Category Archives: Resolutions

Week One: Weigh In.

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Last week was the first full week of my on-plan weight loss challenge.  I’m happy to report:  I’ve lost 3.6 lbs!  Not bad right out of the gate, huh?!

My highlight of the week:  I tried Zumba for the first time.  It was fun, and I burned 700 calories in an hour, which is an accurate read off my heart rate monitor, from a chest strap I wear while working out.
My downfall of the week:  On Saturday, I went to dinner with my parents and caved for a few bites of a chocolate skillet cake.  It was like a little piece of heaven, of course, but I should have shown more willpower than that.

I spent the week on the road for work.  To be more specific, I drove over 1,000 miles.  The majority of my meals were made at restaurants or in the hotel, which is obviously not the ideal setup for weight loss and trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  This just goes to show it can be done, even under the worst circumstances.  So, if you’re at home and you’re reading this, and you want to do something about your weight, stop making excuses!  You have everything you need to make a positive change in your life, right at your fingertips.  It can come much easier for you than it does for me if you put your mind to it.

There is a really good chance you’re assuming I had to have eaten very plain, boring meals, but I assure you that wasn’t the case.  In fact, one evening I took a client to dinner, and he made a comment that I “ordered better” than he had.  Continue reading for photos and a few tips on surviving travel while obtaining a specific weight loss goal.

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Weight Loss Challenge.

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It has been a few days since I originally discussed the proposed weight loss challenge, which you can see here.  I guess I should clarify a bit: I mentioned in conversation that I’d like to lose 40 lbs. by July 23rd, which is the start of our week long sales meeting in northern Minnesota.  He responded by offering a “cash incentive” because 40 lbs. seems a little steep to him, but he doesn’t know what he’s up against.  That money is mine.

I’ve had a little bit of time to figure all the in’s and out’s of this ordeal.  So, this past Monday (March 9,2012) marked the first day of a 40 lb. weight loss challenge, ending July 23rd.  The goal, broken down, is 2 lbs. per week, which is healthy and sensible.  If I worked a typical 9-5 job in an office setting, I would have absolutely no doubts in my abilities to reach this goal.  However, I travel so much for work (at times, I’ve driven over 1,500 miles in one week!) that I practically live in my car and various hotel rooms.  I don’t have the luxury of cooking my meals in the comfort of my own home.  Come to think of it, there isn’t much structure to my life on the road: rarely do I spend the night back to back in the same hotel, so most of the time I never even unpack my clothes (I am fashion forward, and this is a travesty, I promise.)

Truth be told, I’m lucky if I’m not on the road four nights each week.  Life on the road is not ideal for attempting weight loss.  Luckily, hotels have tried to make accomodations for people who are active by providing fitness centers.  If you’re really lucky, you’ll stay at a hotel across the street from a gym, and they’ll give you a free pass for each day you’re staying with them, but I don’t run into that instance very often.  And don’t get me started on the food that’s offered each morning at hotels, or the choices you can make while you’re on the road.  Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats cooking at home where you know exactly what’s going into your food.

My plan for the next 20 weeks is to prove that weight loss can be done, regardless of where you are in your life, if you want it bad enough.  I’m a very empathetic person and I understand how tough this is, but I also think everyone is their own worst enemy, and making excuses will only hurt in the long run.  So, if I can lose 40 lbs. by July 23rd, given my ridiculous circumstances (face it, odds are against me) then I can’t find a reason why anyone couldn’t buckle down and make healthy choices.

I’m going to stay in hotels with fitness centers so there are never any excuses for missing activity.  I’m going to spend at least 60 minutes everyday working out.  I’ll be logging my progress on my blog so you’ll see first hand the food choices I’m making, how many calories I’m burning, the recipes I’m using (when I’m home to cook my own meals,) and all sorts of tips and tricks along the way.

If you care to participate in a weight loss challenge with me, please let me know!  Or if you’re just coming along for the ride, that sounds good, too.

Gone too long?

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A few days ago, I called my dear friend to let her know I’d been asked to write an article for a website about my experiences with various weight loss programs through the years.  I’m happy to update that I’ve received confirmation from said website, and they will be “going live” with my article on February 2, 2012.  This will be the first article I’ve ever written that has been recognized by another site that is not my own.  I am excited, nervous, and anxious, and hoping it is well received by anyone who may stumble upon it.

Isn’t it strange how these instances occur?  At the beginning of the year, I made a list of all the things I’d like to see happen in 2012.  There were several items that were just for fun, as I’ve previously mentioned, and there were a few that I have been taking very seriously, and then a couple that seemed just far too outlandish to happen this year, and one of those was to receive recognition for my writing on a place outside of my own blog.  This is so exciting!

I have since added a few things to my 2012 to-do list: one of which is quite a stretch, but I’m having fun with it, nonetheless.  I can’t exactly consider it a resolution, but I would like to read 100 books this year, which averages out to be about two books per week, and so far, I’m doing just fine.  I’m about 50 pages away from completing John Elder Robison’s novel, Look Me in the Eye.  This novel is about life with Asperger’s and it’s written by the older brother of the more frequently recognized author, Augusten Burroughs.  This book has made me laugh out loud and on more than one occasion, I actually reached for my phone to share a part of the novel with various friends, I’ve enjoyed it that much.  Reading 100 books this year would be quite a feat… if I can’t make it to 100, I hope to be in the ballpark range.

Other than that, weight loss is going well.  My second week into the new year was frustrating because I saw a slight gain on the scale, so I reviewed the basics and went through troubleshooting to figure out what I was doing wrong, and I’ve made changes accordingly, which resulted in a 3 lb. loss on Monday, January 23rd.  I do plan on going into further detail over the food I eat and my favorite tricks I’ve learned along the way.  Weight loss is awfully tricky, especially when you spend most of your time living out of hotel rooms and dining at restaurants three meals per day.  I’m here to say it can be done, but there is preparation and patience needed along the way.

The goal of 2012 with my weight loss is not exactly set in stone, but one thing is for sure: whatever amount of weight I do lose, I will be donating that amount of food to Active Faith, or a Food Pantry, or a Homeless Shelter… somewhere that will help the less fortunate.

I’ll be around tomorrow!  I have more elaborate news to discuss!

Diet nuances and fat absurdities.

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Have you ever noticed the detrimental implication of the word diet?  There is this horrible, negative connotation about the word, but the truth behind the matter is simple: regardless of what or how you eat, that is your diet.  I’ve never been quite sure why the word has such a profound impact, as though it’s sole purpose in the world is to remind us, with a mere two syllables, of our eternal unhappiness in the image of self, our constant act of compare and contrast, against beauty magazines and fashion models, against friends and coworkers or strangers walking in the mall, and our desires to be prettier, or thinner, or well-received and accepted.  In my experience, the word diet has the uncanny ability to make a grown man suddenly weak in the knees for food he otherwise would only eat once or twice a year.  Somehow, it conjures up the worst in everyone, whether it means a perfectly healthy girl feels compelled to drop three pounds because she fears a slice of pizza will make her fat, or an overweight man goes on an eating binge, only because the word diet reminded him of all the food he will be restricted to have in the next few days or months, and life without all of these options is absolute hell on earth.

How many of you have ever “started a diet“, but planned to do it on a Monday?  And then proceeded to binge all weekend, on obscene amounts of your favorite junk food, as though it were your last day on earth and if you missed even the smallest crumb from your favorite chips, you would die in absolute regret?  Your diet would suddenly fail you because there weren’t enough hours in the day to enjoy all the food you’d be missing out on with your new restrictions set in motion, and without those last bites, you just know you are doomed to fail.  You might think I’m loony, but my money says this is exactly how people respond to the implication of a new diet.  I can hear the rationalization, “We have to go out tonight because I start my diet tomorrow and we won’t be doing this for a while.” I’ve absolutely been here, and hindsight makes this even more absurd than I thought it was all the times I’ve done it in the past.

Where does our philosophy come from, to change the way we eat, on a Monday?  What significance does this have?  Why are we programmed to want to begin on Monday, anyway?  In comparison, and I will use myself as an example here, when it was time for me to quit smoking, I didn’t say to myself, “Yep. It’s time.  I’m going to smoke all the cigarettes I can until Monday, because on Monday, I’m going to quit!”  Maybe I did things differently than most, but I don’t think so: when my mind was made up and I finally felt ready to quit, it happened the moment I ran out of cigarettes, and refused to go out and buy another pack.  This was in the middle of an obscure Tuesday, I’m sure, but midday is just as good as any time to make a life changing decision, don’t you think?

Research shows “starting a diet” on a Monday actually sets you up for failure, and this makes perfect sense to me.  Think of your overall attitude during the work week.  Mondays are not your happiest days, and if you’re like me, and you enjoy food, pairing an already bad day with a certain food restriction looming overhead is just asking for trouble.  Some people do fine with this setup.  For me, the best results come from the times when I wake up, ready to change.  When I first started Weight Watchers Online, I was so excited to start, I went to the grocery store in the afternoon to prep for the first day of clean eating, and when I got home, I knew it was time.  I began that afternoon.

There are these certain cliches when it comes to losing weight and “dieting” that people often say to one another.  The absolute beauty of a cliche is that they’re stated frequently and become that of a mantra because they’re true.  I can’t tell you the amount of people who have said, “it didn’t go on all in one day, so it won’t come off in one day, either,” or “everything in moderation.”  How many times have you heard, “eat healthy, exercise regularly?”  I’m not saying that these are not difficult things to do, especially with all the wonderful hiccups of life standing in your way, but there is a very real tone about these statements that seems rather resounding when it finally hits you and you really “get it.”  Perhaps my favorite one of all, “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change.”

Maybe you disagree right now.  That’s okay, but a certain understanding of the truth in this statement is that until you realize you have to permanently change the things in your life that have made you overweight, you will always battle your weight.  A lot of people say it’s going to be easy, but they lie.  The diet industry is a multi-BILLION dollar industry, annually.  If all of those get-slim-quick pills, programs, shakes, bars, and smoothies actually worked, everyone in the world would be thin and there would be no use for a multi-billion dollar industry anymore.  Doesn’t that make sense?  I’m not saying none of them work, because they will, if you partner them with proper eating and exercise.  Speaking from experience, these items fail when it comes to longevity.  What happens the moment you add carbohydrates back into your meals after restricting them for months?  How about dinner with friends after weeks or months following pre-packaged, portioned, frozen meals?  I know what happens to me.

My best results come from understanding what I really want out of life and really taking an interest in how healthy habits equate healthy living and the positive results I’m looking for, that last.  Eating healthy and exercising is not easily obtained until you figure out what works for you.  There is a very specific equation to weight loss, and you can achieve it whichever way works best for you, but the equation will always be to burn more than you take in.  You need to find out for yourself how you’re going to enjoy exercise, and how you can incorporate it into your life.  You need to figure out what your eating patterns are so you can learn to curb the habits that prohibit your successes.  And you don’t need a Monday to figure it all out.

Resolving to resolve this year.

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I have to admit:  This first post is far more intimidating than I had expected, and maybe that’s why I have been putting it off since October.  The idea of anyone, be it a stranger or someone I see or speak to on a daily basis, reading my thoughts?  Well, it’s scary and liberating, all at once.

Everyone makes all these silly resolutions each year, and I’m sure they’re made with the best of intentions, but when that “new year feeling” fades away, they seem to end in slight disappointment, or maybe even a complete lack of remembrance.  Either way, this is the first year in my entire life that I’ve resolved to do anything.  And not only did I make resolutions, I made good ones.  Life changing, fun, somewhat scary, honest resolutions that I want to see happen.  Almost fifteen of them!

On New Year’s Eve, as I was heading out the door to bring in the new year with my best friend, Cate, I decided I would need to write my resolutions down on paper if I wanted any chance of succeeding at them.  I laugh, just three days later, at the goal I first listed for 2012.  I had made a promise to myself to be more open to the idea of dating, and hopefully develop a relationship in 2012.  I’m sure this makes any single girl’s list each year, but to be uncomfortable in the skin you’re in and trying desperately to do something about it, it’s important to recognize not just that you may be lonely, but also that you need the confidence in yourself to go about meeting someone new.  I have an incredibly difficult time with this.  Quite frankly, if I don’t find myself attractive, in my mind, it’s not possible that anyone else could think so, either.  So, in setting a goal that ultimately means relax, have fun, just be you, and trust in you, you’re beautiful, I can rationalize in my mind how this is a good goal.

Cate and I meet two guys after the ball drops; one of whom is a complete ass, but he’s not interested in me, anyway.  The other, as it turns out, is a really good kisser, and we have quite a bit in common.  We talked a little bit longer, about shared interests, holding hands and stealing kisses here and there, and when it was time to go, we exchanged numbers.

We went out on a date last night.  We’re making plans for our next one, too.  This entire resolution bit ain’t so bad after all!