Granny your comment has inspired a change.  Watch for it coming soon – new blood – new energy.  Thank you for posting!!!

In the mean time, I’ve completed the Healthy Solutions 9 week weight loss challenge.  Ummm…yeah, I don’t think you are supposed to weigh more at the end of a challenge than when you started.  Oopsies.  171 at start.  173.8 at end.  My focus is lacking.

I am back to the stage of this game where my talking and whining means little or nothing. It’s time to put on my big-girl pants and do something.

When we started this blog — four years ago now — I was committed to eating less, exercising more and creating a new lifestyle for myself. And for two years that worked FABULOUSLY.

Then I fell off the wagon.

Big time.

If you’ve followed this blog, you know the results.

Squish City, man. I’m chunky and skquishy and it’s my own doggone fault.

Here’s a like to an article that hits a little close to home: http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/article.aspx?cp-documentid=31206120&OCID=LIVB013

So what do I do now: Take one day at a time. That’s the track I’m going to have to be on for now.

For blog purposes, I’ll begin with yesterday. I will re-cap Wednesday and give you my plan for today.

I’ll check back in tomorrow. I promise.

Wednesday, Nov. 15 (Food & Exercise)
Breakfast: Subway egg-white wrap with veggies (360 cals, 42 carbs, 11 fat, 23 protein)
Lunch: Taco Bell 2 fresco chicken tacos (300 cal, 36 carb, 7 fat, 24 protein)
Snack: skinny cow bar (110 cal, 14 carb, 6 fat, 1 protein)
Dinner: Baked chicken (285 cal, 0 carb, 13 fat, 24 protein) AND homemade beer bread (325 cal, 51 carb, 1 fat, 8 protein)

EXERCISE: 45 minutes of ZUMBA (love it!)

Today (* denotes PLAN, not completed yet — will ‘fess up tomorrow with actual results)
Breakfast: Jimmy Dean D-Light (260 cals, 29 carbs, 8 fat, 18 protein
Lunch: Qdoba (looked it up online — Pick 2, tortilla soup 150 cals, grilled vegetables 70 cals and mini chicken quesadilla, 190 — total 340 cals)
Dinner: Chicken and veggies — maybe homemade tortilla soup — total calories should equal no more than 500.
Snacks — no more than 300 calories
Exercise — 40 minutes — either treadmill, Zumba or Biggest Loser Wii.

That’s my plan.

Life has gotten in the way for a minimum of a month for me.

I have TRULY been watching what I’ve been eating, journaling all my food and exercising — bit by bit — more consistently.

But I haven’t blogged a lick.

Until I got Granny’s note tonight via email.

We either need to pull the plug or get a crew together who is committed to blogging AND LOSING.

Comments anyone?

Holy cats. How can there be less than 100 days left in 2011??

HOW??????

Well, that little shocker aside, I don’t feel, well, quite RIGHT.

I feel like I am coming down with something — and that’s not good…especially with all the stress that is coming my way right now.

This stress is evidenced by:

1. New job (good stress, but stress, still the same).
2. Sick grandma in Kansas City.
3. Sicker uncle in Kansas City.
4. Kids…neverending.
5. Life, in general.

Soooo…does that mean that I eat my way through all this?

NO.

Absolutely not.

I ate some junky stuff last weekend, but I did not OVER eat…and I made sure to include both healthy veggies, plenty of tea and some shakes.

I was a little lazy on the exercise front.

But I DID get up this morning and walk about three to four miles in about 50-55 minutes.

And, you know what?

I felt GREAT when I was done.

Thank you, Lord.

Now I’m off to get some work done.

Catchya tomorrow.

Well, I’m down 8 to 10 pounds from when I started the last one.

Though (I can’t lie) I sandbagged a little bit yesterday and today so that I won’t have to kill myself — at least the first week.

I have to say that I feel better than I have in MONTHS.

My body shape is changing. My inches are fewer than they were.

BUT…I still need to be more serious and intentional about actually GETTING OFF THE POUNDS.

Soooooo…I’m in for the long haul and I’m ready to kick some booo-taaay in this next challenge!!!

Well, the HCG thing mostly sucked. I did it for 10 days, lost 8 pounds and started to fear that I was seriously screwing up my metabolism, so I just went back to what I should have probably adhered to in the beginning: healthy foods, reasonable portions, my Herbalife shakes once or twice a day and EXERCISE.

