I've Beat The System...Weekly Weigh In

I've overcome my obsession with the scale. Granted, I do (and will continue) to weigh in every single day. However, I don't freak out at the number I see anymore. My body is insane. I fluctuate 2-5 lbs every single day, but the important thing to remember is that I'm on this downward trend to my goal of 185 lbs. I've decided to break my goal into 10 lbs increments that's more manageable than this huge gaping number that's so far in the future. Even 20 lbs goals are daunting. I'd rather celebrate way more victories than failures.

With that being said, my official weigh ins are now on Fridays so drumroll please................ my current weight today is 295.4 lbs. That's about 23 lbs lost. I cant freaking believe it. By August, when I start the TFA gig, I want to be 50lbs lighter. I'm about halfway there and I feel good. I'm starting to notice a difference too. I can look directly in the mirror now. Before when I would be getting dressed, I would turn sideways and never look at myself dead on because I'd be disgusted. I'm not disgusted anymore. I look at myself in the mirror at Zumba.  I can see the 23 lbs on my body and its made such an impact on my life. I feel good. 

I've been getting some FANTASTIC low carb recipes off the internet from http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/

The food is amazing and so simple. The boyfriend has been eating all of my food so it's boyfriend/husband/man friendly stuff and keeps me in my realm of 30 carbs per day.

I'm going to keep this up. I'm going to do this.

Say it, pray it, do it

Loo

PILOXING FOR FATTIES-like me!

So I'm getting back in the swing of things after my vacation and it feels pretty good to be back on my health kick. I stepped on the scale today and the weight went back down to 300. Yesterday, the scale said 298 but I don't have the energy to get pissed off about things like that anymore. It's going down one way or another and besides, Aunty "Flo" is coming for a week long visit so I'll try to avoid the scale as much as possible.

This semester of school is over which has taken alot of pressure off of me and it feels so damn good to just BREATHE! I have to retake two of the Praxis II tests I refused to study for, but hey...I'll take that. I managed to squeeze an A and 2 B's this semester so I'm pretty damn proud of myself.

On Tuesday, I decided to try another aerobics work out called Piloxing. Its a combo of pilates and boxing designed  by this sweedish woman and I haven't decided if it's the most awesome thing I've ever done in my life or if it's completely retarded as hell. It's designed in blocks like Turbokick-which I don't like too much. Zumba has me spoiled. I like when the instructors all have their own spin on the choreography. Piloxing is the same no matter where you go. However, you do get these .5lb weighted hand gloves that are pink and black and freakin fabulous. I want to just walk around with them on all day because they're cute.

Piloxing is weird. You punch, kick, and then get into third position and "serve the platter". Interesting...is the only word I can conjure up to describe it.

When I went home last week (I haven't seen my family in over a year) everyone was commenting on how much weight I lost. It felt good to be acknowledged for that. I'm working my ass off for something I won't see results for until a year from now.

I've been a good girl since I've been home this week and am going to take it easy on the partying this weekend. The boo wants to go all out for St. Patrick's day (we're both black so why he is so into St. Patrick's Day baffles me lol!) , but I'm going to lay off the beer. Champagne does the trick better than beer and I don't get butt-stomach after drinking it! I look for any excuse to pop bottles!

-Hasta Manana

Loo Loo

New Month...New Priorities

I was going to blog again about how sorry I feel for myself that I've plateaued at 20 lbs and then it just hit me...I've lost 20 lbs! This is a big deal. I'm going to start looking at my glass half full (and drink it for my water intake) and realize that my body is changing and despite what Mr. Nasty-Scale says...it shows. Here is a before and after of me in the same dress. I can see a major difference...and today, that's all I'm going to focus on.

More power to me!

-Loo Loo

Can I EAT The Scale Now?

Today I realized that I can no longer get upset with my daily weight fluctuations. I go up and down about a lb or two every day and it discourages me to not see the numbers go down in a steady fashion. I read somewhere the success is not linear- boy is that the truth.

I'll continue to weight myself everyday- frankly because I can't help it. But, I'm only going to stress my Monday weigh ins and call that my true weight. I've got to be doing something right if I've dropped 20 lbs already so I wont give up..no matter what the scale says. I've been keeping track of my calories in calories out via the bodybugg and maintained a 1800 calorie deficit yesterday. My goal is to average about 1500 everyday so hopefully I can lose upwards of 2 lbs a week.

