GottaBeMe's Fitness Journal

[GottaBeMe]

Sometimes you've just got to step up make some changes if you want to get where you want to be. And I think today is going to be the day I step up.

It sounds kind of strange to be only 25 and male to boot and already be making these kinds of "lifestyle changes" but I am. It's important for me to realize that these changes are not just about my body and health--- I am hoping to really change my whole attitude---my whole life.

I'm nervous about this, having failed so many times before. I did Atkins for a couple weeks- didn't lose anything and I was tired all the time--- not for me. And then there was my fantastic 9 hour stint on the Slim-Fast plan

My goal is to get down to 180-185 pounds, wherever my body and mind tells me is good. I have no idea what I weigh right now. I'm waiting til tomorrow morning to weigh-in for my starting point.

Basically my plan is a simple one: heathful eating, drinking lots of water, lots of regular exersice and PORTION CONTROL! I am also hoping to kick my rather awful caffine habit... but one thing at a time

I am hoping that by journaling I will be able to hold myself accountable for my progress. While the people out there who may read this I have never met, I won't want to let them down (or myself for that matter.)

I know this was kind of a mouthful, but I'd love to join you all on your respective journeys if you'll have me

Now I've got to go figure out a heathful dinner for tonight.

Ready to start,
Rick

 

[kayeandjim00]

Welcome to WISH Rick! I hope you decide to take the "WISH Challenge" Here's a link with more info - it makes you an "official" WISHER! Wish Challenge I think it's great that you are recognizing at 25 that you need to make changes. I am also (almost) 25 and don't want to wait around to make changes I want to do it NOW so I don't have to worry about health problems when I'm older. Your plan is very realistic, DH and I are doing the same thing basically. We are counting calories, exercising, etc. We take one day off a week which we call our "free day." This day we eat what we want, usually we go out but we don't go crazy just treat ourselves as this is going to be a way of life for us and we know that for us it will help us to stick with it. We look forward to it and it keeps us from cheating during the other 6 days a week. If we crave something we can have it we just have to wait until our free day. DH has lost 67 lbs doing this since Aug and I have lost 33 lbs. DH's goal is the same as yours and he is now only 14 lbs away! Your goal is very attainable and with the support, motivation, and encouragment that you will find here you will have lots of success I'm sure of it! Looking forward to reading more of your posts!

 

[GottaBeMe]

 

[GottaBeMe]

kayeandjim00- Thank you so much for your support. I truly appreicate it. Anyone else who would like to post feedback in my journal is more than welcome.

My happy start to healthy eating fell flat last night. Had something to do with finishing work very late and my roomate getting a Hawaiian pizza. (sigh) Nothing I can do about it now (except learn from it, of course).

I woke up this morning and had my dreaded first weigh-in. I stepped on the scale and watched it go up and up (quickly...it's a digital) and stopped at.... 230 Not 229.5, 230. When I did the math I realized that if I wanted to get down to 180, that would involve losing 50 (FIFTY) pounds. I was discouraged for about 5 seconds and then realized that this is for the long haul and won't be complete in a month or even two.. it's a whole lifetime comittment- even after the excess weight is gone.

Here's today's eating so far:
B- .5 cup of D&W organic cereal with .5 cup All Bran mixed in with skim milk; 12 oz. orange juice
S- Black coffee... ( I know, I know)
L- 6" Roast Beef sub from Subway with tons of veggies (365 calories and two servings of veg, not bad, eh??) and a diet Pepsi.

I worked out on the Stepmill at the gym an hour ago and did 107 floors in 30 minutes Water is great... I'm up to 70oz, so 30 more to go.

I'm feeling really good about today. I'm having a crazy week at work and am leaving for a work-related trip to Alabama on Thursday, so I'm worried about my motivation and sticking to my plan in the land of Waffle House... an immediate willpower test. (Is it strange that I'm looking forward to my test?)

Going out to dinner tonight, so keep your fingers crossed that I'll make good choices!!

