Dana's Weight Loss Journal: 75 lbs to go! Comments welcome! Updated 9/23

[joyfulDisneytears]

Update 9/13/10: I am now 25 lbs down from my highest weight! Technically, I'm 1/4 of the way to my goal, but I know as the weight goes down it will become harder to get off!

I've lost a few inches around my waist, and 1/2 to 1 inch elsewhere. I wish the weight would come off my thighs, but they have always been my problem area ever since I hit puberty. That fat will probably be the last to go, if it ever does!

Thanks to everyone for reading! Feel free to comment, I appreciate the support!

__________


Yes, 100. I'm going to start a journal here and see how it goes. Hopefully it will help me feel accountable for my get fit plans. I'm new to the DIS, but I figure what better place to do this than in the company of like-minded Disney-obsessed people such as myself?

So here's the story: I don't know how much I weighed at my heaviest...260 or more. I avoided scales and didn't look at the number for a couple years. Depression, bad relationship, stress/comfort eating, sedentary lifestyle: they were all factors.

Through exercise and watching what I ate starting in January 2009, I managed to get down to 213. I went on a vacation to Cancun in July 2009 and ate what I wanted, lazed around, and got completely off track. I haven't really been able to get back on. This year I've been anywhere between 230-250.

I'm putting 10 lbs lost in my signature for the moment to remind myself that I'm not quite back to where I was, but I'm close and I do NOT want it to happen that way.

I got most of the way through the c25k program earlier this year, and did a 5k in May, but then I got lazy again. There's a bunch of family drama going on now, and it's still hard for me to stay on the ball. Last time I got on the scale a few days ago it read 248.

Ideally, my weight should be about 160...I don't know that I've ever been below 180 in my adult life. I'm not sure where this will go... if it will only be a place to record my progress (or lack thereof) in weight loss, or if it will be a place to write about other things in my life as well. Comments and support are much appreciated!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Goal #1: 64 oz of water a day!

I've done well on this for the past 3 days. I've cut way back on soda. Just one per day, or none. I was drinking about 3 a day until recently.

I'm going to take this a small change at a time...less daunting that way, methinks.

-----

Just a little bit about me and my current goings on:

DBF and I have known each other for about 4 years, and have been dating for over 2. We met online, and live way too far away from each other...too far away being most of the way across the US. Once I get out of my current holding pattern I plan to move out to the Phoenix area where he lives. We see each other every couple months, and he was sweet enough to accompany me to WDW in October 2008 Not his ideal vacation, but he knows how much I love it!

I take care of my grandmother on weekdays from about 9am-6pm. She has Alzheimer's, and can't do much for herself, but our family feels it's important to keep her out of a nursing home environment. She stayed in a home for rehab at one point and did not do well. Her care is divided between my dad, my aunt, and myself. (This week I'm also taking my aunt's weeknight duty because she's on vacation.)

I live in Indianapolis. I think it's boring. No, I don't care for auto racing.

I spend far too much time on Facebook, FarmVille, and more recently, the DIS!

My favorite Disney movie is 'The Little Mermaid'. I was 3 when it came out, and I was insistent that it was called 'The Middle Mermaid'. Why? I'm not entirely sure, but I distinctly remember my mom correcting me, but I was having none of it.

You've probably given up on reading this post by now with my ramblings, but if not, thanks for sticking with me thus far!

 

[sabnrob06]

Good luck and I am sure you have the motivation to do this!!I also met my now husband online! We were married this past November and spent our honeymoon in Disney!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Good luck and I am sure you have the motivation to do this!!I also met my now husband online! We were married this past November and spent our honeymoon in Disney!

Thanks! I know the motivation is in there somewhere, it's just hard for me to kick it into gear again! If I lost the weight once, I can certainly do it again.

I actually stumbled onto the boards because I was consumed by wedding fever after DBF's bro's wedding, and I was dreaming about a DFTW at the World. I'm definitely getting ahead of myself there.