I made some really good choices today. I forgot my lunch so I headed over to the Chinese buffet across the street from my job to have some "low carb" options, but did a little research and learned that everything there is covered in cornstarch. No Bueno! So on my drive I made a little u-turn and found my way to this little greek restaurant and ordered an antipasto salad instead. Low carb, low fat, AND, Low sodium..that's a #win.

I'm in a good place today..I'm able to make better decisions and really get something out of this whole journey. Its exciting...it's hard...but it's going to work. It HAS to work.

Speaking of work, I inherited this GIGANTIC-A$$ calculator from a former employee. This is as big as my head! Gotta love it!

Eating More....And Weighing Less

Someone told me that I should not be weighing myself everyday- ok, everyone has been telling me that. But, I feel as though, weighing myself everyday keeps me accountable. It helps me stay on track because I know in the morning, I'll have to face the music (or numbers lol) for the decisions I made the day before. It helps enforce this drastic lifestyle change on a day by day basis. Ok yes, I'm becoming slightly obsessed, but there are way worse things to be obsessed with than getting healthy. So, I'll take that =).

#WorkFlow

Anywhoo, if you've been following me you know to date I've had a massive 2 lbs fluctuation in my weight accumulating over the last two days and I couldn't figure out why! This has happened to me before and it was frustrating as hell. I ventured over to the bodybugg website and posed the question- how could I possibly be gaining weight with over a 2,000 calorie deficit? All the replies said the same thing- I wasn't eating enough.

WHAT? This is going against my religion. How is eating more going to help me lose weight? The main reason is that by eating more throughout the day it keeps my metabolism running and therefore burning more calories. Also, I need to have calories to burn calories. If I'm not eating enough-my body goes into starvation mode and holds onto every ounce of food I put in my mouth. This factor and the I-eat-too-much-salt-and-pork epiphany I had lead me to avoid the extra salt yesterday (though I did have leftover necknbones 'doh) and increased my calorie intake by about 1000 calories. That sounds worse than it really is because I'm on a low carb diet anyway and it's easy for me to warm up a couple more sausage, some cheese sticks, and a piece of chicken and voila'! 1000 calories. Wouldn't you know that this morning I stepped on the scale and weighed in at 297.6 lbs? 


That's 2 lbs of water weight gone and .2 lbs of fat melted away overnight!


I was pleasantly surprised. I think I'll try to keep my calorie deficit for the day at about 1300 regardless if I work out or not. This journey is tough man. But, I know who I am and what I want to be...so I'll push through the fire...I'm 1 tough bee-yatch!

I LEARNED SOMETHING NEW TODAY

Despite the bodybugg and my rigorous Zumba exercise plan, I stepped on the scale to see that, again, I've gained another pound. How can this be? I almost cried. 299 lbs? I've been working so hard and these weight fluctuations really take a toll on my motivation. Ive maintained a 2,000 calorie a day defecit...so what gives?

I did a little research and discovered that I am in-taking too much sodium. I love pork neckbones (which is full of salt) and to season then, I use cajun seasoning (salt on top of salt). In fact, I use large amounts of cajun seasoning to flavor all of my foods and since I am on a low carb, high protein diet...I'm eating alot of meat and holding on to alot of water.

Hmm...after today (I still have half a pot of neckbones that I refuse to let go to waste) I'm going to really cut down on that sodium and take neckbones, pork, and all that extra salt off the menu for a while- at least until  I go home to Califonia next week and then all bets are off! Well...no..I won't go crazy (I hope!)

-Loo Loo

BOOZE is my best friend and my worst enemy

This groggy Sunday morning, I made my way to the bathroom to test my urine (as I do every morning) and to my absolute horror...I've kicked myself out of Ketosis...shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt.

There's no one to blame , but myself. But before you guys scold me on letting myself go, I still managed to lose .2 lbs on the scale (298.4) because of accurate calorie tracking with the bodybugg system. I do have one point to clarify on my "high" burns...

