sailorzeo: (exercise)
I was grumping to myself this morning about my recent inability to stick to the calorie budget.  This week, I've been ravenous by dinnertime, and even snacking at work.  I did some research, as it's period week, as to whether or not that affects metabolism.

Turns out, it does.  A few days before and during menstruation, a woman's metabolism ramps up anywhere from 5% to 20%.  That would explain this week.

Then I looked at my logs.  This is my eighth week logging my food.  The first four weeks, I had no problem staying under budget, ending the week 500 to 700 calories under the weekly limit.  Then, week five, I was 1454 over budget.  Week six, 1203.  Week seven, 1811.  So far this week, I'm 1279 over. 

It's not just the incremental decrease in the calorie limit from losing weight.  It's not just a rebellious attitude.  I figured out what else happened four weeks ago.  I went back on birth control pills.

It's entirely possible that the pills are affecting my appetite and metabolism.  Many women report weight gain after starting bcps.  It takes about three months for this particular pill to "settle in" when it comes to side effects, so for the next two months, I'm going to keep logging my food and trying to weigh weekly, but not be particularly over-worried if I can't keep to the budget without hunger pains, or if I gain a pound or more back.  This actually, timing wise, works out somewhat well.  I should be past the adjustment period starting in January.  January's always a good time to get back on track.
sailorzeo: (Default)
I've managed to keep logging my food for over a month, almost a month and a half.  I'm down 14.4 pounds.  I will admit, I don't log my weight if it goes up, and it did go up 2 pounds a few weeks back, but I've since lost those, plus a few more.

Having my calorie intake allowance drop when my weight drops is a bit unsettling, though I understand the reasoning.  When I started logging, I was allowed 1841 calories a day.  Now, 14 pounds later, it's at 1749, almost 100 calories less.  Despite being over-budget almost all last week, I still lost weight.  A coworker of mine is using LoseIt now, too, for one of her classes.  She was trying to figure out why my calorie allowance is so much higher than hers (1500s).  The simple answer is, I weigh more, probably 100 pounds or more.

A while back on Suits, there was a bit where Mike (young pretending-to-be-lawyer male) and Donna (legal secretary for the older male) were getting coffee.  He was confused as to why she'd get a skim-milk latte if she was getting whipped cream on it.  She told him, "BECAUSE I got the skim milk, I CAN HAVE the whipped cream."  He still didn't understand it, though it made sense to me.  Donna is by no means overweight, but the principle remains.  If she got both full-fat milk AND whipped cream, then there are more calories.  Getting skim milk gives her a little wiggle room for the treat of the whipped cream.  It's making balance.  For instance, this morning I'm having a large-ish Red Velvet hot chocolate with whipped cream, sausage gravy, and really really dense bread (mishap with the bread maker).  Breakfast is clocking in at 1294 of my 1749 calories, leaving me 455 calories for the rest of the day.  Given that one weekend day is usually spent napping, and it wasn't yesterday, breakfast will probably also count as lunch (also because of the time we're eating: it's after 10 now), I'll have an apple (90 calories) as a snack when I get up, and a salad (290 calories) for dinner, leaving me 75 calories under budget.
sailorzeo: (Default)
I'm still using LoseIt.  I actually earned a badge on the site for logging every day for two weeks.  Plus, I'm down 10 pounds from when I started.  I haven't been keeping up the WiiFit; in fact, I think I've only used it three times.  Timing seems to be the main issue.  I'm out of the house ten to eleven hours a day, Monday through Friday.  When I get home in the evening, I make dinner (most nights), which takes another hour, then eating and cleaning up, and all I want to do is escape into a galaxy far far away for a few hours, or go through my social media links, catch up on the DVR, or collapse in bed and read for a few hours before falling asleep.  I stand a lot at work, so my legs and feet are tired when I get home.  That makes wanting to go work out, using primarily my legs, not a very attractive option.

I got new work shoes, though.  After getting and loving my Crocs sandals, I got a pair of Crocs Work shoes, the Mercy Work.  As a bonus, the Crocs outlet had a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale, so I also got another pair of the sandals.  The first pair was white with blue insoles; the new pair is navy with violet insoles.  Now I just need the black/black and the brown/brown to complete the set.  Anyway, I'm hoping the new, comfy work shoes will help my legs feel less-tired at the end of the day, so I can get a little more motivated to exercise when I get home.  Exercising in the morning is not an option; I already have a hard time getting up and out the door by seven getting up at 5:30 with my current routine.  Adding half an hour-ish of exercise plus a shower would mean getting up at 4 to get the same amount accomplished.  Plus, I hate showering before work.  I prefer to shower before bed.

Still, though, I've kept with it longer than I thought I would, and I'm actually sort of seeing results.  Another 17 pounds, and I'll be down 10% of my starting weight.  Doctors always told me that losing just 10% of the weight would mean drastic positive changes to my health.  We'll see; I think 10% increments will be good for little goals.  I like having goals and rewards--badges, stamps, gold stars, it doesn't take much, just a tangible, visible reminder of "you done good."

