Success and Hopefully Some Inspiration!

Well I’m making this one quick, taking a quick break to let everyone know how I did this week.

After being up a pound when i did a “spot check” weigh in Saturday morning (damn water retention), I was happy to see that I had lost 1.8lbs when I got on the scale this morning!   There’s nothing more motivating than seeing those numbers on the scale drop! 

This morning I was thinking about food.  I am learning that in order for me to succeed, I had to adapt a whole new way of thinking about food.  As I am more conscious of everything that goes in my mouth, I find myself noticing now that sometimes I eat when i am stressed.  I’m sure NO ONE can relate…lol yeah right,   I guess food always brings me comfort, and in those situations the worse for me the better I feel.  Twice this weekend I stopped myself from grabbing something bad for me just because I wanted it, or just because I thought it would make me happy.  Instead I’m focusing on how happy I will be when I hit my goal, reminding myself that all that food is going to do is prolong my goal, and that is one thing I am not willing to do again!

So let’s get it in this week…drink that water, hit the gym, I know I will be!

To Thy Own Self Be True!

Happy Thursday to my trusty group of fat fighters! 

I think I had a breakthrough of sorts.  Well, not so much a breakthrough as an awakening.  I was trying to talk a friend of mine back onto the diet bandwagon.  She’s struggling to lose weight and keeps promising herself she’s going to work out, and never does it.  I can’t judge, nor I’d imagine can any of us.  how many times have we told ourselves with the best of intentions that we were going to eat better tomorrow, hit the gym later, etc, etc…only to never do it?  I can tell you more times than I have fingers and toes!

So I thought, I’m a responsible person.  I get up, get to work on time.  If I commit to something I do it.  If I tell my hubby I will bring home some milk, I bring it.  If I tell my mom I will come shopping with her, I go.  I’m not one to lie, I keep my word, and if I say I’m going to do something, I do it.

Except…with myself.

Why is it that I won’t hold myself accountable to myself?  It is because I can’t punish myself?  Is it because no one really has to know that I’ve let MYSELF down?  I was almost embarrassed when it became clear to me…the only person that I wasn’t finding worthwhile or important enough to keep my word to, was myself!  And that’s a jacked up thing to realize…sorry for the expression!

I had a good loss again last week, 2.6lbs, and I’ve been going hard to the gym on a very regular basis.  My eyes are open now and I realize that first I must value my word and my promises to myself, or what is the point of living?  So my advice to everyone is think long and hard about that.  If you promise yourself in the morning you will go to the gym after work…go as if the President was there waiting on you…race to that gym like you were going to lose your paycheck if you didn’t show up!  At the end of everything, if we aren’t healthy and taking care of ourselves, what can we be for anyone else? 

So push through the rest of this work week…enjoy the weekend!  I’m hoping that my little revelation will help motivate someone else to keep all those promises that we make to ourselves…even when no one else is looking!

That Time of the Week Again!

It’s Monday yet again fellow fat busters!

We all know what this means…well ok, maybe none of you do!  But if you’ve been following along, that’s weigh in day here at Chesty Changes!  After last week, I was skeptical to jump on the scale.  I knew I had once again busted my butt working out, 5 days last week to be exact, but I also knew I had kicked it into gear the week before and saw only 1.2lbs fall off per my trusty scale.

Forever the optimist, I jumped on the scale hoping for the best.  It was hot and humid, I was worried I would be retaining major water, but to my surprise and delight, I was down 5lbs!  Yes that is 5lbs, not 4, not even 4.5, but a whole 5lbs!  After I jumped off the scale, I did my little naked morning dance of joy alone in the bathroom.  After being “plateaued” for a couple weeks, and off track for a while before that, I had forgotten the euphoria that a great loss gives you! 

Moving forward this week, my plan is to stick with the increased workouts.  I’ve weaned myself off white rice, and when I do carbs I’m doing brown rice or something else high in fiber.  I’ve left the potatoes alone for the most part, so I don’t know if that’s helping, but I think it’s just the discipline and continued hard work paying off.  I’ll end this post with a quote that I read last week.  I felt so bad about myself when I was off track and eating delicious crap…but any time I feel myself sliding, I remember this!  Hopefully it will motivate you all too!