------

Today was a pretty yucky day, health-wise, and just in general. I had McDonald's for dinner, that's enough said right there. I only drank about half my water for the day. Promising myself I'll do better tomorrow.

I've got this weird idea embedded in my head that a diet must start on a Monday. Ridiculous, I know...but I also know I'm not the only one that feels that way! This coming Monday will start the calorie counting...I try to stay around 1500/day when I'm being conscious of what I'm eating.

Lame journal entry for today. Meh. Bedtime!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Alrighty, I'm going to start keeping a daily log of my calorie and water intake, and exercise. The first few days of this week are going to be lacking on the exercise front, I'm taking care of my grandma 24/7 until (I think) Wednesday.

Breakfast - 1/2 banana, orange juice - 111 cal
Lunch - ham sandwich, SunChips - 366 cal
Dinner - 1/2 Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad - 315 cal
- Orange Freeze - 660 cal (ouch, I know...my dad wanted to use the buy one, get one shake coupon! I still came in under my 1500 though!)

Total - 1452 cal
Water - 80 oz

 

[AshleyW]

You can totally do it!! Looks like we're about the same age - I'm 23 - and I'm trying to lose about 75lbs, so we can try and do it together.

I hear you on the "starting on a Monday" thing... I just started Weight Watchers last Monday!

Anyway, good luck with your LIFESTYLE CHANGE (not diet, that word stinks ) this week!!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

You can totally do it!! Looks like we're about the same age - I'm 23 - and I'm trying to lose about 75lbs, so we can try and do it together.

I hear you on the "starting on a Monday" thing... I just started Weight Watchers last Monday!

Anyway, good luck with your LIFESTYLE CHANGE (not diet, that word stinks ) this week!!

Amen to the Lifestyle Change!

I get so mad at my dad because he constantly asks me whenever I'm making an attempt to watch what I eat... 'Can you eat ____ on your diet?' I always respond with 1) I can eat whatever I want as long as I do it in moderation, and 2) I'm NOT ON A DIET.

Thanks for stopping in!

 

[BrcsDisneyPrncs]

Good luck! Sounds like you are getting off to a pretty good start!

I too have about 100 lbs to lose - i'm 25 so we are pretty close in age! (ok turning 26 on Monday - but REFUSING to acknowledge that small detail until the last possible moment). I've similarly been wrestling with the same 20 or so lbs since coming back from my vacation earlier this year - trying to get motivated and back on track!

Best of luck to you, hopefully we can both get on the right track and get healthy!

I remember the wedding fever! I was on the disboards all the time and we honeymooned in Disney (2008). Now i'm getting baby fever! Ugh - that's why the big push, i want to be healthier before DH and I start trying for little ones!!!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Good luck! Sounds like you are getting off to a pretty good start!

I too have about 100 lbs to lose - i'm 25 so we are pretty close in age! (ok turning 26 on Monday - but REFUSING to acknowledge that small detail until the last possible moment). I've similarly been wrestling with the same 20 or so lbs since coming back from my vacation earlier this year - trying to get motivated and back on track!

Best of luck to you, hopefully we can both get on the right track and get healthy!

I remember the wedding fever! I was on the disboards all the time and we honeymooned in Disney (2008). Now i'm getting baby fever! Ugh - that's why the big push, i want to be healthier before DH and I start trying for little ones!!!

Yay for babies! Good luck in your weight loss attempt! We can do it! Are you journaling on here or anything?

I understand on the age thing! I'm aware I'm still very young, but after my last birthday I got a little bummed when it finally occurred to me that I'm not actually in my early 20's anymore!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

A little annoyed today. Turns out I am here at grandma's until Thursday evening. Again I'll insert an 'I think', because originally I was only supposed to be here until tomorrow evening. I'm not usually the one to spend the night over here, and it's going okay, but I had a sneaking suspicion my aunt wasn't going to go right back 'on duty' after she got back from her vacation.

Ah well, it's not like I'm doing anything else, and my dad is going to come over here tomorrow afternoon/evening for a couple hours so I can run home to get a change of clothes and eat dinner. I'm here every weekday anyway, so it's not a huge change, but it's easy to go a little stir crazy over here.

---------

Anywho, here's the count for today:

Breakfast - English muffin sandwich w/ egg & bacon; apple juice - 316 cal
Lunch - turkey sandwich; sour cream & onion rice snacks - 320 cal
Snack - Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds (these are so awesome!) - 150 cal
Dinner - 1/2 Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad; watermelon - 385 cal

Total - 1171 cal
Water - 72 oz

Calories are way under my goal, which I realized when dinnertime rolled around, but I wasn't hungry enough to eat anymore...probably a good thing.

 

[BrcsDisneyPrncs]

Yay for babies! Good luck in your weight loss attempt! We can do it! Are you journaling on here or anything?

I understand on the age thing! I'm aware I'm still very young, but after my last birthday I got a little bummed when it finally occurred to me that I'm not actually in my early 20's anymore!

No i'm not journaling. Maybe I should but I just don't find myself interesting enough to warrant a journal

Oh my - on the age thing it's killing me that I'm on the downhill slope to 30 (yes, I know there are probably people snarling at the computer screen now!) I think a big part of it is that I gave my DH such a hard time when he turned 25 (OMG - Quarter century!) and his 28th birthday this year..... so payback I guess!!!

I did just order a BodyBugg online today, can't wait for it to get here and hope it'll give me the kick I need to stay motivated!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Exercise - 1/2 hr walk on treadmill

Breakfast - grapes; cocoa roast almonds - 260 cal
Lunch - turkey sandwich; SunChips; Pepsi Max - 390 cal
Dinner - Lean Gourmet Buffalo Chicken Snacks - 380 cal
- salad w/ bleu cheese dressing - 210 cal

Total - 1240 cal
Water - 64 oz

Under calories again today...I jumped on the scale during my quick jaunt home and it seems I haven't lost a thing. I usually weigh myself in the morning though, of course it would be affected by doing it at the end of the day instead. I think I'll make my personal weigh-in on Saturday mornings, so I'll record a number then.

In other news, today was the hottest day we've had around here in 10+ years, according to the news. It got up into the high 90's, which with the humidity is miserable...my car was reading the outside temp as over 100. This is not normal for Indiana! WDW, yes, Indiana, not so much.

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

No i'm not journaling. Maybe I should but I just don't find myself interesting enough to warrant a journal

Oh my - on the age thing it's killing me that I'm on the downhill slope to 30 (yes, I know there are probably people snarling at the computer screen now!) I think a big part of it is that I gave my DH such a hard time when he turned 25 (OMG - Quarter century!) and his 28th birthday this year..... so payback I guess!!!

I did just order a BodyBugg online today, can't wait for it to get here and hope it'll give me the kick I need to stay motivated!

DBF always tells me I'm old, and then I remind him he's almost 30 and that shuts him up.

As for the journaling...my life is suuuuuuper boring, but this helps keep me accountable since I'm putting it in the public forum. I don't have a whole lot to write about, so it's mostly just gonna be logging food and exercise, which I'm sure won't be very enthralling to anyone reading!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Exercise - 1/2 hr walk on treadmill

Breakfast - big bowl of Chocolate Cheerios w/ milk - 320 cal
Lunch - Boca Burger w/ cheese; sour cream & onion rice snacks - 390 cal
Snack - fiber crackers w/ Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb cheese - 105 cal
Dinner - Apple Harvest Salad w/ grilled chicken - 410 cal
Snack - string cheese, Diet Dr. Pepper - 60 cal

Total - 1285 cal
Water - 80 oz

I sure did eat a lot of cheese today. Didn't realize until just now writing it all out. Ah well.