EDIT:
Here's the rest of the day:
Sn: A couple of bites on the rest of the sandwich from lunch (Didn't get out of the office and was getting ravenous)
D: 3 Lobster Rolls, Caeser salad, a half portion of grilled salmon, a half portion of wild rice and veggies! (Hey, I did good! Except I've got to ask to have the dressing on the side of these salads)

So far so good!
Rick

 

[kayeandjim00]

Way to go Rick! You are off to a great start. Keep drinking that water You have a positive attitude about the changes that you are making and that will take you far! And you are in the right place for support. Everyone here will go out of their way to help you with questions and give you a little pick me up when you get discouraged along the way. Looks like you made great choices today. Hope that your dinner out went well, those are meals that make it hard to stay on plan sometimes but one thing that can be a help is to check and see if the restaurant you are visiting has their menu online. If you can pick what you'll order ahead of time when you aren't starving and ready to eat anything in site you can make better choices for yourself. Keep up the great work!

 

[GottaBeMe]

kayeandjim: Thanks for the menu idea-- that's EXACTLY what I did. Worked like a charm!

I saw on a couple of other journals that people wrote down their goals for the day in their journals-- I like that idea.

My goals for today--
1. Make good eating choices and journal every bite.
2. Exersice for at least 30 minutes today.
3. Drink water-- lots and lots of water (at least 100oz)
4. Work-Get all itineraries done for travel this week.
5. Work-Get desk organized (ugh).
6. Home- Get all the dogs' stuff ready for the kennel.
7. Home- Begin packing for Alabama trip
8. KEEP THIS POSITIVE ATTITUDE!!

One good day down, lots more to go!
Rick

 

[DoeWDW]

Hi Rick!

I just read through your journal and you seem to be doing GREAT! I love your positive attitude about making permanent changes to your lifestyle. This is all about taking good care of yourself for the rest of your life. You deserve to live in a body that looks good and, more importantly, feels good to you.

Journaling has been so helpful to me. I could not have come this far without it. It seems like a pain to log all the food, but then when I'm not losing or need to tweak things a bit, it's so great to look back and see what I've been eating, so I can see where I might need to make changes.

Rick, you're doing just fine. Don't expect this road to be a straight line with no bumps or detours. You will fall short of your expectations, and that's OK. Don't give up! Just come back here, and start where you left off. We've all done it, and probably will again. Hopefully those times will become less and less frequent!

I'll be keeping an eye on you, Rick! I wish you all the best in your healthy living journey!

 

[GottaBeMe]

Hi Doe! Thanks for the kind words and support. I've read your journal as well (all 20 some odd pages) and it was very inspiring. I too have battled depression and I completely understand where you are coming from.

I am still at work, at 5 minutes to 7:00... been one of those busy busy days. But one more meeting and I'm outta here!!

Here's the food for today:
B-same as yesterday: cereal blend with skim milk, 8oz orange juice.
Sn- Black Coffee, yet again.
L- Two grilled BBQ chicken breasts (small), 2 ribs, salad (Catered in at work)
D- Chicken Wrap and about 15 potato chips from a local restaurant; diet pepsi
And yes, I've already had all my water!!!

I feel OK about those 15 chips-- I was legitimately still hungry and left about 2/3 of what they gave me on the plate. All in all, I think I made pretty good choices during a very stressful day.

UPDATE: Ended up not getting home until after 8:00pm and was STARVING, so I polished off the remainder of my sandwich from Monday lunch. I figure another 200cal, but I would still be well within range.

I did 30 minutes on the EFX, which I was very happy with, really worked up a sweat.

All my work goals were accomplished (yeah!) and I'm sure I'll get a good running start with the house stuff once I finally get there.
And attitude: still good.

I know I haven't actually lost any weight yet, but I already feel better mentally and physically. Tonight I really want to think about some goals to set for myself, both with weight loss and other things-- I feel ready to do that.

Well, til tomorrow!
Rick

 

[kayeandjim00]

Way to go Rick! I'm glad that my suggestion helped you last night and it's great that you were able to make good choices when you went out for dinner. Those are the hardest meals to get a handle on and if you can tackle that you can tackle anything! You are really covering all the bases and that's great - water, exercise, eating right, I can't "weight" to hear how your first weigh in goes I think you'll be very happy with your first loss!

 

[GottaBeMe]

Thanks for the kind words kayeandjim! I'm actually feeling a bit nervous about the weigh-in. I'm doing a good job of keeping off the scale until Monday-- but that's actually been hard.

