I've re-reached the 40 lbs lost mark!!

I did it! I weighed myself this morning and I weigh 211.4 lbs. Exactly the 40 lbs lost mark that I had previously reached back in 2010. 2010!

You know it's me when you see my zebra stripe tan lines. I'm kind of getting known for them. lol

I looked back at my old post and saw that was when I was losing 3-5 lbs a week and the 40 lbs loss didn't feel like a big accomplishment. Looking through my weight loss blog history I was only able to go down 50 lbs and then I re-gained 15-20 lbs.. AND was stuck there for nearly 2 years (TWO!). I had been stuck in the 2-teens for so long I admit I felt doomed to be there forever.

Many times I would weigh myself and see that I reached 212 lbs. One pound away from 211, my 40 lbs loss mark. However I would never make it past that number. It was as if 212 was the trigger to suddenly get a craving for ice cream, or decide that I didn't need to go for a jog that week. My self-sabotaging efforts became very obvious after so many repeat offenses.

So like old times let's do a proper Weigh In:

Current Weight: 211.4 (-3 lbs from last week and 40 lbs loss from my start at 251 lbs)

Work Out Achievement(s):
So now that I'm in a different setting; new job, new home, my own kitchen (for the most part), my own food choices and my own time to cook I KNEW I had no excuse but to get myself working again.

I've decided to go back to tracking my food, setting goals on my trackers (Runkeeper and Sparkpeople.com) and like always, writing down my accomplishments, my weight and my measurements on my calendars to keep me accountable.

It may seem silly but looking at Runkeeper and seeing a small list of past goals I didn't achieve (and it even said so "past unachieved goals") makes me feel horrible.

So first food. I didn't start tracking until a couple of days ago but here's what I have

Saturday: 2006 calories
Sunday: 1784 calories

My goal is to stay inside the 1200-1600 calories. I went over those two days but I know I was doing pretty well before the weekend.

Work outs: I started walking and jogging and I'm trying to incorporate more toning and strength workouts intertwined with my cardio walk/jogs.

Saturday: I love my job.

Sun: 2.91 mi walk
Mon: 1.25 mi run, 1.80 mi walk = 3.05 miles
Tue: ~3 mi hike (not tracked)
Wed: 1.12 mi run
Thu: 1.30 mi walk
Fri: 1.45 mi run
Sat: 2.23 mi walk, and an all day hike with kids- miles unknown
Sun: 3.00 mi walk/jog

I am at 6,700+ ft of elevation here and I'm still getting acclimated to the altitude. Trying to jog a mile is nearly impossible right now. Many times I had to stop and walk when I started jogging, hence the reason I kept my runs short last week. I feel a bit better so I hope to start upping the distance.

Goals: 
My main goal is to get to 180-190 lbs by the end of the year. I'm dying to reach the Overweight BMI and get away from Obesity once and for all.

My current goal is to get to 208-209 lbs by the beginning of June. That's a 2-3 lbs loss in a week but I know that if I work hard enough I can reach that. It'll be a little difficult since I will be taking a wilderness medicine course the first week of June and I will be busy all day for a week but I'm confident I can do it if I really set my mind to it

In order to reach my goals, my small goals are:
1. Drink at least 64 oz of water daily
2. Walk 10 miles in a week or more
3. Do more toning and stretching exercises
4. Stay within 1200-1600 calories a day
5. Eat low glycemic food and cook more

And finally my motivation to reach my goal is this shirt I won last Christmas for the Virtual 5k Daily Vitamin F hosted last year. The biggest shirt size they had was a Large and it just doesn't fit well yet. So I have pinned it to my wall. I love the message it has and I would LOVE to wear this shirt.

This is what I look like with it on now.


 As you can tell I'm stretching it a bit. These muscle shirts are supposed to fit loosely, and that's the goal. To have this shirt fit me well.  :)





So that's the plan. I feel pretty good about everything right now. As long as I keep things simple and focus on what I need to do I know I can continue this weight loss. One and two pounds at a time.

Good luck to all and happy Memorial Day!

-w0rld

Learning to appreciate black beans

I've been doing my best to stick with low glycemic food. I only bought a few things from the grocery store (living in tourism central= everything costs an arm and a leg) to not burn a whole in my wallet. So I've been eating a lot of bell pepper, broccoli, fish, and black beans.

When you're short of time and money, canned black beans are the sh*t. 

I've been trying to keep things interesting and I'm falling in love with coconut oil.

Trader Joe's coconut oil. Not too pricey and a great size.

I love how it's a solid and I don't automatically use too much of it, since I have to scrape it from the container in to the pan. However this is an oil I wouldn't mind having extra; the flavor makes my food taste delicious. 

Another couple of new staples that I'm trying to incorporate in to my diet are cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

  

I read that both are excellent to help me with PCOS. Cayenne pepper, although I'm not a fan of too spicy food, is an excellent form to help boost and speed your metabolism. I need that desperately so I deal with the spice and add it. If I add a little bit it's not too bad. I'm hoping to learn to embrace it soon.

Cinnamon helps reduce insulin resistance. Now I've read a bit about how it might mess with medications like Metformin. I'm not sure how true that is, but I figure I'll try it and see how it is with me. Everyone's reactions and symptoms are different. I love cinnamon. I don't think it'll hurt, it'll either work or not. 

I've been trying to use these ingredients with different dishes. I need to get more creative so that not everything tastes like coconut oil and cayenne pepper stir fry with a touch of cinnamon, which is what's been happening these last couple of days. 