I'd never had a soy burger before, and I was pleasantly surprised by the Boca Burger I had for lunch. I'll be buying more of those!

I ran home again while Dad looked after Grandma for a few hours (we decided it would be silly for my aunt to only come over 1 night this week, so I volunteered myself for tonight too). Mom wanted Steak'n'Shake for dinner, so I got her a burger and got myself the salad...I wasn't very impressed with it, especially since they forgot to put the walnuts and dried cranberries on. The southwest chicken salad I had from there earlier this week was much more to my taste.

DBF (who has been super skinny his whole life, whereas I have been chubby since day 1!) was telling me how silly it was to get a salad from S'n'S; I explained to him I either have to modify the food I order from the restaurants my overweight family loves, or just not eat there with them.

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Today was not good. I cannot wait until lunchtime to eat, and then hardly anything at that, but I was focused on getting some data entry work done from the time I got up this morning. DBF's company allows me to do some typing for minimal compensation, but every little bit helps since I'm not employed right now.
Anyway, I was starving at dinnertime, and ended up eating most of my calories for the day after 6pm. I didn't go over my 1500 cal max, but it was close. No exercise either...just a mediocre day all around, but I guess it could have been worse.

Lunch - salad w/ ranch - 160 cal
Snack - string cheese; sour cream & onion rice snacks - 130 cal
Dinner - Boca burger; cheesy hashbrown casserole, green beans - 646 cal
Snack - regular size bag of popcorn ; WW Chocolate Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Bar - 530 cal

Total - 1466 cal
Water - 64 oz

I might be overestimating the hashbrowns and green beans, but they were leftovers from some of Mom's fantastic home cooking, so I figure it's better to assume they're on the high side of any examples I could find on calorie counters online.

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Okay...it's confession time.

We had some family over last Sunday and had a HUUUGE meal, all homemade by my mom. Beef & noodles, the aforementioned green beans and hashbrown casserole, corn on the cob, cucumber/tomato/onion salad, bread...and a chocolate ice cream pie from the grocery store freezer for dessert.

After dinner, Mom and her cousins all got to talking about how they're all in bad shape, overweight, etc, so someone decided they should get the bathroom scale and compare. I am bigger than all of these folks by a large margin, and to make matters worse I'm a lot younger. I'm well aware it becomes even harder to maintain a healthy weight as you age. They're 20 or so pounds overweight, whereas I'm obese (really hate that word...I don't feel like I am, but my BMI says differently).

Anyway, I weighed myself too, and the scale said 255. Of course, this was at the end of the day, after a big meal, and fully clothed (I usually weigh in my undies...TMI maybe, too bad folks! ). I tried not to be too bummed, because I knew I was going to kick the healthy habits into gear the next day.



Week in review: I've stayed under the 1500 calorie maximum per day I've set for myself, and did a tiny bit of exercise a couple times this week. I've had at least 64 oz of water a day, often more. I haven't eaten any beef; I'm trying to lay off the red meat because I've noticed it doesn't do good things to my stomach.

I've designated that my weekly weigh-in will be on Saturday mornings. I'm using a Weight Watchers digital scale, and I weigh myself 3 times and then take the average, because from minute to minute the darn thing never reads the same.


Today's weigh-in was...drumroll please....245.33 lbs!


I've probably lost 6-7 lbs in less than a week, taking into account that this was in the morning and without the extra weight of clothing. I won't have to fudge my math next week.

Oh also, as I mentioned in my opening post I'm using 260 as my starting weight because that's the heaviest I've been that I'm sure of. I may have been even heavier but due to avoiding the scale, I will never know (nor do I want to! ). So using that number, I can *almost* put the -15 lb tag in my siggy! 0.33 more lbs!

Thanks to any who have been following along! I know my journal here may not be the most interesting or entertaining, but it does help me keep track of everything and feel accountable. I do appreciate support and comments, so feel free to drop me a line here or via PM!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

Weekends are going to be hard. Mom always wants to go out to eat or make big meals, so I have to watch myself.