I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, but I'm going to still try and get my workout in..here are my goals for today:

1. Make good food choices and journal every bite of it.
2. Drink LOTS of water, at least 100oz.
3. Get in at least 25 minutes of cardio exersice.
4. WORK- Finish and finalize travel plans
5. WORK- Finish timecards
6. WORK- Get all the financial stuff ready for the weekend.
7. HOME- Clean up bathroom and bedrooms
8. HOME- PACK!! (Never did get around to it last night)

I can't believe home much sleep I have been getting lately. Last night I crashed right after Larry King. I woke up around 6am and noticed that I was all curled up with the dog in bed.. and I can usually NEVER sleep with him in there (kind of hard with a Newfoundland).

Well, here's to a good day!!
Rick

 

[kayeandjim00]

Staying off the scale is always a challenge for me Rick - I usually don't win that one - I'm a "scaleaholic" I think. Even though the fluctuations drive me crazy sometimes I still hop on! I only "count" the one on Sunday our regular weigh in though. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with your success this week. The first week often brings great losses!! How did you do on your goals today? Keep drinking that water - It's a big key to weight loss success!

 

[GottaBeMe]

I regret to say I was not as good as I could have been today. I am coming down with a vicious cold as that didn't help matters much.

Here's the rundown:
B- Instant Oatmeal and 8 orange juice
Sn- a SMALL black coffee
L- A plate and a half from the Chinese Buffet place. (I had a work meeting at lunch and completely wasn't thinking. I would have felt OK about it had I only had one plate, but I went back for seconds.
D: A slice of leftover pizza and chicken noodle soup; diet soda.

I really felt awful, so I didn't get my workout in. I feel guilty about that one even though I probably shouldn't.

The work stuff got done, the house stuff got overlooked.

Today's goals are pretty much the same as yesterdays:
1. Make good food choices and journal every bite of it.
2. Drink 100 oz of water
3. Exersice at least 25 minutes.
4. WORK- Get last minute details completed for Alabama trip.
5. HOME- Finishing packing for Alabama trip
6. Leave for Alabama trip at midnight (by bus )
7. Keep a positive attitude all day.


I slipped up a little bit this morning by skipping breakfast. ( I Know, I know). I had to get one dog into the vet for shots and then drop both of the dogs off at the kennel for the weekend before coming to work (excuses, excuses).

I'm going to try and post tonight before I head out for the weekend.

Here's to a great day!!
Rick

 

[GottaBeMe]

Ah the perils of not eating breakfast. The end result was that I was starving all day Starting at noon I had in no particular order:

A 6" subway roastbeef sandwich
a slice of hawaiian pizza
10 buffalo wings
a couple bites of grilled salmon
a handful of tortilla chips
a couple of handfuls of Wheat Thins

I'm sure a lot of this had to do with the stress of the upcoming trip, but I have to take responsibility for not doing what I said I would. If I forgive myself for every single mistep I am doing myself a disservice by giving myself permission to fail.

I did exersice 30 minutes on the EFX today and got all my work and home goals accomplished. So good for me there.

Well, I'm off to Alabama for the weekend, so my next post will probably be Sunday sometime. My main goal is to make good food choices while eating out so much this week. I might try to get some exersice in if the hotel has some equipment. I'm not going to stress about it if not.

Til Sunday!
Rick

 

[GottaBeMe]

OK, I've got a confession to make:

I wasn't very good on my trip. Not very good at all.

It was a really fun work trip, I will admit that. But there was, in no particular order, I McDonalds breakfast, and Outback Staeakhouse dinner, a Cracker Barrel breakfast and a couple of skipped meals. Oh, and too many beers.

I was VERY worried about weigh-in this morning. But I was a pleasantly suprising 228! Down 2lbs! Woohoo!

It's kind of gratifying and peeving at the same time. I DID lose two pounds, but I was off program for half the week, so I wonder what it would have been like had I been good the entire time. ARGH!

But now it's time to get back on the bandwagon and full steam ahead!! My goal is to be down to 223 by New Years as an interim goal. It's challenging but I think doable.

So, goals for today:
1. Make really good food choices and journal every bite of it.
2. Drink lots of water... at least 100 oz.
3. Exersice at least 30 minutes at the gym.
4. WORK- Get caught up on the weekend stuff.
5. HOME- Finish laundry
6. HOME- Clean the office and kitchen.
7. HOME- Pay bills
8. HOME- Finish Christmas decorating (a tree might be nice)
9. KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE!!