Last nights creation was actually AMAZING. I used my glycemic cook book to try to make salmon burger patties. I didn't have breadcrumbs so I used wheat germ. That DOESN'T work so don't try it. However the mix of salmon, green onion, black beans and fried with cayenne and coconut oil turned out to be delicious especially because I added the mix to a toasted and buttered slice of toast. So it was like salmon bruschetta. Mmmmm. I'm sure I'll make it again so I'll post pics next time. Last night I gobbled it up before I thought of taking documentation of my quasi-masterpiece. LOL

Overall things are going ok with trying new foods. But it's true that I need to figure out some sort of variety or I'll get bored really fast.

Have a great weekend!

-w0rld

Working hard and getting trained. Plus a gorgeous view!

Today is my first official day of my new job. (I'm at a lunch break.) Sounds like my schedule is going to be full and varied. No set time off. We'll see how that plays out with my work out schedule and my desire to continue triathlon training. I'm sure I could make it work. I just have to work with what I got. My new bosses seem pretty good and I'm finally getting all my questions slowly answered. I'm sure that by June I'll understand how things work better and start a good schedule for training and food.

I also found out that when I'm with groups I eat with the groups. I read what's recommended the groups bring for meal preparation and a lot of it is NOT low glycemic. I've never been the person to say "I have dietary restrictions." but I might have to do that if I can't figure out a way to feed myself less processed food. I hate that I always have to have black and white recipes/menus and I can't do the whole substitution thing. I know myself and I know that if you give me the option to cheat and add something that I know isn't the greatest choice and/or a trigger food, I'll take that option. Sad, I know.

Things are looking bright though. I'm excited to learn my new job and I literally had the giggles and excited angsty-ness when I logged in to my work account. (I haven't had a work email since college!) LOL. I feel a little official using Outlook. Call me a dork, I don't care. LOL

Why am I so excited you ask?

Check out the view across the block from me:

Or the view of the canyon I hiked through yesterday to take this picture:

Behind me was just one of the many waterfalls I passed along the route. :)

Things are going to be figured out. I WILL get a handle of my health. I just have to treat it like a serious condition and a priority, not just something on the side. 

Go me! Go you! Go Wednesday! I'll be exhausted before you know it. 

-w0rld

I made it up the mountains. Now I need..no, want.. well, need a Road Bike!

I've made it to my new home for the rest of the summer and fall. I'm back in my beloved Eastern Sierra mountains. I drove up yesterday and started taking a million pictures using my phone, but without stopping the car. LOL. Most of the pictures have some sort of windshield reflection but I don't care. I couple turned out pretty nice.

 Starting out in the Mojave desert. I really like this picture. In this case the reflection worked well. LOL

 The Really Good Jerky signs! You'll find these signs up and down Kern county.

 You know you're getting close to Ridgecrest when you see advertisements for guns. Go Amurrika.

 You can see the start of the Eastern Sierra mountains on the left and a dormant red volcano on the right.

 My first sight of snow on the mountains. I've reached Lone Pine by this time.

 I reach the town of Bishop and I spot the sign for my favorite corner bakery! There will be a stop in the near future!

 The famous, bigger bakery of Schatts. Also good.

Starting to go up in elevation and what do I see on the right? But my sneak peak to the snow of  Mammoth Lakes.

Crowley lake. I actually got out of the car for this picture. LOL

 I love mountains. I don't think I could live in the Midwest.

This turned out to be a cooler picture than I expected. I have my car and the sign letting me know I had 34 miles to go. But my favorite is the mountains in the rear view mirror. 

I MADE IT. Welcome to Lee Vining indeed. Yay!

The first thing I did after meeting my new boss and a few of my co-workers is move in to my new room. The second thing I did was wake up this morning and go for a jog. I. am. out. of. shape. I started looking up swimming pools and re-found the information for the High Sierra Triathlon club. I'm hoping to join this club soon. I just have to learn how my work schedule is going to look like first. 

HOWEVER, regardless of whether I become a triathlete junkie, the roads here look like a lot of fun! I need a road bike! I didn't bring my mountain bike. I need to get a new mountain bike anyway. But a road bike would be awesome too. Now do I desperately need this investment? No. But wouldn't it be awesome if I had it? YES!

I need to focus on my job as well of course, and there will be A LOT of hiking in higher elevation than I'm used to. I'm used to 4,000-5,000+ ft of elevation. Now we're talking 6,000-12,000 ft in elevation. Time to get acclimated! Wooo! I'm going to be out of breath faster than you can say arugula. 

Speaking of arugula. I'm excited because it looks like I'm completely in charge of my own food here. You might think it would be nice to have your meals made for you at your job, but when it's the fifth time they're giving you chicken nuggets and tater tots you start going insane and dreaming of curry and grilled salmon. LOL. I've always eaten healthier when it's just me. I'm hoping to start cooking again soon.

Which reminds me it's time to take a shower (I need it after my jog.) and go to the grocery store... which is 30 miles away in Mammoth Lakes. LOL

Have a great week everyone.

-w0rld

Learning about my PCOS disorder

It's interesting knowing you have a disorder and your doctors just telling you to lose weight because that's what causing you to have so many different symptoms.

I didn't really question it too much and I finally got my act together and lost some weight. But once I really hit my plateau and been stuck here for over a year I finally started to really research PCOS.

Initial thoughts were that I didn't realize how many women are in the same boat. I also realized that most women don't realize they have PCOS until they try to conceive and find out they're infertile. Being a 26 year old woman that sees no baby in her future, this isn't something I'm really worried about, but it is a little bit concerning that I might have problems in the future.

Learning about insulin resistance being a big factor was also something I was surprised to find out. I knew I was pre-diabetic but I didn't think PCOS and diabetes had anything to do with each other.

My eyes are opening and I'm very interested and invested in learning more.

Stay tuned, who knows what I'll find out, and I'm already making changes to see how I can manage PCOS better. I will share my experiences soon.

-w0rld