Way Over

Sep. 23rd, 2012 07:35 pm
sailorzeo: (Default)
I'm still using the LoseIt app.  It's been a week and a half, and I haven't forgotten to log anything yet.  I've done fairly well with it; I usually end the day with calories left over.  This week, though, my period finally started, which means I've been craving salt, fat, and carbs.  Today, I'm ending 566 calories over-budget.  I can pinpoint where I went over: I had a 12-ounce can of Coke and a serving of Trader Joe's chocolate-covered potato chips, for 370 calories in the "snack" column, and then we went to Carl's Jr. for lunch, where the small fries and low-carb SuperStar with cheese, no tomato or mayo, ran 880 calories.  Getting the burger without the bun (because of gluten) and no mayo (because I don't like mayo) helped take the sandwich from over 900 calories to 560 calories, but still, those four items were a calorie sink.

I got the Coke because I was seriously craving one the other day.  However, when I had it, it didn't taste like I expected.  It didn't have the "zing" or "bite" I remembered Coke having.  Matt had a sip and agreed, it tasted weak, like watered-down fountain soda.  I also felt it tasted a bit cloying.  I didn't remember Coke having such a negative aftertaste.  I told him that the next time I was craving a Coke, I'd try one of the Mexican Cokes they sell, that are supposedly made with cane sugar, not HFCS, and if it still tasted off, I'd just have to remember that "Coke doesn't taste the way I think Coke tastes anymore."

I'm not going to beat myself up for going over-budget today, because I've been under-budget the rest of the week.  In fact, even with today's splurge, I'll still be about 500 calories under budget for the week.
sailorzeo: (Default)
So, LoseIt has a number of graphs and reports you can look at to see your eating habits and patterns.  Apparently, I don't like fruit.  Fruit very rarely shows up on my MyPlate report.  This is true; I don't care for a lot of fruits.  I basically like 2 types of apples, green grapes, and grapefruit.  I did have a salad for dinner, so I hit my vegetable quota for the day.  The main reason for the salad was so I could have one of Whole Foods' gluten-free chocolate cupcakes.  I just really needed it.  I haven't had a period since March, but it's been gearing up all week to start, and the PMS was just really, really bad today. 

Just my luck, I should be hitting my heavy flow day just in time for our 8th anniversary.  Whee.  :-P

Intriguing

Sep. 18th, 2012 06:43 am
sailorzeo: (huh?)
So, one of the things with tracking calories, and I've noticed this before, but I always forget about it in between bouts, is that when I start paying attention to serving sizes, I'm always surprised by some of them. 

For instance, this morning, we had pancakes.  Matt made them, so I entered the recipe into LoseIt, then just adjusted the number of servings to be the number of pancakes made.  That was pretty straightforward.  The spread serving size was a tablespoon; that seemed generous enough for 3 pancakes.  The maple syrup (real maple syrup; I stopped using "maple-flavored" syrup years ago) had a serving size of a quarter-cup.  I didn't have a clean quarter-cup measure, so I used the eighth-cup measure...and one of those was more than enough syrup for 3 pancakes.

I remember back in 1999-2000-ish, trying to keep track of what I ate by using recommended serving sizes only.  I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and was amazed at, I think, the serving size of the jelly compared to the peanut butter.  I don't remember now which was bigger; I just rememeber a comically unbalanced sandwich.
sailorzeo: (exercise)
So once more I board the fitness/weight loss train.  I'm going into this with no expectations other than, "I fully expect to fall off the wagon in 2 weeks time." 

I never posted about it here, but back in June, we came home from work one day to find the back door wide open and the house totally tossed.  We'd had a break-in.  They primarily stole small electronics: our cameras, the old laptop that didn't work so well, my DS, the Wii and games, some car speakers and an amp.  They also took 2 of my rings, family heirlooms.  Nothing was recovered, but we had renters' insurance.  Allstate has been nothing but good to us through everything. 

How does this relate to fitness/weight loss?  My primary exercise tool was WiiFit.  Interestingly enough, even though they stole the Wii, both remotes, both nunchucks, and the sensor, they didn't take the power cables or the Balance Board.  They also didn't take the actual WiiFit disc.  So, with the insurance and reimbursement, we replaced the Wii hardware.  I was grumpy, though, because that meant any of my previous progress with WiiFit was gone (and even more so when we lost Scamp, it meant his Mii was gone now, too).

I finally got around to remaking my Mii last night, though I couldn't find the same hair it had before.  That was fine; I switched it to a ponytail.  But I had to reset my profile on WiiFit.  Anything I'd unlocked before, I'm going to have to unlock again. 

In addition to the WiiFit, I downloaded an app to both my Kindle and my phone: LoseIt.  It's a food/exercise calorie tracking program which so far, seems easy enough to use.  I like being able to scan barcodes with my phone if the food's not in their database.  Still, I've had trouble keeping food journals in the past.  We'll see how long this lasts.  Like I said before, I'm not overly optomistic about this.  But, I did 2 rounds of Basic Step on WiiFit last night.  It's a start.

March 2015

S M T W T F S
1 234567
891011121314
15161718 1920 21
22232425 26 2728
293031    

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 4th, 2025 05:39 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios