym today!

 

[carissanboys]

Great to hear Lucky!

Breakfast: oatmeal with PB and Jelly mixed in

Snack: cantelope (or as it's called here in Australia, Rockmelon) and yogurt

Lunch: leftover apple chicken and a small amount of brown rice and 2 carrots

Snack: diet coke (I rarely have soda, but we took the boys to McDonald's for icecream and something to do while they sprayed our house for bugs)

Supper: cooking mexican meatballs with spaghetti and I'll have a salad as well

Planning to go for a walk tonight after the boys are in bed. Will check in later!

 

[liznboys]

I'm rooting for you girl!!! Keep up the good work!

 

[Jane E.]

Welcome to the Wish boards! You'll find a lot of help here thru the challenges, posts & informaton threads. You can do this!

 

[carissanboys]

Thanks for the welcome Jane

And thanks for stopping by Liz

Last night I did well with supper. I only had a small amount of the spaghetti and 4 small meatballs. It was quite yummy. I made some healthy muffins after the boys went to bed. They were mostly wheat flour with oats, almonds, raspberries and Splenda. I ate two before bed, but I still stuck within my points range. I'm actually finding that when I don't do my WATP workout in the morning, I'm hungrier throughout the day. Not sure why that is.

I ended up going for a walk with the youngest in the stroller while dh took the oldest two bowling. It wasn't as hot yesterday and it was overcast so I could handle it. I did 35 minutes and I was done in! Something about pushing that stroller made it much harder. Not to mention that AF is here and I have no energy. I can't wait until AF is gone and I can step on the scale again and hopefully see a big Whoosh!

 

[carissanboys]

Today was an ok day.

Breakfast: shredded wheat/eggs pancake w/ ketchup and some canteloupe

Lunch: I had lunch out today with a friend and I ordered a roasted pumpkin salad. That's actually squash, but they call squash pumpkin here. It was very tasty, but not much to it. I also had an iced coffee. I asked for it without the cream, but she thought I just meant the whipped cream. She still put a spoonful of icecream in it. Oh well...I didn't have to add any sugar!

Snack: I was hungry this afternoon after my very light lunch so I had one of the muffins I made last night.

Supper: Didn't have anything planned for supper so we all went out. There weren't a lot of healthy options on the menu (except salad, but I wanted something a bit more substantial for supper) so I had my usual chicken risotto. It's made with olives, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. There's no creamy sauce with it and it's very yummy. I have no idea how many points that was, but I don't think it was too bad.

Snack: Just had some popcorn.

I didn't exercise today. I truly gave myself the day off. Mainly I ran out of time and energy. Tomorrow I plan on doing my 3 mile WATP in the morning though.

 

[keenercam]

Carissa -- Those muffins you made sound so great! Do you have a recipe to share?

I hope you have a great day!

 

[carissanboys]

Hi Keenercame

I have a basic recipe that I got for muffins somewhere and then I just switch it around for what I want. This is basically the recipe I used. Feel free to adjust it as muffins are pretty forgiving

1/2 cup of white flour
1 cup of wheat flour
1 cup of oats
up to 1/2 cup of sugar (use whatever alternative you want...I used less than 1/2 cup of splenda...they weren't very sweet but that's fine with me)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1 cup of milk (I usually have to add a little more as the mix is too dry)
1/4 cup of peanut butter (you can use oil or butter or applesauce if you'd rather...I used natural peanut butter with no sugar)
about 1/4 cup of almonds run through the food processor
about 1 cup of frozen raspberries

That's about it. Just mix it all together and put in muffin tins (sprayed or greased first!) and bake at 350 until slightly brown on top. Should make about 12 muffins.

 

[keenercam]

Sounds great! Can't wait to try your recipe. Thank you!

 

[carissanboys]

A good day today, although I feel like I didn't control myself very well at suppertime. I'll explain when I get there.

Breakfast: oatmeal w/ PB and Jam (fruit spread, no sugar added PB)

Snack: Yogurt

Lunch: We went to McDonald's since we didn't have anything in the house (then did some groceries afterwards!). Dh and I both had the Herb Fusion Chicken Salad. I'm not sure if it's the same thing in the states or not. We had the terriyaki dressing which is really yummy and hardly any points. We split a small fry with the boys and each other so not really much for either of us. I also had a diet coke.

Snack: handful of walnuts

Supper: I found a butcher shop here that sells American Style Ribs. I haven't had ribs the whole time we've lived here (over 2 1/2 years). So I bought some a while back and we had those tonight. Definitely not the best choice in the world, but they were good I also made roasted sweet potato and I had spinach. The reason I wasn't happy with myself is because I had seconds. I was filled up and didn't need it, but it was so good. I'm still within my points range, but I feel like I let my mind win over. I've told myself only fruit for tonight if I want a snack.

I did the 2 Mile WATP and then did 150 crunches. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow.

 

[Jane E.]

Those ribs sound good. How do you like Australia? It sounds like such a beautiful country. Congrats on the workout!

 

[HollyJoy]

Wow girl, you have some great food ideas! Mind if I steal some? Keep up the good work!

 

[kimwim8]

You are doing really great!! Reading other people's journals definitely helps me!!

Keep up the great work! With eating so well & all that exercise...you're definitely gonna see some results!!

 

[carissanboys]

Jane - I love Australia! It's a great country, with great people. We live in a remote town and in the desert (outback) so it's not where I'd want to live for the rest of my life. But we've really enjoyed our time here. We move back to the states in June and we're very excited about that. I will really miss it here.

Thanks for stopping in Holly! Steal away girl! YOU need to start a journal!

Hi Kim Thanks for the visit! I hope you're right.

And the big drum roll........................................................................

I finally lost 2 lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It took 3 weeks, but it finally happened. Hoping to make my mini goal of 5 lbs for the month of January. I think I'll get there.

Breakfast: Shredded Wheat/Eggs pancake with ketchup and a bowl of watermelon

Snack: WW cereal bar (they were on the clearance shelf at the store...the boxes had been damaged, but the date was good..they were marked down to $1 a box so I picked up all 4), a yogurt and a handful of walnuts

Lunch: A salad with spinach, leftover roasted sweet potato, cukes, tomatoes and balsamic dressing

Supper: Boneless pork loin, 1/2 cup of wheat pasta, squash and spinach (can you tell I'm really craving spinach and squash lately?)

Snack: I stayed up late and ended up having some popcorn. Then before bed I was still hungry so I ate leftover squash

I did the 3 Mile WATP today = 45 minutes. I'm a little sore from my crunches yesterday, but a good sore. I'll do more tomorrow. My friend is back from vacation today so once dh is off on Monday, we can start walking at night again so I can add in an additional hour of exercise each night. I've really missed it.