Minus about 7.8 total on the clinic scale (I'm not 100% sure about the weekly loss since it is a different scale. On MY all important scale I am down 11.4, 3.2 from this past week. I'm happy with that. Its that time of the month every woman retains water and maybe doesn't lose weight, so I'm especially happy that this time I did! I am not drinking quite enough water I think. However, I'm drinking at least 80oz/day so I'm not sure how that's possible. Anyway, today I have a little headache and I had this weird moment of nausea, but it passed. I switched to 3 shakes, 2 bars and 1 soup this week and next. I just thought it would be easier at work. We shall see!
As for activity, I restarted the C25K app and I'm on week 1 day 2. It's going fine. I was a little worried I wouldn't have the energy, but it worked out great. I had a shake first (630!) and the did the run/walk. I will say that since I started eating so early, I was extra hungry by 6. I will have to play with the timing. I think my headache might be related to not enough water because of the exercise. I also need to remember to drink a whole 8oz with my midday bar since I will be missing the fluids from the shake. I also didn't sleep great last night-I had coffee around 3 and it may have kept me up. Lesson learned (again).
I wanted to take a minute to talk about motivators and goals. Our homework for this week is to list 3 motivators and then 3 goals to move more (1 short term, 1 medium and 1 long term) so I've been thinking about that. One of my motivators is to be able to enjoy outdoor activities without being miserable (hot, out of breath, etc). Another includes shopping for cute clothes. :-) I'm having difficulty with the 3rd because I am not in poor health (yet) and that seems like it would be the next important so maybe it's to maintain my health. For the goals: 1. complete the weekly C25K program (it's 8 weeks so that's 8 weeks worth of short term goals) 2. Run a 5k in February 3. complete a 10k next fall (1yr). In reality I want to do the Nike women's half and actually enjoy it next year. But that will be a run/walk so that's why I'm choosing the 10k.
We are also supposed to read a chapter from the book Living Smart Five Essential Skills to Change Your Health Habits Forever. I'm also currently reading The Beck Diet Solution. I'm finding it really interesting and I'm excited to change my thinking around food. I feel like most of my eating occurs when I am alone. I never finish my entire meal at a restaurant, but if I order a pizza, it's gone in 2-3 days. The most overeating always occurs when I haven't eaten or had enough to drink throughout the day so I'm starving on the way home so I stop for fast food. I also stop for cokes and sweet teas. Those calories really add up! And I know that. One of the keys for me in maintenance is going to be drinking water. When I'm not thirsty I don't want sweet tea or soda!
I'm trying to work on other healthy habits as well. I looked at my average steps/day for last month and they were 6200. Our facilitator challenged us to increase them by 500/day/wk until we reach 10000. Already this week I'm getting closer to 7000 so I don't think it will be long til I'm reaching that goal. I am also making sure the dogs get at least one 30min walk. If I increase to 2 I will probably be at the 10000 steps/day. Another thing that I think is key to well being is sleep! I truly believe the blue light from screens interfere with sleep so I've been turning off my computer, phone, TV, etc by 9pm and just going to bed to read on my nook (which is the one with e-ink so no backlight). I'm sleeping so much better!!
So that's it, that's where I'm at! Sleeping more, walking more and in general I'm just happier. And 11.4lbs lighter!
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Sunday, October 25, 2015
The Day After...
My first night out...;-)
Yesterday was a pretty busy day for me. It started out with getting my grays covered (premature gray thanks to my mom's side of the family). I had to get up about 7 on my day off, which I know isn't early in most worlds, but I like to get up slowly on weekends. I was tempted to tell my stylist about this journey. Mostly because I wanted to warn her about hair loss, but a little part of me is hoping that since I won't be fasting as long as some of the other blogs I have read and I'm not doing the Optifast HP program (which is even less than my 960 calories) I won't have the hair loss issues. Wow, how is that for a run on sentence? ;-) Remember I am a nurse not a writer! Anyway, I didn't and I sort of hope I don't have to. I am telling all of my friends and coworkers and that seems to be enough people for now. I've also told one sister, but I should probably tell my mom and my other sister.
Anyway, I got a little off track! One of my good friends owns a bed and breakfast near my hair appt and we had plans for the evening so I headed over there with my pups to hang out. I was mostly fine, but she did eat smoked salmon on a bagel in front of me and another friend that was their had toast with butter. I was a little jealous, but I need to get used to people eating in front of me. We just sat by the pool and relaxed for a couple hours which was nice.