We went to Applebee's for lunch and I had the Fiesta Lime Chicken, but scraped off all the cheese and sauce and didn't eat the little tortilla strip thingies. And I only ate half of it. So I'm taking what it says on the restaurant's nutrition info and halving it, but it had to actually have been less than that. I have no way of figuring out the difference, so we'll just take the big number and be done with it.

Lunch - spinach dip; Fiesta Lime Chicken - 892 cal
Dinner - 2 beef tacos; limeade - 490 cal

Total - 1382 cal
Water - 72 oz

Of course the downside to eating bad-for-me food is that I don't get to eat as much and stay under my max, so I'm sitting here hungry. I could say no to going out to eat with Mom, but despite the fact that she knows I'm trying to watch what I eat, she gets angry anyway if I tell her I don't want to go.

No exercise today, I'm having some back pain issues. Only reason I can think of for me to be having problems is because I slept on the old uncomfortable twin bed at Grandma's house for 7 nights in the past 2 weeks. Been popping ibuprofen like it's going out of style...gonna have to get someone with a Sam's Club membership to take me so I can get another giant bottle of pills. It takes me a long time to go through them, but I do use them eventually and it's a lot cheaper in the long run.

 

[BrcsDisneyPrncs]

I've designated that my weekly weigh-in will be on Saturday mornings. I'm using a Weight Watchers digital scale, and I weigh myself 3 times and then take the average, because from minute to minute the darn thing never reads the same.


Today's weigh-in was...drumroll please....245.33 lbs!


I've probably lost 6-7 lbs in less than a week, taking into account that this was in the morning and without the extra weight of clothing. I won't have to fudge my math next week.

Oh also, as I mentioned in my opening post I'm using 260 as my starting weight because that's the heaviest I've been that I'm sure of. I may have been even heavier but due to avoiding the scale, I will never know (nor do I want to! ). So using that number, I can *almost* put the -15 lb tag in my siggy! 0.33 more lbs!

Thanks to any who have been following along! I know my journal here may not be the most interesting or entertaining, but it does help me keep track of everything and feel accountable. I do appreciate support and comments, so feel free to drop me a line here or via PM!

OMG Congratulations! What a great job!!!!

 

[indimom]

Just thought I'd pop over and check out your journal. Sounds like you've been doing realy good. I'll have to keep checking in. If I get jealous of your success maybe I'll do better on my own weight loss!
I'm right there with you on the family thing. We like our food toooo much. The only person in my family who has not struggled with their weight is my dad. Sounds like you are doing the right thing with the eating out though. Making good choices and/or halving the entrees. Been there, done that. It's hard when you are the only one at the table doing that. At least applebees has some options and you know what you are getting as far as calories/fat/etc.
Good Luck this week. Maybe we can push our raft a little closer to the island.

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

I got my walk on tonight! We've got a tv/vcr/dvd (yes I still have a vcr! ) above the treadmill, so I told myself that I would put on a movie and walk through the whole thing. Since I'm on such a Disney-obsessed kick right now I decided that I was going to watch Pinocchio. I've decided if I ever get the chance to go to MNSSHP I want to go as the Blue Fairy.


Exercise: 1.5 hr walk on treadmill (that was 4.5 miles! )

Breakfast - Multigrain Cheerios w/ milk - 175 cal
Lunch - scrambled egg w/ cheese & veggies; sausage patty; English muffin; orange juice - 375 cal
Snack - Nature Valley Roasted Almond Granola Nut Clusters - 150 cal
Dinner - leftover Fiesta Lime Chicken - 615 cal
Dessert - WW Ice Cream Candy Bar - 150 cal

Total - 1465 cal
Water - 64 oz


I ate a lot today, and still came in under!

Edit: I just noticed a bit ago that I made 'Mouseketeer'! I'm abnormally pleased about this.