Hello Readers,
Today was a fairly successful day. Although I didn't get out for a walk today, I still squeezed in a bit of a workout. I hardcore cleaned my apartment for an hour (hey, it counts! "housecleaning" is an exercise included in my app!) and burned 177 calories.
After coming home from a coffee/tea date, I managed to briskly walk up the stairs to my 16th floor apartment another 60 calories burned and it only took 5 minutes! I was quite sore and winded when I got to the top (read: barely breathing and collapsed inside the door). I think this is something I need to work up to with my asthma! I'm going to start getting off the elevator on the 10th floor from now on and just walking up the 6 floors for now. Eventually, I'll get off on 9th, then 8th etc. until I can make it all the way up! Once I can walk up all 16 floors without getting winded, I will know that I have accomplished something amazing. Not to mention, doing all those stairs every day (I go out a lot) over and over, I will have buns of steel (and it just might shave an inch or two off my legs too)!
As far as smoking goes today, I still smoked 5 cigarettes today, not nearly as bad as the 10 yesterday, but no where near the cold turkey hero I wanted to be. Tomorrow is October 1st, and I would like that to be my first smoke-free day! I like starting things on the first of the month, so much more satisfying somehow than the 2nd or 3rd, or is that just my crazy showing? HA!
Anyway, I'm wrapping up the day feeling good about getting active for an hour (even if it was inside) and doing the stairway that never ends, and especially for reducing my cigarettes by half again today. Here's hoping tomorrow's post will be all about how successful my first smoke free day went... if only I can get up the willpower to just DO IT already!
See you tomorrow folks!
J xo
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Boot Scoot and Boogie!
Hello Readers,
Yesterday I had my first line dancing class! I joined at the local community center with my mom. We will be line dancing every Monday night until December. It was a great beginner workout for me as it was low impact and in between the exercise we were learning steps, so it offered a break from the aerobic periods. I logged my exercise in the Lose it! App, but instead of putting it in as one hour of low impact dance, I put in half an hour to allot for all the step learning slow periods. I burned 177 calories. WOOT!
Speaking of Calories, I did really well with my eating yesterday. It was my first day of trying to stay on-budget and I nailed it! 200 calories under budget! I made a big pot of low calorie chili yesterday and that covered lunch and dinner, so it was easy to stay in my budget. I think the trick to beating this thing is going to be cooking from scratch as much as possible. Prepackaged foods tend to be a lot higher in calories than foods you make yourself.
As far as smoking goes, still haven't kicked the habit yet. I smoked more than I wanted to yesterday (to the tune of about 10 cigarettes) but haven't had any yet today. I haven't bought smokes, and I'm not allowing smokers to come over because I really just need to detox from this thing and be done with it. I know that if I'm around smokers, I'm going to light up so I guess I will hide in my apartment for a couple of days until my willpower is stronger.
Hoping to get out for a walk today, but if it's still raining I will run up and down the stairs in my apartment for a few minutes instead (there are 18 floors in the building, that's a lot of stairs) and if all else fails... my apartment building has a pool, so I could always swim a few laps!
Yesterday I had my first line dancing class! I joined at the local community center with my mom. We will be line dancing every Monday night until December. It was a great beginner workout for me as it was low impact and in between the exercise we were learning steps, so it offered a break from the aerobic periods. I logged my exercise in the Lose it! App, but instead of putting it in as one hour of low impact dance, I put in half an hour to allot for all the step learning slow periods. I burned 177 calories. WOOT!
Speaking of Calories, I did really well with my eating yesterday. It was my first day of trying to stay on-budget and I nailed it! 200 calories under budget! I made a big pot of low calorie chili yesterday and that covered lunch and dinner, so it was easy to stay in my budget. I think the trick to beating this thing is going to be cooking from scratch as much as possible. Prepackaged foods tend to be a lot higher in calories than foods you make yourself.
As far as smoking goes, still haven't kicked the habit yet. I smoked more than I wanted to yesterday (to the tune of about 10 cigarettes) but haven't had any yet today. I haven't bought smokes, and I'm not allowing smokers to come over because I really just need to detox from this thing and be done with it. I know that if I'm around smokers, I'm going to light up so I guess I will hide in my apartment for a couple of days until my willpower is stronger.