The big event was the Bridge School Benefit that evening. It's a concert that Neil Young and his ex-wife Peggy started to benefit a school they founded for kids with special needs. We went for the Dixie Chicks, but there were some other real great performances: Ben Harper=amazing!!, Ryan Adams, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark, Jr...all awesome!! I'm so glad I went. I definitely hope to make this a bay area tradition for me. :-)
I knew there would be challenges for the whole day: 1. taking all my product with me 2. timing my meals 3. drinking water while at the concert! and 4. not having to pee all night and miss all the acts (sorry if that is TMI for some, but I am a nurse...;-) )
How did I address this issues? I would say the taking all the products out with me was easy. When I come home with my supplies I separate it in to what I will need for each day of the week. So I just grabbed the days supplies, threw them in my purse and took off. As for timing, I had my first shake with coffee around 730 and then I was in the salon so I didn't have my next product until around 1115 which was a bit too long. I def need to have them every 2-3 (at the most) hours otherwise I do get a little loopy and hungry. My 3rd and 4th were simple because I was at the inn and could just make my shakes like normal. I did pretty well with water to that point. During the concert I waited to have a bar until 7 which was ok, but what I didn't account for was the fact that the concert ended close to midnight and I still had a shake to drink! Grrrr...So I started to get a little loopy, a little hungry and a little dizzy on my 800 calories so far. Fortunately the show got pretty exciting so I was distracted! But I never plan to do that again! As soon as we got to the inn I made a quick vanilla shake with some pumpkin pie spice, chugged it lukewarm and headed back to the car for my hour drive home. Anyway, lesson learned. Next big event I will take 2 bars because I think shakes are just too hard at events like that. I worry about not being allowed to take things in, etc. But I'm a rule follower and always afraid to be in trouble! My other big issue was water. As I said, I drank pretty well during the day, but then the concert came and I didn't want to get up to pee! As a result I only drank 10oz at the concert. I should have had another 20oz or so before bed, but I was just tired and ready to sleep and had to talk all the way home to not sleep! As a result I'm paying for that this AM. I had some cramps in my feet, my lips are dry and I have a hangover headache. The solution of course is to rehydrate...so that's what I'm doing!! Just not doing a great job! It's 1045am and I've only gotten 16oz down. But my headache is fading and the foot cramps seem gone. My weight was down 1.6lbs and I would say 1lb was probably water loss! Which to me isn't the same as losing water weight, because it was excessive!
All in all I would say it was a success! I recommend taking all the product with you if there is a risk you will be gone all day. And next time I will try to get all my water in before the concert! I am glad I enjoy things like music and musicals, etc. So many people only entertain themselves with food and I think I have a headstart on the maintenance portion by already knowing what activities, other than food I enjoy! But lets not go there yet...I'm only on week 2 day 4. :-)
Yesterday was a pretty busy day for me. It started out with getting my grays covered (premature gray thanks to my mom's side of the family). I had to get up about 7 on my day off, which I know isn't early in most worlds, but I like to get up slowly on weekends. I was tempted to tell my stylist about this journey. Mostly because I wanted to warn her about hair loss, but a little part of me is hoping that since I won't be fasting as long as some of the other blogs I have read and I'm not doing the Optifast HP program (which is even less than my 960 calories) I won't have the hair loss issues. Wow, how is that for a run on sentence? ;-) Remember I am a nurse not a writer! Anyway, I didn't and I sort of hope I don't have to. I am telling all of my friends and coworkers and that seems to be enough people for now. I've also told one sister, but I should probably tell my mom and my other sister.
Anyway, I got a little off track! One of my good friends owns a bed and breakfast near my hair appt and we had plans for the evening so I headed over there with my pups to hang out. I was mostly fine, but she did eat smoked salmon on a bagel in front of me and another friend that was their had toast with butter. I was a little jealous, but I need to get used to people eating in front of me. We just sat by the pool and relaxed for a couple hours which was nice.