Wish me luck!
Rick

 

[kayeandjim00]

Welcome Back Rick! Always remember when you mess up on your new eating plan - tomorrow's another day! You just start back over and do the best you can. Congratulations on the 2 lb loss that's really great. How did you do on your goals today? Did you get some things accomplished? Doesn't that feel great? Over on the main WISH board there is a check-in thread where you can report your weekly losses with all your fellow WISHers and see how they are doing as well. Be sure to post there as well so everyone can celebrate your success with you.
P.S. Cracker Barrel breakfast is my FAVORITE!

 

[GottaBeMe]

HI kayeand jim.... thanks for the support!

I did really, really well yesterday---

B: Instant Oatmeal, 8 oz orange juice
Sn: Small cup of black coffee
L: BBQ Chicken bagette lite value meal with salad from Burger King (a very good decision)
D: Pork chop (thick good kind); baked beans; lots of broccoli; one of those teensy Hershey miniatures Special Dark chocolate bars.

I drank all of my water, and then some. I exersiced 30 minutes on the EFX at the gym. Got all the work stuff done but very little of the house stuff. I'm coming off of a cold and by the end of the day I feel completely drained. One other funny thing, I feel like I didn't quite eat enough today. A couple of ours after dinner I was hungry again but fought it off since it was so close to bed time. I think I need to start planning for a midafternoon snack to get me over that hump after my workouts.

OK, goals for today-
1. Make good food choices and journal every bite of it
2. Drink 100 oz of water- at least.
3. Exersice at least 30 minutes at the gym
4. WORK- Get caught up on some of the stuff I forgot about from this fall
5. WORK- Start organizing the office storage space
6. HOME- Finish laundry
7. HOME- Clean home office
8. KEEP A POSTIVE ATTITUDE!!

WISHing for one more cheat-free day!
Rick

 

[GottaBeMe]

Yikes! I know I am all kinds of behind for an update.

Here's a really quick rundown:
Tuesday 12/16:
B- instant oatmeal, 8oz of orange juice
Sn.- Coffee (I know, not a snack)
L- Soup and Salad bar at local restaurant. I was really good and had very little or none of the really high calorie stuff on the salad bar. I'm going to have to find a recipe for Italian Wedding soup because it was wonderful!
Sn.- Banana, 2 melba toasts
D- BBQ Broiled Chicken breast, corn, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 2 Special Dark miniatures.

A did get all my water in (and then some ) and worked out 30 minutes on the EFX. The work and home stuff got mostly done. A very, very good day

Wednesday 12/17:
My roomate wasn't feeling too well and since my car is dead and he's my ride to work, we both took a sick day. (It's approved-- he's my boss)

B: instant oatmeal, 8oz orange juice (I really need to buy some cereal)
Sn: Entirely too much coffee. So much so it gave me the jitters.
L: Turkey Ranch Pita; handfull or carrot sticks, a dozen mixed nuts.
Sn.: a few Melba toats, a leftover slice of pizza. (I know, I know... my roomate ate the other two and couldn't finish this one and asked me to.... I was weak, what can I say.
D: TGI Fridays: Harvest Chicken Salad with grilled chicken, diet coke.

I did get all my water in but of course no exersice since I didn't get over to the gym. No work stuff done but between the roomate and I we did manage to get the whole house decorated for Christmas, tree and all. I wasn't too disappointed with today in spite of the pizza. On my normal days at home I just eat all day with no real end in sight. I really think I did a good job of keeping that under control.

So, goals for today:
1. Make good food choices and journalize.
2. Drink at least 100 oz of water.
3. Exersice at least 30 minutes at the gym.
4. WORK- Do some more organizing
5. HOME- Finish Christmas shopping
6. HOME- Get to the grocery store
7. HOME- Clean the home office (finally, if time)

Let home for the fourth good day this week!
Rick

 

[kayeandjim00]

How did your second weigh in go? Did you do well this weekend? Sometimes the weekends are the hardest to "stay on plan" as we usually don't have as much of a routine as we do during the week. You are making great progress. Keep up the great work!!

 

[DoeWDW]

Hey Rick! I'm missing you and your update!

I hope all is going well, but whether it is or isn't, come back here and tell us about it, OK?

Did the home office ever get cleaned? Did you have a happy weigh-in? Have you been eating on plan? Inquiring minds want to know!