Hoping to get out for a walk today, but if it's still raining I will run up and down the stairs in my apartment for a few minutes instead (there are 18 floors in the building, that's a lot of stairs) and if all else fails... my apartment building has a pool, so I could always swim a few laps!
Monday, 29 September 2014
Epic Fail... or was it?
Hello readers!
Yesterday was my first day tracking my calories with the Loseit! app. I decided to make it easy on myself and not adjust my eating habits, just log what I typically eat so that I know what my starting point is. I was a whopping 1006 calories OVER budget! YIKES! It's going to be rough trying to cut that many calories out of my daily eating habits, especially since I'm a "night snacker" and most of my calories are at night (which we all know is the worst time to eat them).
As for smoking, I typically smoke roughly 15 cigarettes a day, so I cut down to 8 yesterday, and I have smoked 2 today and have 5 left. Hoping I can just go it cold turkey after this, but it's going to be SO HARD. No one said making such a drastic lifestyle change would be easy, but I have to get it done!
On a positive note, I went for my first walk yesterday. Where I would normally take the bus to the grocery store, I decided to hoof it. I walked 1.5 km to the grocery store. My goal is to walk 5 km this week, so I'm well on my way for that.
I'm not considering this a loss, but a step in the learning process. According to Lose it! The amount of calories I eat is enough to maintain my current weight, and not gain or lose any, which makes sense because I've been this weight for quite some time now.
Today I am going to really try and stay within my 1400 calorie budget, and hopefully get out for another walk. Wish me luck!
J xo
Yesterday was my first day tracking my calories with the Loseit! app. I decided to make it easy on myself and not adjust my eating habits, just log what I typically eat so that I know what my starting point is. I was a whopping 1006 calories OVER budget! YIKES! It's going to be rough trying to cut that many calories out of my daily eating habits, especially since I'm a "night snacker" and most of my calories are at night (which we all know is the worst time to eat them).
As for smoking, I typically smoke roughly 15 cigarettes a day, so I cut down to 8 yesterday, and I have smoked 2 today and have 5 left. Hoping I can just go it cold turkey after this, but it's going to be SO HARD. No one said making such a drastic lifestyle change would be easy, but I have to get it done!
On a positive note, I went for my first walk yesterday. Where I would normally take the bus to the grocery store, I decided to hoof it. I walked 1.5 km to the grocery store. My goal is to walk 5 km this week, so I'm well on my way for that.
I'm not considering this a loss, but a step in the learning process. According to Lose it! The amount of calories I eat is enough to maintain my current weight, and not gain or lose any, which makes sense because I've been this weight for quite some time now.
Today I am going to really try and stay within my 1400 calorie budget, and hopefully get out for another walk. Wish me luck!
J xo
Sunday, 28 September 2014
Gotta Start Somewhere!
Hello Readers,
This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. As I was taking my before photos (in a bikini!) I had to take a moment to let out a little sigh, I really have let myself go! This is a process, and a journey, and everyone has to start somewhere, so rather than being ashamed of myself I post these photos with pride! I'm proud that I have made a decision to get healthy and lead a better lifestyle.
I will be counting calories every day using the Loseit! app for iphone. It can be found easily on the app store. Loseit! uses your current weight and your goal (mine is to lose 2lbs per week) to calculate automatically how many calories you have for the day. Every time you eat or drink something, you log it in the app using their HUGE database of foods. Popular restaurants are included as well so you can really keep tabs on what you're eating with ease and little effort. There is even a barcode scanner to scan grocery store items that may not be in the inventory, and you can customize the app by creating your own foods if there are recipes you make often. It's a great app!
I will be tracking my weekly walks with the runkeeper app for iphone. This app tracks how far you've walked and uses GPS to determine how many calories are burned based on your speed. I will log all my exercise into the Loseit! app also, because you are allotted more calories to eat based on the exercise you do. I want to make sure I am losing weight the healthy way at a rate of 2lbs per week on average, so that I don't put it all back on the minute I'm done losing it! I really want to make a lifestyle change, not just a quick weight loss fix.
On to the good stuff. I will also be monitoring my measurements every week using an excel spreadsheet I created to track my BMI, weight, body fat % and inches lost. It was really easy to create and I would be happy to send the file to anyone who wants to use it.
