FrostyP's Journal

[FrostedPatriot]

I decided I had better start a journal because I no longer fit in the P1 thread I started...and I am a journal junkie. I really don't care one way or the other whether someone reads this or not, it really is for me...because its all for me right?

History This is my 3rd or 4th attempt on south beach, but only the second time I've been determined to actually do it and stick to it. The last couple of times have only been half hearted attempts. The first time I did great, lost a fair amount of weight and kept it off for quite awhile before life got in the way and I slipped back into my old habits. I did notice though that although I may not have been "on the south beach diet", just from the exposure I've had to it and the nutrition classes I've taken through a local hospital and my college and the cooking I've done, all of the food shows I've watched etc...that I really make much better choices overall in my food than I did several years ago. I have pretty much been in the neighborhood of 270 lbs for the past 3 or 4 years.

Where do I want to be? I want to be comfortable in my own skin, be able to wear pants that aren't so tight that they leave imprints on my stomach, be able to ride my horse, not be winded after a flight of stairs, not be sopping wet after minimal exertion, I want my blood sugar numbers to be stable, I want my cholesterol numbers to fall into line, I want to see my waist!

As of August 2010 where am I? As of the last time I weighed I was at 271.5 lbs...at last measurement I was about 48% bodyfat...eep. My cholesterol numbers have traditionally been wayy out of whack. I was finally able to start getting some movement with numbers and my energy levels in the right direction after my doctor put me on a thyroid medication. I was able to get my blood sugar under control with the help of a once a day medication, however I have been very bad about taking it lately as I am scared to take it when I haven't had enough water. Getting enough sleep and enough water and enough food are big struggles for me and I know that I need to make some changes to get to where I want to be. I belong to a wonderful gym that is about 15 minutes from my house...I just need to GET there

[FrostedPatriot]

P1 was a big struggle for me this time around. If I don't have food to prep or the energy/time to do so, I fail traditionally I did my best and lost a couple pounds, but nothing outstanding. Due to my physical exertion on the weekends and when I work out I was struggling with getting enough carbs...so I decided after my 2 weeks of P1 attempts I wanted to move to P2. The change I was looking for in taste and how sweet things taste SO sweet after not having them for awhile was accomplished...and I'm not craving sweets or bad carbs so I know that P1 did its job even through my struggles. I'm blessed not to have much of a sweet tooth in the first place

A goal date managed to jump up to me in the past week. One of my cousins is getting married on September 10th, which is 31 days from today...and I am aiming to lose as much weight as I can by then. I'm not IN the wedding or anything, but there will of course be pictures taken and I'm going to want to feel as good about myself as I can

The next date will likely be Thanksgiving as we always have a big family get together then...and after that date probably the next one is going to be my birthday on January 19th. I don't want to make weight goals yet, although I suppose I could just do something that I should definitely be able to achieve like 2 lbs a week. Ok I can do that. LOL Gotta love reading stream of conciousness writing eh? That means my goal is to be down to around 260 by Carrie's wedding, then 240 by Thanksgiving and 226 by my birthday. My dream goal would to be under 200 by my birthday...

I know my body well enough at this point that if I am GOOD and do everything I say I need to, it shouldn't be completely out of the realm of possibility to get under 200 *relatively* quickly.

What do I need to do?

- Get to the gym as often as possible. I love spending time at the gym, but everything I do takes time away from other things in my life. I need to make this my #1 priority. I used to go almost every day and the results are amazing...not just in toning and calorie burn, but stress reduction, sleeping better at night etc

- Consistently get 8+ hours of sleep. I am a night owl and despise mornings...but I need to make myself get to bed in time to get plenty of sleep.

- Consistently drink at least 3 liters of water a day. I get one in pretty regularly...can get 2 if I'm thinking about it...but 3 is really where I need to be, and even more if I'm sweating.

- Make sure I eat good stuff, often. I am horrible about skipping meals, especially on the weekends...or just not eating enough food period. I know that I have killed my metabolism with my eating habits in the past and I need to do what I can to wake it up. I can make this happen by making sure I have enough good snack foods readily available and like sleeping and water and the gym...if I make it a habit, it is much more likely to happen.

- Manage my stress better. Simplify/Unclutter my world. My house is constantly a disaster which is a source of stress. I spend money to make me feel better and then my budget and lack of money stresses me out. I eat when I'm bored or overwhelmed and the extra weight puts so much stress on my body that I really think stress is killing me. My short term memory sucks already...I want it back. LOL

So quite literally, my plan to lose weight is to eat, drink, (workout) and be merry

[Raenstorm]

Hi There!

I like your goals. I too have a wedding that I want to lose weight for...not my own, but my BIL's. I want to be able to get a nice DRESS! I usually wear pant suits or a nice pants type outfit. Not this time! I am determined to wear a dress!! We are not sure when the wedding will be, probably next year. They haven't set a date yet.

My sleep routine is completely off lately. I need to make myself get in bed earlier. And I am sure it would help if I went to the gym!!

Keep it up!

[FrostedPatriot]

Thanks Rae

I managed to get 8 hours last night and actually slept pretty well, so I'm happy about that. Had a pretty good dinner, including cucumber salad made with cucumbers from my neighbor's garden that he so sweetly gave me! Somehow they taste so fresh compared to supermarket food. I ate breakfast and took my meds this morning, check. I'm almost finished with my first liter of water, check. I didn't even try to get to the gym yesterday, I don't go on Mondays as the gym is always crazy busy...but I WILL go tonight. I even laid out workout clothes this morning before I left.

I forgot to mention that I've been trying to work on engaging my abdominal muscles on a regular basis, whether I'm sitting at my desk or walking somewhere or just standing around...as well as working on my posture. My dad noticed this weekend and said "hey you've lost weight haven't you?" So even though I haven't really lost much, just working on how I carry myself makes a big difference.

I love my coworkers. My left arm/shoulder has been killing me, so I finally went to seek help from one of my coworkers who does massage therapy part time and asked her if she could look at my shoulder. She spent like 20 minutes working on it and it felt SO much better, but its getting sore now so I'm going to be guzzling water today and then she suggested doing some alternating heat and cold packs on it to get it back up. Being the geek I am, I also asked her to download to me a little bit about which muscles she was working on and how they're related and why my arm hurts. I love learning things.

I also forgot to mention that school starts back up in two weeks. I love school, but it means fitting more things into my schedule. Oh well, I can do it

[FrostedPatriot]

They say you have to seek out your problem areas so you can find the source of the problem so you can fix the source of the problem...in order to really get past something. So many people have trigger foods, or trigger events or trigger feelings that cause binging or whatever. I am realizing that I have always refused to acknowledge that I have any problems. Actually that's not entirely true...I am lazy and am a pro at justifying things to myself, undisciplined and well I have a ton of issues. What I've refused to acknowledge is that I do turn to food or spending money when I am upset or bored or overwhelmed.

Yesterday I successfully drank 3 liters of water while at work, in addition to a pint of milk and 12 ounces of V8...lots of liquid for me! woot. I unsuccessfully made it through "dinner" when I got upset after a conversation I had with someone and went to a movie and got nachos...instead of going to the gym. *sigh* I justified it to myself because I was hungry, craving nachos and that awful yummy fake cheese for the past few days, upset and there wasn't any similar food in the house...plus the not going to the gym thing, my arm was still killing me and I wanted to go swimming...bum arm = no swimming. This event of course is what brought about the aforementioned enlightenment. *roll eyes*

I suppose it wasn't a complete loss of an evening...I didn't get a soda to go with the nachos...and I did do some aerobic stepping to blow off some steam after the upsetting conversation...and I didn't have any alcohol...as my alcohol is safely stored 'out of sight, out of mind' where it has been since the middle of July.

How am I feeling today and how did I sleep...well...I slept ok, was too hot when I went to bed, but only remember waking up once so thats cool. I'm feeling more tired than I should, and of course was up in weight this morning because of the crap I ate and the fact that I ate late last night...but I didn't really expect to be feeling splendid either. Since its already almost 2pm I'm not likely going to get 3 liters in at work, however I did have my milk and my v8 and will work on trying to get 2 liters drank...I'm about 1/2 way on one liter that I just got at lunchtime.

