A Tale of Beer & Bacon

 

I Sucked Yesterday 

  

That's not even counting the after midnight waffle house binge that I counted as today's breakfast (more on that later).

 

The day started off so good.  This is my first Saturday without the kids since I started this adventure.  When I woke up I did my daily workout.  I'm doing the Free 5 Day Workout Challenge for Busy People from Fitness Blender.  This was day 2.  I dropped the kids off and then went to the gym.  I spend 30 minutes on the treadmill walking at a pace of 3.5 on a 4 incline.  It was a tough workout.

 

Lunch 

My gym is behind Third Base Grill. Leaving the gym I could feel a grilled cheese and a beer calling my name.  I responsibly-ish gave in.  I'll log these calories and eat in moderation the rest of the day, it will be fine.

 

Afternoon Snack

Around 2pm it seemed like a good idea to go over to chips for ONE BEER.  I went to Chips, had one beer and left.  Success! How's that for will power bitches!

 

Dinner

I want prosciutto bread from The Boot so bad.  That's it - I don't care! I'm having prosciutto bread from The Boot and a beer to go with it of course!



2nd Afternoon Snack
I'll have ONE BEER with my homie.  Everything in moderation?  Except there ended up being several friends there and then *poof* the beers were flowing.  Enter a gentleman friend of mine and I leave for the night after 3 beers.

3rd Afternoon Snack
Let's have a beer on the porch with my neighbor! 

2nd Dinner AKA After Midnight Waffle House Binge
(Actually I decided to count it as today's breakfast since it was after midnight.)
The aforementioned gentleman friend kidnapped me and took me to Waffle House.  It was a harrowing experience.  It's hard to talk about so I've created this artistic rendering of the event:

I'll Do Better Today
615 Calories are already gone from my After Midnight Waffle House Binge.  I'm heading out for lunch - Mexican - grilled chicken and grilled veggies.

Tomorrow is weigh in for the challenge at work.  Here's hoping to a couple pounds lost in spite of Saturdays' shenanigans.

Eleven Days

Eleven days - officially the longest I've lasted on a diet lifestyle change in probably over a year.

I've said before that I know how to lose weight I just have to be in the right mindset.  It looks like I'm finally in that mindset.  Last week wasn't bad - it was easy in fact, which makes me a little nervous. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landsl....

Back to what I was saying - will this motivated mindset stick?

The first weigh in at work for our competition was Monday and I'm down almost 10 pounds.  I know that's just what happens at the beginning of a diet so I'm not too excited, I know that's not a realistic week.  I made the mistake of googling "what happens when you lose 10 pounds in a week?" and learned quite a bit. You can read the whole article here.

What are you really losing?

Water Weight: We've all heard this before, "It's just water weight".  Looks like there's some truth to that.
Glycogen: It's basically stored glucose, or sugar.  "when you crash diet, glycogen is the easiest way for your body to get some energy"
Muscle & Bone: That doesn't sound so good.

What I'm gathering is that your body is flipping out because it's not getting what it needs and starts eating away at what you have stored.

BUT this article is also talking about how all of this happens because you're not eating enough calories. Women are not supposed to eat less than 1200 calories a day.

I'm eating about 1200 - 1350 every day - so I think I'm okay.  I'm getting the recommended number of calories and I'm not starving by any means.  I'm eating a lot more protein and drinking a lot more water.  I'm happy to report that's keeping me sated.  If I'm hungrier I'll eat more.

I'm also moving a lot more.  I'm working for 7000-8000 steps a day.

It helps that some co-workers also have fitbits and we use the daily challenges to watch each other.

Also my home scale said I lost 5 pounds - in my book that's the one that counts.

-Cat

Eat Less, Move More

Relevant

2 Days Down, 98 To Go

I did googled the math.

Monday was weigh in at work and the scale said 248.2 - which is upsetting because the scale at home says 242. Whatever.

Also worth noting - the much-taller-than-me-not-so-in-shape-male director in my building weighed in at 240.2 and he's rubbing it in that he's lighter than me.  

New short-term goal: weigh less than him.

So far it's been a  successful two days. Confession - I had 3 beers for dinner last night (plus some bites of a friends pizza calzone something).  HOWEVER COMMA it was trivia night and I had a sitter for the first time in forever.  I still had room in my daily calorie limit for food but I wasn't really hungry for maybe the first time ever.  I'm calling it a win.

I never said I'd get healthy - I said I'd lose weight.

Serious Time Below This Point

(because you should take weight loss advice from a fat person)

5000 Steps/Day & 10 floors climbed each day

This is really hard when you work an office job tied to your phone & computer all day.  Solution?  I started taking smoke breaks again.  I quit smoking a while ago, but I started going back out with them throughout the day.  That's more steps taken, not to mention the added bonus of taking the stares up/down 3 floors each time.

