Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Weight Loss Week One


Week one is down and I'm feeling super motivated!

Calorie counting has been a great help. I can't count the number of times where the simple activity of finding out how much that extra food would cost me then entering it into the ap on my phone has made me turn down seconds, or skip a section of the meal I know is particularly calorie laden. Just yesterday I was eating a chicken cesar salad and was surprised at how many calories are in one. The meal was also served with garlic bread which I love but as I sat and stared at it (guessing at how many calories it might contain) I realized I wasn't hungry to the point that I needed it. In fact, I saved some of the salad and the garlic bread for my girlfriend to have for lunch the next day!

Counting calories hasn't been my only hobby though, I've also started adding some cardio to my weekly routine. Cardio has been the bane of my existence for as long as I can remember. It was something everyone had to do and since I was overweight, I had to do even more. For a while I managed to assuage my guilt over skipping cardio by doing weight lifting instead. Where cardio was boring, weight lifting was fun. Where cardio was long, weight lifting was quick. Where cardio seemed to do nothing short term, weight lifting gave noticeable results almost weekly. Now as I look back at my previous experience with cardio I realize that most of my issues stemmed from a lack of motivation and giving up too early.

I want to be healthy and make a change. I'm surrounding myself with positive people and activities while also putting an end to all the half truths or trades I've been doing with myself.

Speaking of activities, the company I work at is having a biggest loser competition! While I don't know much about the t.v. show this friendly competition is different. Anyone who was interested reported for weigh ins where their weight was kept 100% private. Then the keeper of the weights divided all the participants up into six teams. Each team has three months to lose weight and at the end one team will be picked as the victors! Being placed in a team is surprisingly motivational. I hadn't realized how much it would help to have people to talk to about the same issues I'm having. We've been swapping tips, issuing challenges, joking around, but most of all, motivating each other! You're not just exercising for you, you're working for the whole team. You won't just hurt yourself by eating that chocolate bar, you're affect the team. While that second one may seem a bit negative, sometimes that little extra thought has been enough to stop me from doing something I really shouldn't have.

All in all, this week has been an amazing one and I look forward to my team's first official weigh in next week!

What I've learned
Overestimate your food's calories and underestimate the ones you've burned. Nobody's perfect so we will all forget to enter food sometimes. It could be as small as big as an entire meal, or as small as the dipping sauce. Overestimating your calories can counteract those mistakes and even if you don't miss anything you'll be pleasantly surprised in the end.

Being part of a team rocks! From motivation to tips an advice, having a group of supportive people is enormously helpful. I know I've gushed about it already but I can't recommend it enough for anyone out there trying to lose weight

#weightlossjourney

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Weight Loss Journey

I've decided to start documenting my weight loss plans for 2016.

Previously I hadn't really taken it seriously. Sure, I went to the gym and everything but I never really committed to losing weight, just growing muscle and looking manly. In my head I thought that growing muscle was just as good since it would help me in the long run and while that isn't a necessarily a lie, I know now that it was a cop out so I wouldn't force myself to commit to the real cardio I truly needed (and hated) to do. Now I'm stopping my muscle focus and switching almost entirely to aerobic.

This isn't just some new years resolution either. I am overweight and need to make some changes in my life if I want to live long enough to retire. It's a serious issue I've danced around for long enough and now I need to fully commit to making a change. My hope is that by documenting the process I will be encouraged (or maybe guilted) into continuing.

Here are the tools I have at my disposal:
The Lose it ap for iPhone. I'm counting my calories being as honest as possible so I can't just splurge and eat an entire cake or something. This should give me a good idea of what I should and shouldn't eat.
The gym at work. In the same vein as doing weights instead of cardio, I also told myself that doing cardio over lunch would cause me to smell bad all day at work. Now I'm not letting that continue and am taking an extra ten minutes out of my lunch so I'll have the time to shower and change. No more excuses!
An irish gal with a temper. My girlfriend has been after me not to eat too much and I've tried to sneak around her to get the food I've wanted. I'm officially asking for her help and want her to give me the tough love I'll need. One thing if you're reading this though, I refuse to give up pizza cold turkey! But I will instead go for an extra walk with you to make up for the splurging <3 br="">
Here's what I've learned:
Oh wow bread buns are bad for calories. 300 for a single little fluff that barely tastes like anything? That's the first thing that needs to go!
I put way too much milk and sugar in my coffee. I didn't realize that with enough of those, my coffee could be as much calories as an entire meal!

Here's to a productive 2016, good luck everyone! #weightlossjourney