I am holding steady at 158-160 for the past couple of days though…probably because my body is still adjusting to normal eating again.

More later.

I guess it flies and you forget to blog when you aren’t constantly thinking about food – and wanting to eat food – and wanting to get huge gobs of food and roll around naked in it.  I guess what I mean to say is that when dieting isn’t so strict you find it less on your mind.

So with that said, I’m still at 167.  From when I weighed in at Healthy Solutions, I had put on a few pounds from the HCG diet so I had started that at 171.  Weighed 169 at my first weigh-in last Wednesday.  I will weigh in again this coming Wednesday.  As hectic as the week is going to be I’m just praying I don’t gain any weight at the next weigh in.  Will try and blog before I go on vacation – if not, it will be next week.

I guess I have diet ADHD.  I started a new weight loss challenge with friends at Healthy Solutions yesterday.  Got my body scan and learned some interesting information.  It said I only had 10.44 lbs of excess body fat and that my “ideal” weight is 153-161.  Hmmmm….seems high (and the excess fat seems low) – so either that scan is off or my body image is way off or a combination of the two.  Hmmmm…..

My exit strategy on the HCG diet was always Sept 1st.  But I really gave up on it Aug 30th.  It is just such a hard hard diet to stick to.  If I hadn’t lost a bunch of weight right away, there is no way I could have even done it for that long.  I ended up gaining 3 lbs back during the last 5 days of the diet.  Mostly cause of cheating.  So all in all I lost 10lbs in 14 days (at one point had lost 13lbs).  A good jump start.

The diet also got my mind back into healthy eating and what it takes to lose weight.  Lean proteins, veggies and fruits – not convenience 100 calorie snack packs of Doritos!  This mind set also transitions into the Healthy Solutions challenge.  I will need to eat healthy in order to lose weight, this place also does the Herbalife shakes so you supplement your shakes with healthy eating.  I actually have 2 friends that I am doing the challenge with and one friend is super competitive and I can’t wait to kick her buttowski.

You know what they say, misery loves company.  Have a great weekend everybody!

a girl gets an email like this:

M&E is delish – one of my fav restaurants in Aberdeen and their cookies are equally fabulous.  But the email for free cookies is just torture!!!  I want to eat there, all I can think about now is eating there.  Ugh. 

and like I said yesterday a little cheat hurts a long ways.  I’m STILL paying for it today.  Back up to 168 this morning.  Yesterday I was soooo goood, well except for that stinking brat and beer.  Sheesh – get it together woman, there is only today and tomorrow left of the hard part.  I can do it!!!  Finish the race strong and quit sabotaging yourself.

As I know Christi blogged earlier, days one and two of this HCG deal are “fat-loading days.” You take the drops and eat WHATEVER YOU WANT.

The idea, as I understand it, is to load your body up with fat so that it makes the transition to the lower-calorie days a bit easier.

OK.

So, on Day 2, here are my thoughts:

1. The drops I am taking are called HCG Platinum X-30…and they actually don’t contain any of the HCG hormone. It is — more or less — a super strong appetite suppressant that contains many natural ingredients.

2. The drops don’t taste bad, which is a good thing. They, actually are kind of menthol-ish…and a teensy bit numbing. Truth-be-told, the drops remind me a wee bit of the Kanka that I have used to help anesthitize (sp?) the pain of canker sores.

3. I won’t lie: I’m nervous about the very-low calorie end of things because I don’t want to screw up my metablism…but I am going to give it a shot because I feel that it will be good for me to streamline my eating and focus on whole foods for a while. Ultimately, at the end of the month when I transition to a more normal eating plan, I will hopefully have eliminated some unhealthy cravings and start with a bit of a clean slate.

At the end of the first 26 days I hope to:

1. Be free of junk and/or fast-food cravings.

2. Be ready to cook delicious, yet healthy whole foods and snacks.

3. Be considerably lighter when I step on the scale.

Now, could I do all this without subjecting myself to the torture of a very-low-calorie diet?

Since I haven’t been able to in the last couple of years, I’m gonna say NO.

I know myself. I need to go drastic for a little while.

Wish me luck.