The big event was the Bridge School Benefit that evening. It's a concert that Neil Young and his ex-wife Peggy started to benefit a school they founded for kids with special needs. We went for the Dixie Chicks, but there were some other real great performances: Ben Harper=amazing!!, Ryan Adams, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark, Jr...all awesome!! I'm so glad I went. I definitely hope to make this a bay area tradition for me. :-)
I knew there would be challenges for the whole day: 1. taking all my product with me 2. timing my meals 3. drinking water while at the concert! and 4. not having to pee all night and miss all the acts (sorry if that is TMI for some, but I am a nurse...;-) )
How did I address this issues? I would say the taking all the products out with me was easy. When I come home with my supplies I separate it in to what I will need for each day of the week. So I just grabbed the days supplies, threw them in my purse and took off. As for timing, I had my first shake with coffee around 730 and then I was in the salon so I didn't have my next product until around 1115 which was a bit too long. I def need to have them every 2-3 (at the most) hours otherwise I do get a little loopy and hungry. My 3rd and 4th were simple because I was at the inn and could just make my shakes like normal. I did pretty well with water to that point. During the concert I waited to have a bar until 7 which was ok, but what I didn't account for was the fact that the concert ended close to midnight and I still had a shake to drink! Grrrr...So I started to get a little loopy, a little hungry and a little dizzy on my 800 calories so far. Fortunately the show got pretty exciting so I was distracted! But I never plan to do that again! As soon as we got to the inn I made a quick vanilla shake with some pumpkin pie spice, chugged it lukewarm and headed back to the car for my hour drive home. Anyway, lesson learned. Next big event I will take 2 bars because I think shakes are just too hard at events like that. I worry about not being allowed to take things in, etc. But I'm a rule follower and always afraid to be in trouble! My other big issue was water. As I said, I drank pretty well during the day, but then the concert came and I didn't want to get up to pee! As a result I only drank 10oz at the concert. I should have had another 20oz or so before bed, but I was just tired and ready to sleep and had to talk all the way home to not sleep! As a result I'm paying for that this AM. I had some cramps in my feet, my lips are dry and I have a hangover headache. The solution of course is to rehydrate...so that's what I'm doing!! Just not doing a great job! It's 1045am and I've only gotten 16oz down. But my headache is fading and the foot cramps seem gone. My weight was down 1.6lbs and I would say 1lb was probably water loss! Which to me isn't the same as losing water weight, because it was excessive!
All in all I would say it was a success! I recommend taking all the product with you if there is a risk you will be gone all day. And next time I will try to get all my water in before the concert! I am glad I enjoy things like music and musicals, etc. So many people only entertain themselves with food and I think I have a headstart on the maintenance portion by already knowing what activities, other than food I enjoy! But lets not go there yet...I'm only on week 2 day 4. :-)
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Week 1 is Really Finished!
So my official weigh in on my own scale this AM was minus 8lbs. Yeah! I think that my face is less puffy, my feet are a little less sore and I am feeling fine.
Today I think I'm a little behind on the water intake, but I have almost had 80oz plus my shakes so maybe not. I'll just keep drinking! Last night in class we talked about motivation and started touching on exercise. I've always enjoyed being active so the only reason I struggle with that part is because I can't do what I used to. I just really have to get over that and just be happy doing what I can! So we were challenged to do a couple things...increase our steps by 500 more per day than we are currently doing until we reach 10000 steps per day and write down 3 motivators. My motivators are 1. To be able to hike and walk and run outside and be comfortable doing it! 2. To be able to buy clothes I love! 3. To be able to travel comfortably! (and by that I mean, be able to walk and see places and fit in airplane seats and not feel clumsy and like I'm taking up too much space or feel like people are looking at me). According to my Apple health app I'm averaging 6200 steps per day on the month tab so my goal will be to get 6700. I think in reality I will probably start getting more than that since I am walking at least 30min.
I'm trying to decide what to do for the holidays this year. I think I am going to stay here and then go home in March between the boys birthdays. I'm going to Hawaii in March probably for a friends birthday so I could tack it on to that or go from there.
I'm not doing a great job of finding things to occupy my time in the evenings. I'm mostly obsessing over blogs and the internet. This isn't much of a change though, I just have different things to look at. :-) At some point I want to get away from having 3 screens going at night (phone, laptop, TV) and shrink it to maybe just the TV and some other activity. :-) I actually bought one of those adult coloring books so that's a nice way to start.
Off to have my last shake! Iced or hot? Hmmmm...
Today I think I'm a little behind on the water intake, but I have almost had 80oz plus my shakes so maybe not. I'll just keep drinking! Last night in class we talked about motivation and started touching on exercise. I've always enjoyed being active so the only reason I struggle with that part is because I can't do what I used to. I just really have to get over that and just be happy doing what I can! So we were challenged to do a couple things...increase our steps by 500 more per day than we are currently doing until we reach 10000 steps per day and write down 3 motivators. My motivators are 1. To be able to hike and walk and run outside and be comfortable doing it! 2. To be able to buy clothes I love! 3. To be able to travel comfortably! (and by that I mean, be able to walk and see places and fit in airplane seats and not feel clumsy and like I'm taking up too much space or feel like people are looking at me). According to my Apple health app I'm averaging 6200 steps per day on the month tab so my goal will be to get 6700. I think in reality I will probably start getting more than that since I am walking at least 30min.
I'm trying to decide what to do for the holidays this year. I think I am going to stay here and then go home in March between the boys birthdays. I'm going to Hawaii in March probably for a friends birthday so I could tack it on to that or go from there.
I'm not doing a great job of finding things to occupy my time in the evenings. I'm mostly obsessing over blogs and the internet. This isn't much of a change though, I just have different things to look at. :-) At some point I want to get away from having 3 screens going at night (phone, laptop, TV) and shrink it to maybe just the TV and some other activity. :-) I actually bought one of those adult coloring books so that's a nice way to start.
Off to have my last shake! Iced or hot? Hmmmm...
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
End of Week 1!!
So I did it!! I survived!! 14 to go. :-)
I got up earlier today so I'm hungrier later, but that makes since. Good to remember though! I weighed in on the body composition scale tonight and it's a little off from the regular clinic scale so it's hard to say how much I actually lost. So it's somewhere between 5-7lbs. We shall see what my official weight is tomorrow. :-)
Off to bed early tonight!
I got up earlier today so I'm hungrier later, but that makes since. Good to remember though! I weighed in on the body composition scale tonight and it's a little off from the regular clinic scale so it's hard to say how much I actually lost. So it's somewhere between 5-7lbs. We shall see what my official weight is tomorrow. :-)
Off to bed early tonight!
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
One more day til the end of week 1!
I'm sort of surprised at how easy this is...I was really expecting to be starving, have headaches and just be miserable in general at least a couple days! Anyway, I will just accept that I didn't have to suffer much. :-)
My biggest issue right now is that I know I can't go out to dinner before shows, etc for a very long time. I am one of those people that did all of my overeating alone at night at home or because I stopped for fast food on the way home because I was starving. SO I am hoping this will really reset my body and brain into needing to eat every 3-4 hours in the future and drinking lots of water. I never used to have a problem being active and I am taking the dogs for 1 good 30min walk every morning. I'm hoping as I figure out what my body can do I will be able to restart the C210K running app. I want to ask more about that at class this week.
Class...we meet tomorrow night. I don't honestly feel that it has been super helpful at this point, but it's only been 2 weeks so we will see. I'm hoping there will be more dialogue. We have a couple people in group who are in their second round because they gained the weight back. And another who lost quite a bit of weight on his own and has kept it off, but plateaued. I would really like to hear how he has managed to keep it off. At the very least it will hold me accountable! And I think the maintenance stuff will be great!
I wish I was more worried about that, but historically I have not had much difficulty losing weight by counting calories when I needed to lose 10-20 pounds. Of course, my whole goal is to not ever have to lose that much weight again!
I have in my head an end goal weight of 155 with the whole +/- 5. That's seems to be where my body was happiest in the past. I don't think I have written on here where my weight started but I guess this is a good place! I was 242.6 on the clinic scale on Wednesday night and 241.6 on my scale. The sort of strange thing about that is I was fully clothed and wearing shoes on the clinic scale and it was the end of the day...which means my scale actually weighs me as more than theirs! Ah well....I'm using my naked morning weights as my official weights. :-)
Monday, October 19, 2015
Day 5 and holding strong....
I didn't write anything yesterday because, frankly, I didn't have anything to say about the plan. :-) I am assuming I am in Ketosis and perhaps my headaches on Friday and a little Saturday were related to it. I'm not honestly sure, because some people say "ketoflu" is horrible and enough to make you never want to cheat. For me, I get headaches frequently when I don't drink enough water and they have been much worse. Guess it helped I stayed hydrated. I've been logging all my product into My Fitness Pal. I like the app and plan to continue using it for a long time! Anyway, I have to add 40calories per day as a "quick add" because MFP doesn't like it when women take in less than 1000cal/day. I'm glad they have that feature in general because it would be a huge trigger for anoretics.
Something happened today that I should write so I'm reminded later! I had my chocolate shake on the drive to work then got to work and realized I had only brought a shake and a soup! I have been having 4 products before I get home at night and then just have the last 2 and maybe a cup of tea. I was ok and had a cup of tea around 4pm, but then I was heading to the elevator and got a little dizzy. SO! Lesson learned! I'm going to start taking all my product for the week to work on Thursdays after I pick it up on Wednesday night.
Now, I am occasionally hungry, but mostly when it is time for me to have another shake. And it isn't like before when I might not eat much all day and then feel sort of weak and "funny" and ravished until I ate a huge dinner. Something I will try and remember when I enter transition and maintenance! Of course, that seems forever away right now!
In reality I'm not even finished with week 1 yet and the novelty has not warn off. I still hear people mention food and my first thought is "oh poor me I can't have that" but I try to stop those thoughts immediately and change to "oh well I can't have that right now and the end results are going to be so worth it." So far that's working for me.
I am reading some of the Optifast Support posts on Facebook. While it is motivating, there seem to be a lot of people on there who are buying it online and it's sort of frustrating! As a nurse, I know how important it is to monitor labs, etc while being on a low calorie diet. These people are recommending people do things like take vitamin water (strictly forbidden by our doctor), eat veggies even if it's not on plan, etc. One study shows that it is better to not eat anything at all because to chew stimulates something in you and makes you want to chew even more. So I'll stick to my 1 or 2 bars. Other than the first night when I would have loved to have another (but didn't) I haven't felt the need to continue chewing.
I've been thinking about how to order product. I don't particularly like the fact that we basically ordered blindly (other than a taste test of the powder shakes and bars) for the first 2 weeks. I won't order strawberry ready made anymore. I'm also going to try 2 bars and 1 soup and then 3 shakes and see how that goes. Then I'll drink a glass of water with the bars. Water...that is something I am doing surprisingly well on. I used to drink 3L a day and somewhere in the last 5 years I just stopped drinking it! It feels good to be hydrated again...maybe that's why I'm not having many issues.
I have to confess to weighing myself WAY too often, but it's so fun to watch the weight come off even if it water weight! I heard about a study that says weighing daily might actually be a great way to stay on track esp in maintenance. This will surely be frowned upon by Kaiser, but when I stopped weighing myself is when I gained! Of course there were other factors, but that was one piece.
What else can I say? I'm mixing the shakes with a variety of things. Some favorites are:
1. Vanilla powder with diet A&W root beer with some ice
2. Coffee with a box of chocolate or vanilla are both good! I added some pumpkin pie spice to one and it was great-even though I'm not a fan of pumpkin spice lattes...yes I know, unAmerican.
3. Ready made chocolate warmed up and then add caramel sugar free syrup (I bought the Target brand)
4. Boil water in the tea kettle and add vanilla powder, pumpkin pie spice and a little vanilla and cinnamon (only because there isn't enough already....ha!)
5. Not a shake by cayenne in the tomato sou is tasty
6. And I highly recommend heating the bars for 15-30sec! They taste like a yummy warm dessert!
One thing I wonder is after all of this sweet stuff will I continue to want to end my night with something sweet? I'm not sure, but historically it sounds like people generally start to crave more savory and salty things. We shall see...in about 14.5 weeks. :-)
I hate to say it, but I'm excited and a little nervous to weigh in on Wednesday! I'm afraid that the number won't be as exciting as I thought it would be and I've been trying to think of what I would be ok with for a week 1 number. I think it's because usually people lose a large amt the first week due to water loss and then it tapers off so if I don't put up a good number this week, what will that mean for the rest?? I won't be very happy if I don't lose at least 2lb/week on this plan!! Also, its getting to be that time in the month where I always retain water....something I should document in My Fitness Pal so that I remember!
Signing off...time to turn the screens off! If anyone is out there reading this Thanks!
Something happened today that I should write so I'm reminded later! I had my chocolate shake on the drive to work then got to work and realized I had only brought a shake and a soup! I have been having 4 products before I get home at night and then just have the last 2 and maybe a cup of tea. I was ok and had a cup of tea around 4pm, but then I was heading to the elevator and got a little dizzy. SO! Lesson learned! I'm going to start taking all my product for the week to work on Thursdays after I pick it up on Wednesday night.
Now, I am occasionally hungry, but mostly when it is time for me to have another shake. And it isn't like before when I might not eat much all day and then feel sort of weak and "funny" and ravished until I ate a huge dinner. Something I will try and remember when I enter transition and maintenance! Of course, that seems forever away right now!
In reality I'm not even finished with week 1 yet and the novelty has not warn off. I still hear people mention food and my first thought is "oh poor me I can't have that" but I try to stop those thoughts immediately and change to "oh well I can't have that right now and the end results are going to be so worth it." So far that's working for me.
I am reading some of the Optifast Support posts on Facebook. While it is motivating, there seem to be a lot of people on there who are buying it online and it's sort of frustrating! As a nurse, I know how important it is to monitor labs, etc while being on a low calorie diet. These people are recommending people do things like take vitamin water (strictly forbidden by our doctor), eat veggies even if it's not on plan, etc. One study shows that it is better to not eat anything at all because to chew stimulates something in you and makes you want to chew even more. So I'll stick to my 1 or 2 bars. Other than the first night when I would have loved to have another (but didn't) I haven't felt the need to continue chewing.
I've been thinking about how to order product. I don't particularly like the fact that we basically ordered blindly (other than a taste test of the powder shakes and bars) for the first 2 weeks. I won't order strawberry ready made anymore. I'm also going to try 2 bars and 1 soup and then 3 shakes and see how that goes. Then I'll drink a glass of water with the bars. Water...that is something I am doing surprisingly well on. I used to drink 3L a day and somewhere in the last 5 years I just stopped drinking it! It feels good to be hydrated again...maybe that's why I'm not having many issues.
I have to confess to weighing myself WAY too often, but it's so fun to watch the weight come off even if it water weight! I heard about a study that says weighing daily might actually be a great way to stay on track esp in maintenance. This will surely be frowned upon by Kaiser, but when I stopped weighing myself is when I gained! Of course there were other factors, but that was one piece.
What else can I say? I'm mixing the shakes with a variety of things. Some favorites are:
1. Vanilla powder with diet A&W root beer with some ice
2. Coffee with a box of chocolate or vanilla are both good! I added some pumpkin pie spice to one and it was great-even though I'm not a fan of pumpkin spice lattes...yes I know, unAmerican.
3. Ready made chocolate warmed up and then add caramel sugar free syrup (I bought the Target brand)
4. Boil water in the tea kettle and add vanilla powder, pumpkin pie spice and a little vanilla and cinnamon (only because there isn't enough already....ha!)
5. Not a shake by cayenne in the tomato sou is tasty
6. And I highly recommend heating the bars for 15-30sec! They taste like a yummy warm dessert!
One thing I wonder is after all of this sweet stuff will I continue to want to end my night with something sweet? I'm not sure, but historically it sounds like people generally start to crave more savory and salty things. We shall see...in about 14.5 weeks. :-)
I hate to say it, but I'm excited and a little nervous to weigh in on Wednesday! I'm afraid that the number won't be as exciting as I thought it would be and I've been trying to think of what I would be ok with for a week 1 number. I think it's because usually people lose a large amt the first week due to water loss and then it tapers off so if I don't put up a good number this week, what will that mean for the rest?? I won't be very happy if I don't lose at least 2lb/week on this plan!! Also, its getting to be that time in the month where I always retain water....something I should document in My Fitness Pal so that I remember!
Signing off...time to turn the screens off! If anyone is out there reading this Thanks!
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Day 3!!
So, I'm still waiting for this Ketoflu thing everyone talks about. Right now I'm just a little hungry. Maybe I won't get the symptoms as bad as others. One can only hope right?!
I had 4 shakes and 2 bars today. I made a pumpkin pie spice vanilla creme tonight and it was delicious. Just boiled my water with the tea kettle, added the vanilla powder and added a couple shakes of the pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon and a dash of vanilla extract. I also went out and bought tea bags. I decided they might be helpful to mix things up rather than drinking water constantly when I have an inkling of hunger. I also don't want my body to think it needs to be full all the time either because that's when I feel like I eat constantly!
Anyway, all in all a good day. I walked the pups twice. Once in the AM, followed by some playtime at the dog park and some sprinkles of rain-much needed in California right now!! It felt so good. Then tonight I headed out near sunset and sat by the water for some great sunset and fog views! I love the bay area and am so happy to be making this very important lifestyle change here!
Off to have some Sleepytime Tea and hopefully a great nights rest! Eventually I need to do more than just hang out on my couch and outside for an hour a day, but a cool, drizzly, foggy Saturday makes for a great couch day!
I had 4 shakes and 2 bars today. I made a pumpkin pie spice vanilla creme tonight and it was delicious. Just boiled my water with the tea kettle, added the vanilla powder and added a couple shakes of the pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon and a dash of vanilla extract. I also went out and bought tea bags. I decided they might be helpful to mix things up rather than drinking water constantly when I have an inkling of hunger. I also don't want my body to think it needs to be full all the time either because that's when I feel like I eat constantly!
Anyway, all in all a good day. I walked the pups twice. Once in the AM, followed by some playtime at the dog park and some sprinkles of rain-much needed in California right now!! It felt so good. Then tonight I headed out near sunset and sat by the water for some great sunset and fog views! I love the bay area and am so happy to be making this very important lifestyle change here!
Off to have some Sleepytime Tea and hopefully a great nights rest! Eventually I need to do more than just hang out on my couch and outside for an hour a day, but a cool, drizzly, foggy Saturday makes for a great couch day!