I'm using a Fit Bit to track my steps and floors climbed.  I would have no motivation without it.  It gives me bonus exercise points when I go above my typical Sedentary (code for lazy ass) activity level.

Drink Water All F'n Day

It's pretty simple - if my cup is empty I refill it - and then I drink it. Rinse. Repeat.

BONUS - Extra steps to walk to the bathroom!

Kinda Sorta Mostly Plan Meals in Advance-ish To Meet My Calorie Goal

I'm using MyFitnessPal. In order to lose the 30 by Thirty my daily calories are set to 1360. I'm packing lunches at work and eating reasonable dinners at home.  

There's nothing crazy - add me on MFP as a friend if you want to see specifics.

My username is "Redcarpetwifey".  (old username).

That's all for now.

-Cat

Cheers to Gluttony!

What do you do the weekend before you start a diet lifestyle change? You eat everything, obviously.

Friday
Lunch: My last grilled cheese with bacon & tomato and my last cheese fries with ranch.
Dinner: My last Salisbury steak and macaroni and cheese.

Saturday
Breakfast: My last maple donut.
Lunch: My last chicken nachos from Chips & Salsa & several beers
Dinner: Sushi? and more beers.

Sunday
Lunch: Mexican - everything covered in queso.
Dinner: Little Caesars Deep Dish & 2 cans of coke.

In summary - I had only one thought when it came to this weekend:

The food...get your mind out of the gutter, pervert.

I'm being a bit dramatic, I'll absolutely eat those foods, but rarely.

I logged my food anyway - today's impressive tally: 2,818 calories.  Drop the mic, my work here is done.

Tomorrow is a new day.

-Cat-

My First Hashing Experience

I'll tell the short version of the story with an original poem:

They said let's go hashing,
They said it'd be fun.
OK, let's go hashing.
We'll drink beer and run.

They said we would pre-lube,
I overachieved.
I chose to PRE-pre-lube,
and collapsed under a tree.

An old friend of mine is in a hashing club and invited me to come with them a few weeks ago.  It sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'd be into: really cool people, beer, plenty of sexual innuendo with exercise as an added bonus. If you're not sure what hashing is check out this article on Wikipedia.

I learned that it is right up my alley, but it's a really bad plan to drink several stout beers before walking/running 3-5 miles it's 100 degrees outside.  (I left my common sense in bed that morning). I was a little tipsy and dehydrated and did NOT make it to the end.

I didn't make it to the first stop.

I made it to a tree, where I laid down and insisted they go on without me.  It was not my proudest moment.

Rough sketch of the event

Luckily these people are awesome, someone picked me up in a car, and let me "auto-hash" the rest of the way.

I definitely have plans to go back and redeem myself.

I'll let you guys know how that goes.

A Totally Reasonable Weight Loss Plan

How to Lose Weight 101

Let's think about the options:

Anorexia - I'm too hungry for that shit.

Bulimia -  I'm too lazy to go pee when I need to.  You think I'm going to go throw up all the time? Yeah right.

Lemonade Cleanse -  Did I mention I'm hungry?

No/Low Carb -  Seriously? No f*cking way. Have you ever had bread? Pasta? It's delicious. Life without bread and pasta is not a life I want to live.

How about making reasonably better food choices and effort to add some extra activity in my life?  I've done it before and it worked, I can do it again.

I really like beer, I drink too much of it.  Let's set the record straight now - it's not an alcoholic thing - it's a BEER IS F*CKING DELICIOUS thing. Obviously I'll cut back on that.

The plan:
1. Use MFP to track calories, and FitBit to track daily activity.
2. Make a real effort to meet my goals.  That means I can have all the beer I want - I just have to sacrifice food for it or drag my lazy ass up and down the stairs once and a while to burn the calories in preparation.

Remember that time I lost 70lbs? Surely I can lose 30....

Till next time,
Cat

30lbs by 30th Birthday - An Introduction

189.9 (that whole day)

265

I’ll be 30 at the end of November - seems like a good deadline for weight loss. After the birth of my daughter (almost 4 years ago) I weighed in at 265 - a hefty honey for sure.  About a year later after some health issues, a better diet and more exercise I lost a TON of weight and was down to 189.9 at one point.  

242ish

I started a new job last year and gained just about all of it back. 

I’d like to be back at 200, but 43 by Thirty wasn't nearly as catchy.

I work full time, have two kids full time and have little babysitting help.  I've used that as an excuse to use the little free time I have either being lazy or drinking beer.  Did I mention I love beer? It's delicious.

Join me as I struggle a lot, fail sometimes and hopefully succeed in the end.  The journey is certain to be filled with sarcasm, too much beer and self-deprecating humor. 

Today the scale said 243.  This picture is not from today - but it's mostly what I look like and will have to do.