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” ~ Jim Rohn

Is This Thing On?

So, I sat there sleepily this morning…muttering to myself about how my thighs hurt from last night’s workout.  But I calmed myself down thinking, “Hey…it’s finally THAT TIME.” Weigh in day.  The one highlight of my Monday!  (Ok that, and Love and Hip Hop ATL, my guilty pleasure.) 

See any dieter who’s been there knows this feeling.  You know you have busted your butt all week, and you are dying to get on the scale and see that magic number go down, down, DOWN!  Well on I jumped…but instead of a great dive…my scale took a teeny skip.   1.2lbs….is this thing on CRACK?

Well, after drug testing, and even shaking my scale, it became obvious that the scale was NOT on drugs and apparently was in fine working order…who would have thunk it?  Now the first thing that I used to do when this happened was to get all down and discouraged, but this morning, a funny thing happened.  In my brain I heard “Well that’s still a great loss, and far better than a gain!”

I looked around the bathroom to make sure no one else was in there, and then had to pride myself on the fact that I, alone, had not for once beat myself up, and had instead given myself the kudos that I deserved.  I think we tend to be hardest on ourselves, not looking at outside factors such as humidity, bloat, or just simply blaming ourselves for the fact that our body didn’t drop as much as we should have. 

But not this morning…and I want you all to start doing the same.  Give yourself credit for the small victories.  Don’t let anything take you off track.  All this week’s minor weight loss did for me is push me that much harder to see a great loss next week.  It’s all about the small tweeks, and a tweeking is what I can do.  I’m taking an honest look back at least week, seeing any areas that I could have been doing better with, and making the adjustments today! 

Funny thing when you grow older, you realize that life is not always about coming in first…but more about making sure you stay in the race!  Keep truckin fellow fat fighters!  🙂

Squeeze in a Quickie!

Now that I have your attention!

Well it’s Monday fellow fat busters…and hopefully you remembered, because I had almost forgotten, but Monday is my weigh in day!  I had gotten into the bad habit of jumping on the scale almost every day the last few months…watching it teeter totter and became a kind of a game…but a game I was not winning.  Even though I was breaking even, I had forgotten how much better that feeling of watching those numbers on a scale go down was than almost anything I could eat! 

Well when it dawned on me what today was, in my sleepy morning state, I was apprehensive to say the least.  Although I did well this weekend, I skipped the gym (yeah I’m human), and indulged in two cookies last night.  I mean, better than 10 cookies, and I had points for them, but I was still knowing that was not the best choice I could have made.

So I jumped on…held my breath, then blew it out (cuz air must weigh something) and waaalah, I had lost 3lbs!  I wanted to jump up and down right there on the scale, but knowing I would break it, I stopped myself. 

So we’ve made a good start…this week’s mission is to stock the house up once again with all the healthy foods I need to fool-proof my diet, and throw out all the badness that doesn’t mean me any good!   Tonight, “Operation Sweat and Swear” is back in effect, I will be sweating and cussing my way through a great workout…all with love of course! 

How was your weekend?  And who’s got some great tips for staying on track during the weekend, which I know is the hardest time for many of us!  🙂

Happy Diets to ya!

Chesty 🙂

The Number Game

I never have been a fan of numbers.  I wasn’t a math wiz, and I don’t enjoy calculating much of anything! 

Well, I should say I didn’t…until now.  Not only do I love to watch the numbers on the scale drop, and add up the ounces as they fall off, but I’ve also realized the importance of my measurements.  When the numbers on the scale don’t move as quickly as you want them to, or don’t move at all, my friends who are currently maintaining their weight loss told me what works…and that was to measure.