One thing I forgot to mention that I've also been thinking about is chewing food thoroughly. I need to chew my dang food. I think if people realized how much digestion takes place because of saliva, they would slow down and chew and make sure they got plenty of saliva in their food before swallowing! I remember having an AH HA moment in one of my nutrition classes when we went through the section on digestion and I learned that some chronic issues have been linked to not chewing food/not mixing enough saliva into food...as chewing and saliva are the vital first steps to digestion. Here is a great article that explains it eloquently: http://www.fitnessgoop.com/2010/03/chew-on-this-why-it-is-important-to-chew-food-properly/

[FrostedPatriot]

As of this week's weigh in I have six more pounds to go before I hit my goal for Carrie's wedding on the 10th.

Had a pretty big drop last week, unfortunately due to my father being killed in a motorcycle accident on Sunday the 15th. I knew that emotional eating has been a big problem for me, so I somehow made it through the week without any major incidents... The first few days I didn't eat anything until my stomach was trying to eat itself...and I'd choke something down to make it stop gnawing, but then I started eating a bit more a couple days ago. Now that I don't have family staying with me or get togethers every day I don't have as much 'supervision' so it has been a little tougher to make sure I don't eat more than I should, or things I shouldn't. I'm going to the gym tonight, I have to establish some sort of a routine or I'm going to lose the progress I've made (not to mention lose my mind lol).

I know that just two weekends ago was when dad pointed out that he noticed I had lost some weight...so I am doing my best to honor that memory and keep losing weight and getting healthy because that's what he would have wanted.

[grumpyjr88]

I'm so proud of you for not giving up and letting yourself just fall to peices. You know that I'm here to support you and I know that you know, I'm with you every step of the way sweets. I want you to succeed for yourself just as much as I want you to honor your dad's memory. I know you can do this. He knew you can do this. So lets do this!!

[FrostedPatriot]

Thanks Grumpy

I got to the gym last night, wasn't too happy to find that the sauna, steam room, hot tubs & pool are all closed until September 7th! ugh...I was craving some steam room time! *pout* I did 5 minutes on the elliptical at a couple different resistance settings (I know...wimp lol) then I did 3 sets of 12 at the 37.5 lbs setting on the...I don't remember what its called, it works your arms and upper chest muscles and then if you turn around you can work your deltoids. Then I went and did 11 minutes on the treadmill at varying speeds and inclines. All in all, pushed myself a little but not too much and should be able to do it all again tonight. I just really wish that steam room was open

Weight was back up again this morning, but since I don't weigh in again 'officially' until Monday or Tuesday...I'll ignore it for now and just know that I need to do better

[FrostedPatriot]

Due to the fact that I adore my steam room time after a workout at the gym, I opted not to go since that last time I went...but guess what today is??? Sept 7th, and my beloved steam room should be re-opening today My gym bag (with swimsuit and towel!) is packed and sitting on my kitchen table...just waiting for me to get home and take it on a trip

[grumpyjr88]

So how was that steam room?

[FrostedPatriot]

OK! I are back. I have been trying to keep it together since August and doing OK, but only doing what I can to stay afloat.

Last time I was here in what September? this was true:

P1 Start July 15, 2010
Start Weight: 273.5
Current Weight: 266

I'll be updating my signature as soon as I post this entry to reflect this morning...which...is artificially up a few pounds from all of the stress I've had the last week with finals and lack of sleep...it all snowballs, I don't have to tell YOU that.

I have three classes finishing this week (actually finished with one already, have several catch up assignments to do for one, and need to do a final for one), a math test this week and then the math final to take next week and I'll be done with school until January sometime.

I know from past experience that if I say "I'm going to restart south beach tomorrow" without doing some planning and prep, I am setting myself up for failure. SO I am going to plan on starting Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday... (depending on how my weekend goes...it could be crazy and I might not get to the store on Saturday which would mean bad things for starting on Sunday. Sunday might also be really crazy with me needing to get that math test and my English final done, if I don't get them done this week and don't have time to do them on Saturday... Wednesday might be a good day to start because I can be sure I'll have time on Tuesday to prep and shop. Plus, Wednesday will be the 4 month marker of my dad's death...)