Friday, October 16, 2015
Day 2...just a little headache, but more hunger
So I wasn't sure when to expect hunger and headaches and the dreaded ketoflu that everyone talks about. I don't think I'm there yet. I am hungrier today so maybe tomorrow I will feel it. I have had just a little headache today due to my brilliant idea of cutting out coffee. I think it might be better to wean myself off of it. So mid morning I had a vanilla ready to drink shake mixed in an 8oz cup of coffee and it was fine. :-) I wouldn't say it was as good as a Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha, but I don't have many of those anyway. I had the chicken soup at lunch time with some ground black pepper. It was pretty good. I think having the soups for lunch is a good idea anyway because that is a healthy habit I want to adopt after this crazy 15 weeks end. So in total I had 4 shakes, 1 soup and I'm about to have a bar. An aside for people who may be thinking about doing this...I mentioned I don't like the ready made shakes, but the strawberry ready to drink is especially not good. It's drinkable so I guess not horrible, but just not something I plan to continue to order. So far the vanilla powder is my favorite. I have added pumpkin pie spice twice and it's a great evening dessert. :-)
So overall today, I'm pretty hungry, maybe a 7 on a 0-10 scale. But that didn't start until about 5 this evening. I still have a dull headache, but I am really blaming it on the stupid choice of eliminating caffeine for no good reason. I'm drinking at least 2 liters of water in addition to the shakes so the bathroom is my best friend.
That's about it! Tomorrow I might head to the movies so that I can avoid sitting on the couch thinking about food! I am anticipating based on what I've read it might be the worst day. Which makes me happy I started on a Thursday...by the time Monday rolls around I should be feeling pretty good!
Day 1...10/15/2015
So Day 1...it wasn't that bad. :-) I was pleasantly surprised to not have 1 headache and to not feel very hungry. I did get a little anxious when I got home from work because I am a major eat alone on the couch while I watch TV girl. I am hoping that will be one habit I change through this process! I had 4 shakes, 1 soup and 1 bar. I am not a fan of the ready made shakes. They are dairy free and soy based I think so they have a little different flavor. I had the garden tomato soup which was surprisingly tasty. I have read about people adding things to the soups and shakes, but think I will mostly wait until I start to get bored before I do that. I walked the dogs for 30 minutes in the morning before work. I peed a ton and think I lost 2lbs of water weight. Haha...PS remember I'm a nurse so if I have crazy symptoms or things I won't hesitate to warn people. :-)
Overall it was a fine day. I did try and go to bed early just so I wouldn't be tempted to eat. My plan for Day 2 is try and have a couple supplements later or spread out just a little further.
Downfall...
I'm not a blogger and I have tried once before to create a blog to document a weight loss journey that wasn't successful. Anyway, I thought now might be the time to start again!
A little background on me! I am a pediatric nurse. I was very thin most of my childhood and I remember people forcing me to eat or sitting at the dinner table for hours because I would gag on certain foods. Now that I work as a GI nurse I understand that is the WORST thing you can do to a picky eater. Through high school I maintained a healthy weight mostly because my mom was overweight and I never wanted to have to deal with those issues myself. In college I worked a lot and ate a lot of pizza so I'm guessing that is when I start the cycle of gain 10lbs lose 10lbs, but it was never a lot of weight on my 5'8" frame. Fast forward to 2007...my best friend was diagnosed with colon cancer but I had plans to be a travel nurse...so I went. I loved it, but I was also concerned about what was happening at home, especially when I learned her cancer was stage 4. I still managed to only gain about 5 lbs. I decided to continue traveling and got an assignment...on the dreaded NIGHT SHIFT! I know a lot of people who like night shift, but it was NOT for me. I slept all the time and when I wasn't sleeping I was eating. I managed to gain 30lbs before I decided I really needed to be at home helping my friend. I lived with her and her husband and their daughter to help out. While there I managed to fall and sprain both of my ankles. I think of that as the beginning of all my loss of control. After she passed away I spent more a few more months at home before I resumed my travel nursing...where once again I was stuck on crazy rotating shifts. My weight managed to balloon to 250-a total 100lb weight gain! I couldn't believe I had gone from a pretty healthy, active person to someone who pretty much spent all my time asleep or eating on the couch.
I continued travel nursing and made it to Los Angeles where I was finally on day shift, but still full of horrible habits and managed to gain another 8lbs. I was having joint pains, plantar fasciitis (probably from both the weight gain and the bilateral sprained ankles that I never properly rehabilitated) and just plain lethargy.