Even if you don’t see a huge loss, if you are working out and really changing your body, the numbers will reflect that.  I didn’t do my first measurements until almost a month into my diet, but let’s look at the numbers…

	09/19/2011	10/02/2011	10/30/11	01/02/2011	Total Inches Lost Per Area
Neck	15.6”	15”	14.75”	14.25”	-1.35”
Shoulders	45.5”	44.5”	43.5”	42.5”	-3”
Chest	48.6”	47.5”	46”	45”	-3.6”
Left Bicep	17.5”	16”	15.25”	14.75”	-2.75”
Right Bicep	17.6”	16.25”	15.75”	14.85”	-2.75”
Waist	42.5”	41.5”	40”	38.25”	-4.25”
Left Forearm	12.1”	12.0”	11.75”	11.5”	-0.6”
Right Forearm	12.1”	12.0”	11.5”	11.6”	-0.5”
Hips	53”	52”	51”	50”	-3”
Abdomen	48”	46.5”	44.5”	42.75”	-5.25”
Left Thigh	30”	30”	27.25”	26.5”	-3.5”
Right Thigh	30”	30”	27.75”	26.75”	-3.25”
Left Calf	20.25”	20”	19”	18.75”	-1.5”
Right Calf	20.5”	20”	19.5”	18.75”	-1.75”
Total All-Over Inches Lost	N/A	-10”	-25.75	-37.05

 It really brings it all into focus.   As I entered these numbers, I could not get over the amount of inches lost!  I’m super psyched about my abdomen, aka the fattest part of your belly, because that is my most hated area, but also the area where I saw the biggest weight loss!  I can’t wait to report back in February, but if you are just getting started, look at the small amount of time that you can commit and see a HUGE result!!

Breaking Pants News!!

EXTRA!! EXTRA!!

I know it’s been on your minds…there have been many sleepless nights.  It’s just one of those things you think you will NEVER get an answer to!

Ok, truth is that you probably haven’t thought about my progress pants since last I mentioned them.  In case you had forgotten, let me bring you up to speed.  When we started in September, the pants did not fit…I mean like at ALL.  I could pry them just barely up over my hips…and they were no closer to closing than the two sides of Korea are at making peace!  About a month or so ago, I tried them on again.  To my surprise, they fit.  They did not, however, fit well, and I couldn’t wear them in public for the muffin top squeezed out of the top of them was not ready for prime time!

As I hit my 50 lbs milestone, I realized that once again it was time to try on the pants.  I looked at them, sitting innocently on a hanger, sucked in a breath, and carried them with me into the bathroom. (Heck, I needed privacy in case the results weren’t good.)  I slipped into the pants, slipped them up, and realized…these pants just SLIPPED ON UP!  I was able to zipper them without sucking in massive breath, and once zipped, absent was the voluminous muffin top!  After doing my own little personal victory dance, I had to take a picture of the moment.  I do have more than one t-shirt, I will say, but happened to have the SAME blue one on in both posts. 

So, with that mission accomplished, I am now plotting out what my next piece of progress clothing will be.  This part could get tricky, as those pants were the smallest item of clothing I owned.  I will have to go shopping, and am debating what size I want to shoot for.  I’m thinking maybe a cute pair of jeans in a size 14.  Might take me a few months to get there, but if we don’t aim high, who will?

No Spanx, All Thanx!!

I would NEVER have taken this picture.

Like NEVER..ever.

6 months ago, hell even 3 months ago, there is no way I would have crammed myself into some leggings and a fitted t-shirt and posted a picture anywhere.  I said there were going to be some changes…and I haven’t let myself down.

I took measurements today.  Before I say that, let me make the big announcement!  When I did my weekly weigh in last Monday, I hit the 50lbs mark!  Actually 50.2, so let me say that I SURPASSED the 50lbs mark.  Never in my wildest dreams when I started my serious weight loss journey in the first weeks of SEptember did I imagine that I would be able to say I had lost 50lbs by year end.  I knew I’d seen people do it, with the assistance of a reality show’s dilligent trainer, or even a risky weight loss surgery, but I knew what I was going to try was going to be a new type of challenge.  I don’t take away from anyone who loses weight through surgery, because without the very same willpower that I have they won’t succeed.  But I guess I doubted myself, that me and my “hard work” approach would get such fast, good results.