I've started jumping rope...jump roping? Whatever you'd like to call it, I hadn't done it in YEARS but it used to be one of my favorite pastimes and something I was actually good at. You know...back in like elementary school! I was watching that episode of Biggest loser a couple weeks ago where jumping rope 100 times was part of one of the challenges and all of them were struggling with it and making comments about how they hadn't done it in so many years. Took most of them quite awhile to get those 100 jumps in! I knew I had a jump rope that came with a yoga mat I picked up awhile back...so I pulled it out last week to see how long it took me to get 100 jumps in. TOOK FOREVER...and I was huffin and puffin like a freight train...so I put the rope away and decided to try again later. I needed a break from studying a couple hours later, picked up the rope again and did another 100...and it started to come back to me. The following day my core muscles were SO sore that I was in awe. A couple hundred jumps and my core was on FIRE, how cool is that?! Took a couple days for the soreness to go away (telling me I didn't stretch enough, didn't drink enough water etc etc) Then I picked it up and did 100 one afternoon again. Got through the 100 much quicker, but noticed that I couldn't do more than about 15-17 reps on a good roll because my legs would start getting tired and I wasn't jumping quite enough. I didn't notice much soreness after that set, which makes me happy. This morning I started a routine that I think will work well for me. Usually when I let my dog out before work I wait for him to do his business, or I get my stuff into the car and open the garage and get ready to leave...nothing really productive. This morning I picked up my jump rope, went out with him, and got through my 100 jumps! I was huffin and puffin like crazy, felt some scratchiness in my throat like the activity induced asthma wanted to flare up, but all in all it didn't take long, it got my blood pumpin and I think it was a good start to the day. Long as the weather holds out I should be able to do it most mornings. I much doubt I'll be jump roping on snow, I'm unbalanced and uncoordinated as it is without help from slippery things. Then, because I start the morning off right I feel like I'm more likely to make better decisions throughout the day. It is also much faster for me to step outside and spend 5 or 10 minutes jumping rope than it is for me to make sure I have my stuff in my gym bag, drive 15 minutes to the gym (not TOO far away...but still...15 minutes) workout and then drive back home. That whole routine takes 30 minutes for the drive plus however long I feel like working out. So I am loving the jump rope idea, especially for these times when I can't afford 90 minutes for a workout.

[grumpyjr88]

That is such a great idea! I think I have a jump rope somewhere...

[lakegran72]

Me too...... thanks

[FrostedPatriot]

I didn't jump last night, but I did this morning. It was much quicker this morning because it was easier to get more jumps in a row without tripping myself, stepping on the rope etc. I was also down a couple pounds this morning which is encouraging.

[FrostedPatriot]

The following day after my last post, I jumped. However, since then I haven't due to my crazy busy schedule and my knees letting me know loud and clear that they needed some recovery time (and that I need to lose weight!!) Then I got this killer thick 1/2" splinter in the ball of my left foot (don't ask...) so could barely walk for a couple days. BUT it feels much better now.

I'm still on track for getting back on SB starting the 15th. It may be a struggle for me to get through the next few weeks on it between Christmas, being on vacation from work and the 21st would have been my dad's birthday. I'll have to re-evaluate my situation and maybe just work in a "I'll do the best I can" kind of mindset until New Year's...at least as it comes to food and nutrition and SB.

I'll be working on working out even more than food though, because exercise I can do in the extra time that isn't being filled up with school stuff right now. I'm finished with 3/4 of my classes this semester. One more final to get done and then I'll be golden. I told my workout buddy that I need to start getting back to the gym and was planning on doing so starting this Wednesday whenever possible. She said that she needed to as well, so we are going to try for that. My horse is getting a surgery done to remove a melanoma from her chest just before New Year's...so I'll be going up to the barn after work pretty much every day, but likely won't be up there for too long (I can't exercise her really, just hand walk her to let her stretch her legs until she is mostly healed and then I can let her move a bit more) and I will hit the gym on my way home those days.