I moved on to the San Francisco Bay Area and felt somewhat motivated to make some changes after a horrible hike with a couple of friends. There was a time in my past that hike would have been no big deal and this time I was practically in tears.
I entered a challenge at work and managed to lose about 30lbs. For some reason, I felt like I would never reach the end so I lost all my motivation. I just didn't think I could be successful. I have managed to keep off about 20lbs from my all time high of 260(ish).
At this point in my life I am almost 40 and love being outside and nature and it worries me that I am missing out on so many things in life due to discomfort, both physical and emotional, related to my weight. I don't enjoy social situations anymore unless it's a dark theater because I am sure people are looking at me. It's uncomfortable to go to theaters or ball games because I worry about stairs and if the person who sits next to me will be annoyed if my leg touches theirs. I want to run again and wear cute clothes! So here I am, I've decided to start the Kaiser Healthy Weight Management Program. I always scoff at fad diets or elimination diets so it will probably surprise some people that I am doing it, but I feel like I need the motivation of losing a lot of weight fairly rapidly and I feel like the transition program will help me return to my healthy roots. I'm going to do 2 more posts today about day 1 and 2. I'm doing it mostly for myself because I want to be able to remind myself of what I put myself through to get back my health! I also spent a lot of time looking for Optifast blogs and was surprised to not find many recent ones so I thought maybe someone out there would benefit. :-)
So wish me luck and if you are a fellow Optifaster...congratulations on your life change and good luck!!
A little background on me! I am a pediatric nurse. I was very thin most of my childhood and I remember people forcing me to eat or sitting at the dinner table for hours because I would gag on certain foods. Now that I work as a GI nurse I understand that is the WORST thing you can do to a picky eater. Through high school I maintained a healthy weight mostly because my mom was overweight and I never wanted to have to deal with those issues myself. In college I worked a lot and ate a lot of pizza so I'm guessing that is when I start the cycle of gain 10lbs lose 10lbs, but it was never a lot of weight on my 5'8" frame. Fast forward to 2007...my best friend was diagnosed with colon cancer but I had plans to be a travel nurse...so I went. I loved it, but I was also concerned about what was happening at home, especially when I learned her cancer was stage 4. I still managed to only gain about 5 lbs. I decided to continue traveling and got an assignment...on the dreaded NIGHT SHIFT! I know a lot of people who like night shift, but it was NOT for me. I slept all the time and when I wasn't sleeping I was eating. I managed to gain 30lbs before I decided I really needed to be at home helping my friend. I lived with her and her husband and their daughter to help out. While there I managed to fall and sprain both of my ankles. I think of that as the beginning of all my loss of control. After she passed away I spent more a few more months at home before I resumed my travel nursing...where once again I was stuck on crazy rotating shifts. My weight managed to balloon to 250-a total 100lb weight gain! I couldn't believe I had gone from a pretty healthy, active person to someone who pretty much spent all my time asleep or eating on the couch.
I continued travel nursing and made it to Los Angeles where I was finally on day shift, but still full of horrible habits and managed to gain another 8lbs. I was having joint pains, plantar fasciitis (probably from both the weight gain and the bilateral sprained ankles that I never properly rehabilitated) and just plain lethargy.
I moved on to the San Francisco Bay Area and felt somewhat motivated to make some changes after a horrible hike with a couple of friends. There was a time in my past that hike would have been no big deal and this time I was practically in tears.
I entered a challenge at work and managed to lose about 30lbs. For some reason, I felt like I would never reach the end so I lost all my motivation. I just didn't think I could be successful. I have managed to keep off about 20lbs from my all time high of 260(ish).
At this point in my life I am almost 40 and love being outside and nature and it worries me that I am missing out on so many things in life due to discomfort, both physical and emotional, related to my weight. I don't enjoy social situations anymore unless it's a dark theater because I am sure people are looking at me. It's uncomfortable to go to theaters or ball games because I worry about stairs and if the person who sits next to me will be annoyed if my leg touches theirs. I want to run again and wear cute clothes! So here I am, I've decided to start the Kaiser Healthy Weight Management Program. I always scoff at fad diets or elimination diets so it will probably surprise some people that I am doing it, but I feel like I need the motivation of losing a lot of weight fairly rapidly and I feel like the transition program will help me return to my healthy roots. I'm going to do 2 more posts today about day 1 and 2. I'm doing it mostly for myself because I want to be able to remind myself of what I put myself through to get back my health! I also spent a lot of time looking for Optifast blogs and was surprised to not find many recent ones so I thought maybe someone out there would benefit. :-)
So wish me luck and if you are a fellow Optifaster...congratulations on your life change and good luck!!
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