As I hit that scale the morning after Christmas, I thought about how many people would have “gains” that week, but a gain was not even an option to me.  I did enjoy some Christmas treats in moderation, but knew the best gift would be to see a number that showed i’d reached my goal.  I couldn’t believe it when the scale hit that number, with a week to spare until the end of the year.  I have not felt so proud in a long time, nor have I felt so motivated to keep going.

I have to give a BIG thanks to my health club, Anytime Fitness in West Allis, WI.  Without my membership, and the fact that I USE it, I guarantee there is no way I would be seeing such great loses, as well as so much transformation in my shape.

So keep up the good work.  I know I want to lose at least 50 more pounds, and I no longer feel like that goal is far from reach.  I hope that this new year leaves you with a commitment to yourself, to the ones that love you, and to a better 2012!!!

I’ve Lost a 5-Year Old!!

Ok, maybe I should explain!  There’s really no need to call child protective services.  I have not literally lost anyone’s five-year old child.

I read a blog by a good friend of mine who recently lost over 100 lbs.  She posted at one point that she had “lost a child”.  It seemed to me to be SUCH a major milestone.  I knew I was going to try, but I never actually thought I would see that point for a long time. 

This week I reached two major milestones!  with week 11 of my new lifestyle under my belt, I was a little anxious as I got on the scale.  The last two weeks, my losses had been less than a pound, combined, and I was convinced that I was going to see a gain after my sampling of  Thanksgiving deliciousness.   I knew I hadn’t gone overboard, but I guess I was giving myself a hard time.

So I got on the scale, and was happy to see, well ecstatic to see that I had lost 3lbs since last week, bringing me over the 40lbs mark to 41.8 lbs total!  I kept thinking about that number all day, and when I was panting away on the elliptical last night I got to thinking, that was ALOT of weight.  I did a little looking, and sure enough, an average 5-year-old can weigh about 40lbs!  I think about moms trying to carry about a toddler who is 2 or even younger, and I thought, “Dang, I was basically carrying a 5-year-old on my back, waist, and thighs, every day!  That can explain why I have so much more energy, and how I just feel “lighter”…cuz I am! 

Next we’re going for the nifty fifty!  I told myself I wanted to lose  50 lbs in 6 months…now with 8.2lbs to go at the three-month mark, here’s hoping that I can do it in 4 instead!!!

Happy Eating!!

The Light, White Fish…My Recent Obsession With Tilapia Loins

Food is on my brain right now.  But it’s a good thing, because this new weight loss lifestyle is really making me stretch my culinary imagination.  I’ve always loved to cook, just never cared too much how healthy my food was, as long as it tasted good.

Now that my focus is on health, I’m always looking for the most delicious ways to eat the stuff that’s good for me.  Protein is a major thing for any dieter.  Not only will it help you build muscle, but it fills you up.  And if you are anything like myself, you’re just a carnivore to begin with, and would die without MEEEAT!

I’m finding the lightest protein comes in the form of white fish and other shellfish such as shrimp.  I’ve fallen madly in love with tilapia loins.  I bought them the first time thinking that they would taste pretty much like a filet of tilapia did.  When I opened them for the first time, I was surprised how thick, pretty, and white they were.  I cooked them up in my favorite diet way, blackened (recipe to follow), and was in love.  When I say i could eat them every day, I mean I would eat them and savor them.

For someone not to fond of anything that tastes fishy, these loins are a perfect selection.  There’s no skin, bones, or anything yucky, and they have a clean light taste that really just absorbs whatever flavors you add to it.  The other plus is that it cooks up firm and flaky.  I personally am not a fan of mushy or overly dry fish, and this cut cooks to perfection!

The best part, you ask?  A 4oz portion is only 2 Weight Watchers points!  With a protein that low in points, you can have a good sized portion and feel really satisfied!  I highly suggest, no BEG, that you try the delicious Blackened Tilapia Recipe that I will feature next, but I know this cut of fish will be great however you prepare it!