Measurements will be taken every Sunday, and photos taken on the last Sunday of every month (to really show the progress) so that I can really keep tabs on how well I'm doing with all this. So, without further adeiu, here is my "before" statistics, keep in mind, we all have to start somewhere!
As you can see, I have a long way to go, my current body fat % is 38.89, that's a far cry from the 26% I would like it to be. Similarly, I have 36 lbs to lose to reach my goal weight. Here are my before photos:
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As you can see, I have a long way to go. I was mistaken for pregnant the other day, and now I can see why, my stomach (after birthing 3 babies and a lot of unhealthy choices) sticks out similarly to a pregnant woman's belly. I can't wait to shed some extra pounds and proudly show off my bikini bod at the beach next summer!
Here goes nothing!
J xo
This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. As I was taking my before photos (in a bikini!) I had to take a moment to let out a little sigh, I really have let myself go! This is a process, and a journey, and everyone has to start somewhere, so rather than being ashamed of myself I post these photos with pride! I'm proud that I have made a decision to get healthy and lead a better lifestyle.
I will be counting calories every day using the Loseit! app for iphone. It can be found easily on the app store. Loseit! uses your current weight and your goal (mine is to lose 2lbs per week) to calculate automatically how many calories you have for the day. Every time you eat or drink something, you log it in the app using their HUGE database of foods. Popular restaurants are included as well so you can really keep tabs on what you're eating with ease and little effort. There is even a barcode scanner to scan grocery store items that may not be in the inventory, and you can customize the app by creating your own foods if there are recipes you make often. It's a great app!
I will be tracking my weekly walks with the runkeeper app for iphone. This app tracks how far you've walked and uses GPS to determine how many calories are burned based on your speed. I will log all my exercise into the Loseit! app also, because you are allotted more calories to eat based on the exercise you do. I want to make sure I am losing weight the healthy way at a rate of 2lbs per week on average, so that I don't put it all back on the minute I'm done losing it! I really want to make a lifestyle change, not just a quick weight loss fix.
On to the good stuff. I will also be monitoring my measurements every week using an excel spreadsheet I created to track my BMI, weight, body fat % and inches lost. It was really easy to create and I would be happy to send the file to anyone who wants to use it.
Measurements will be taken every Sunday, and photos taken on the last Sunday of every month (to really show the progress) so that I can really keep tabs on how well I'm doing with all this. So, without further adeiu, here is my "before" statistics, keep in mind, we all have to start somewhere!
|
Body Measurement Chart
|
||||
|
Measurements
|
This
week
|
Last
week
|
2
weeks ago
|
28-Sep-14
|
|
Waist (narrowest)
|
|
|
|
34
|
|
Waist (at navel)
|
|
|
|
40
|
|
Hip (widest)
|
|
|
|
44.5
|
|
Thigh (widest)
|
|
|
|
26.5
|
|
Neck (narrowest)
|
|
|
|
13.5
|
|
Bicepts (widest)
|
|
|
|
13
|
|
Forearm (widest)
|
|
|
|
10.5
|
|
Wrist (narrowest)
|
|
|
|
6.5
|
|
Total Inches
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
188.5
|
|
Body Fat %
|
|
|
|
38.89
|
|
BMI
|
|
|
|
29.1
|
|
Weight (lbs)
|
|
|
|
186
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Inches Lost
|
188.5
|
188.5
|
188.5
|
0
|
|
Goal Weight
|
150
|
150
|
150
|
150
|
|
lbs lost this week
|
186
|
186
|
186
|
0
|
|
lbs left to goal
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
36
|
|
Goal Body Fat %
|
26
|
26
|
26
|
26
|
|
% left to Goal
|
12.89
|
12.89
|
12.89
|
12.89
|
As you can see, I have a long way to go, my current body fat % is 38.89, that's a far cry from the 26% I would like it to be. Similarly, I have 36 lbs to lose to reach my goal weight. Here are my before photos:
As you can see, I have a long way to go. I was mistaken for pregnant the other day, and now I can see why, my stomach (after birthing 3 babies and a lot of unhealthy choices) sticks out similarly to a pregnant woman's belly. I can't wait to shed some extra pounds and proudly show off my bikini bod at the beach next summer!
Here goes nothing!
J xo
Saturday, 27 September 2014
This is my get healthy journey!
Hello readers,
My name is Jamie, and I'm fat, sick and overweight.
Back in 2009 when I gave birth to my youngest child, I had gained a lot of weight with my pregnancy. I had undiagnosed gestational diabetes (diagnosed after delivery due to a hypoglycemic infant) which caused me to go from a weight of 140 lbs before pregnancy to a staggering 220 lbs at delivery.
Three months after giving birth, while struggling to lose the pregnancy weight, I was diagnosed with Bipolar I disorder and put on anti-psychotic medication. Although I have taken my medication every day since my diagnosis, these medications are NOTORIOUS for weight gain and making it hard to lose weight. My weight has fluctuated steadily up and down between 180 lbs and 200 lbs ever since.
In May of 2013, I separated from my husband of 5 years (together for 7 years) and started smoking again as a way to cope with the stress of not only separating from my husband, but also coming out as a lesbian woman. Since last summer, it's been one rough time after another. Lost jobs, dropping out of school (I am already a college graduate, this would have been my second diploma), homelessness, domestic troubles with my current partner, debt mounting, you name it. It has not been a good year for me.
Through all of these troubles, I relied on junk food, cigarettes and a heavy caffeine addiction to get me through it all, but at what cost? I have redeveloped my childhood asthma, I'm not sleeping well, I'm overweight, and it's a struggle to walk up a staircase. It's safe to say that this is rock bottom, folks.
That's what brings me here today. My partner of 16 months is moving out this weekend due to a breakdown in our relationship (we remain best friends) and I find myself for the first time in 8 years facing down the barrel of living on my own. I have decided to take this opportunity to focus on me, and get back to healthy! I want a healthier body, mind, spirit, finances, just all around better health!
Here are my current goals that I will be tackling on this blog, one step at a time:
Wish me luck!
- J xo
My name is Jamie, and I'm fat, sick and overweight.
Back in 2009 when I gave birth to my youngest child, I had gained a lot of weight with my pregnancy. I had undiagnosed gestational diabetes (diagnosed after delivery due to a hypoglycemic infant) which caused me to go from a weight of 140 lbs before pregnancy to a staggering 220 lbs at delivery.
Three months after giving birth, while struggling to lose the pregnancy weight, I was diagnosed with Bipolar I disorder and put on anti-psychotic medication. Although I have taken my medication every day since my diagnosis, these medications are NOTORIOUS for weight gain and making it hard to lose weight. My weight has fluctuated steadily up and down between 180 lbs and 200 lbs ever since.
In May of 2013, I separated from my husband of 5 years (together for 7 years) and started smoking again as a way to cope with the stress of not only separating from my husband, but also coming out as a lesbian woman. Since last summer, it's been one rough time after another. Lost jobs, dropping out of school (I am already a college graduate, this would have been my second diploma), homelessness, domestic troubles with my current partner, debt mounting, you name it. It has not been a good year for me.
Through all of these troubles, I relied on junk food, cigarettes and a heavy caffeine addiction to get me through it all, but at what cost? I have redeveloped my childhood asthma, I'm not sleeping well, I'm overweight, and it's a struggle to walk up a staircase. It's safe to say that this is rock bottom, folks.
That's what brings me here today. My partner of 16 months is moving out this weekend due to a breakdown in our relationship (we remain best friends) and I find myself for the first time in 8 years facing down the barrel of living on my own. I have decided to take this opportunity to focus on me, and get back to healthy! I want a healthier body, mind, spirit, finances, just all around better health!
Here are my current goals that I will be tackling on this blog, one step at a time:
- Quit smoking
- Quit Caffeine
- Continue the ban on Alcohol (quit March 2014)
- Get my finances in order
- Reach my goal weight of 150 lbs
- Raise my fitness level by exercising 5 times per week
- Grow my hair out so it fits in a ponytail again (okay, not essential to my overall health, but this is about making ME feel GOOD.
- Drink 8 glasses of water per day
- Meditate every day
- Keep this blog updated on my progress!
Wish me luck!
- J xo
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