Point number 1...I could care less if my burn seems too high to you or not...this is my body and I have several tracking items that say the same thing for my workouts. 2. I am aware that my bodyburns calories while I do nothing (I am obtaining a masters degree people I know basic science) I have a bodybugg calorie tracking device that lets you track how many calories you burn during a specific activity as well as how many calories I burned total for the day (and how many calories you burn per minute).  3. I think everyone forgets that I am 6'1 weighing 298.4. lbs.  I burn alot of calories at a higher rate than average people becase I'm 120 lbs overweight, I'm "ginormous", and by golly I shake my ass at Zumba so incredibly hard to hit a minimum of 1000 burned. Furthermore, on Friday I was sick and couldn't give it my all and the bugg told me I only shook off 864 calories at class. Sad.

Here is a screen shot of my bodybugg calorie spreadsheet

You see that gigantic spike in my activity level??? That was me at Zumba..the smaller spikes at the end of the day was when we went to the mall and walked around for an hour! Nice right?

Now back to kicking myself out of ketosis...it wasn't anything I ate it was what I drank. Since I've started the low carb process I have given up most of my drinking. I LOVE margaritas and beer and yesterday succumbed to having a slenderita (margarita made with splenda) and 3 bud lights. On top of this I ate bbq ribs with (I'm assuming) a ton of sugar in the sauce. There were enough carbs in my dinner and "extra" activities to kick me out of Ketosis! Ugh. So now I go back to my all protein diet for the next week to get myself back in fat burning mode. No lettuce, no tomatoes, just meat, eggs, dairy, and a handful of fiber pills.

Not looking forward to this week at all!

-Loo Loo

DOUBLE YOU TEA EFF!

Soooooo... I stepped on the scale this morning and it said I gained 1lb since yesterday... like wtf..298.8? Ok I knooooo it might be because I had those extra chicken wings last night at like 9:00 but seriously? I know there is water weight and body fluctuations and all that jazz, but I dont want to hear it!

I went to Zumba and according to my bodybugg, I burned 1130 calories while I was there. I better see come freaking results tomorrow or ....ELSE!

BTW, I'm on my way to take 1 out of my 3 required Praxis II exams today. Have I told you yet that I got accepted into the Teach For America program? Probably not. Either way, I've got about 1500 hoops to jump through before it all comes together...including passing these tests.

Test one in T-minus 1 hour. Wish me luck!

-Loo Loo

I'VE GOT THE BUGG...BODYBUGG REVIEW

 I'm so freakin excited...MY BODYBUGG FINALLY CAME IN THE MAIL YESTERDAY!!! I've been hunting down UPS all day to make sure I didn't miss it when it arrived right before I left for late night Zumba and I got to test it out. Before I get to my reviews let me spill out my stats for the day before I forget.

Current weight: 297.8 lbs  Weight Loss 21lbs. Time Elapsed : 6 weeks 5 days. 

Yea, you read that correctly, I lost another lb since yesterday! I think really that this is just the excess water weight that is finally shaking off from my "happy time" last week where I put on 6lbs!! I pretty much freaked.

So for those of you who don't know what the bodybugg is, essentially it is a device that you wear on your upper left arm that calculates how many calories you burn during the day. It uses all kinds of sensors to measure your activity...and it's pretty darn accurate.

Since I've gotten this thing, it's made me really aware of just how much shit I had been putting into my mouth. For example at Zumba yesterday I had burned 1134 calories (yes it really was that much..I'm a 6'1- 297 lb girl!!) . Total for the day I had burned 3524 calories total. So before working out my body naturally burns about 2390 calories on it's own. How many calories was I eating daily to get to 318 lbs? If the recommended amount was 2,000 calories a day...I must have been eating large quantities of shit ALL OF THE TIME.

I really like the bodybugg because it's an interactive system. Granted, I care more about carbs than calories, but it is important to note that just because I'm on a low carb diet...doesnt mean I can just eat all damn day. The bodybugg has told me where my cut off point is (2300 calories a day) and how many calories I need to burn a day (3500) to keep losing a minimum of 2 pounds a week. Damn..it's that simple. No guessing. No Bullshit. I got the digital display watch so I can look in real time at how many calories I'm burning doing my everday activities. I burn ALOT of calories because I'm so overweight right now my body is going into overtime trying to fuel it. Bodybugg told me I burned 864 calories from midnight to 7 am this morning. Yes while I was sleeping and drooling, I burned over 800 calories!

This is such an eye opener for me. I had so many bad habits I needed to get rid of and you know what.. I feel better..I look better..and I can't wait to keep this thing going. BODYBUGG IS AWESOME!

-Loo Loo