Weekly Weigh In

Well I'm stalled at 237.5 lbs - no loss this week.

I'm not really surprised, I didn't get in all my water for a couple of days, and I ate a couple meals that were really high in sodium.  I'm kind of depressed about it - but, I'm on track again today. 

So Today is like day 1 all over again.  Getting in all my liquids, eating no more than 1200 cal.

I've signed up for part 3 of the Challenge, and I'm excited for it. 

I haven't been blogging b/c we're having an issue with our internet at the moment.  But it's cleared up (as far as I know anyway). 

On the plus side, I've finally got a lead on a job - so I'm really hoping I get it.  Haven't gone for an interview yet, but my pre-interview went well.  And I did good on the assessment exams.  So, fingers crossed!

Waking Young and Feeling Old

Well it was my birthday on Friday - the big 28.  I always find it to be bittersweet.  It's kind of like the feeling you get at New Year's when you realize you're still fat and didn't lose any weight.  I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I pretty much psych myself up that next year I'll be skinny on my birthday.

The pants on the left are the pants I am currently wearing.  I hate them.  They're a size 22, and I hate everything about them.  The way they fit, the color, the size, the way they look.

The pants on the right are my goal pants.  They fit me 10 years ago.  They're my lucky pants.  A lot of things went downhill after those jeans stopped fitting.   I know I've said it before.  But this year is going to be different.  I'm dedicated to losing this weight.  And on November 19, 2011; I will be posting a picture of me wearing those jeans.  They're not even stretch jeans, they regular, before I was fat, real denim jeans.  With a butterfly patch covering a hole in the knee caused by a rollerblading accident, yup, from exercise.

Weekly Weigh In

Down 2 lbs this week, sitting at 237.5 lbs now.

It's much easier to drink the water these days ... but I have had a couple days where I didn't want to drink anything at all, and it was a chore all day to drink.

More later ....

Chip Eater

During my final year of University, both my brother and I were living with my grandma.  I was kind of living there on a part time basis, driving to and from my parents, and my brother was there full time.  After my first degree, it was deemed that my time was up, and my brother got the basement suite I had been living in.

Anyway,  one evening, my brother, my grandma and I were sitting around watching TV.  This was a pretty standard evening.  Out of the blue, my grandma says, "Stephanie ... there are two types of people in the world."  My heart catches a little bit, because it's usually this kind of opener that leads to a slightly - if not significantly - racist remark, but give her a break, she's elderly and has been through a lot.  (Though I do often end up yelling at some most of her remarks).

Then this happens: "There are two types of people in the world ... tea drinkers and chip eaters.  Dan and I are tea drinkers, but you Stephanie ... are a chip eater."

I should mention that I was NOT eating chips at the time.

At the time that this conversation took place, it seemed like one of those "grandma" moments, but looking back I see a lot of wisdom in the comment.  My brother, tea drinker, didn't eat chips - he was on the University soccer team (starting goalie - so proud!),  totally fit, exceptional grades (now in medical school).  My grandma - though not in her healthy weight range - eats mostly healthy things, she does love pizza .. and butter.  And while both of them do eat chips on occasion, it's rarely a whole bag at once. 

It's four years later (approximately - counting is hard) and this conversation still resonates with me.  I AM a chip eater!  I love them.  I love a lot of crunchy things that are terrible for me, but chips top the list.  BBQ especially.  But not this new age mesquite bbq business, I like the old school flavor that is now only found in the boxed version of Old Dutch.

We're veering off topic and I might be drooling a bit - With Allan's Challenge, and my previous attempts to lose weight, I have, obviously, given up my chip eating ways.  Tonight I thought, if I'm no longer a chip eater, maybe I can be a tea drinker?


One of my University habits (along with daily exercise) was a cup of Sleepy Time with a tiny bit of maple syrup (invented when I ran out of honey) - but this only lasted a couple years, and was early in my first degree, before my full fledged chip eater days.  Anyway, tonight I decided to revive my tea drinking days, with half a teaspoon honey (30 cals - not sure it was worth it to be honest, but maybe I just didn't steep enough).

So here I am ... Stephanie - Former Chip Eater --->  Current Tea Drinker

A Night Out

I'm braving the cold temperature to go see Dan Mangan tonight.  I've heard great things about his live show, so I'm looking forward to it.

Have a good one!

Weekly Weight In - late!

I'm down 0.5 lbs this week, landing me at 239.5 lbs

ugh.

Movies, Water and Food - Oh My!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I went to see an advanced screening of Morning Glory on Monday night.

I expected a typical, follow the numbers, kind of movie.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  I guess that's what happens when you go in with low expectations.

The plot was a bit predictable, but was acted well and was a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be.  I figured I had seen all of the funny moments in the movie trailer on TV, but that was not the case at all.    Definitely a chick flick - but overall enjoyable.

I never realized how much I missed Jeff Goldblum - why isn't that guy in more movies?  Or why can't I remember him in more movies may actually be the case.   He was delightful in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

Son of Double Dog Dare You Challenge News 

I've noticed from all my blog reading that a few people doing the challenge have seen a gain so far this week.  That's the case with me as well.  Originally I was up 4 lbs.  I almost fainted when I saw that number on Tuesday.  Currently I'm 2 lbs over my Sunday weigh in weight.

Does anyone know why this might be?  Is it just the body adjusting to the increase in water?

In any case,  I'm sticking to my 1200 calories a day and drinking all my water.  I'm not going to let my evil scale win this time.  I'm not giving up - I'm sure the scale will start to fall in the right direction. 

Daily Totals:

• Water: 128.3 oz
• Diet Root Beer: 12 oz
• Calories: 1243

Late Night - Can't Sleep

Today was better than yesterday...  it's much easier to suck all that water back, you start to crave it, well, I do anyway. 

My water was split into 2 sections.  2L between 8am-3pm then 2L between 7pm-11pm.  I don't recommend drinking so much water near a time you may be thinking of going to sleep... I can't sleep, I just pee.

But, I fell asleep on the couch, my dog kept me up last night, so, not much sleep took place.  It never fails, if I have to get up early, she needs to go out in the middle of the night.  *insert sigh here*

Anyway,  totals for the day:

• Calories: 1111
• Water: 135.2 oz
• Milk: 12 oz
• Diet 7-Up: 12 oz
• Fluid Total 159.2 oz

My weight is up a couple pounds, I'm hoping this is from the increase  in water, I've been eating in my calorie range, so that's not it. 

I went to an advanced screening of Morning Glory on Monday - I'll post a little something about it tomorrow (today I guess, you know, during daytime hours).

Waterblogging

I stole my title from a comment I read on someone's blog - but I can't remember where.

The guru Allan has spoken.  According to Allan I need to consume a minimum of 111 oz of water a day or 131 oz if I want to maximize my weight loss.

So how did Day 1 play out? Well.  I ate my 1200 calories.  I drank 118.3 oz of water, 8 oz of milk, and a can of diet Root Beer (12 oz approx).

I had to force myself to eat supper I was so full from all the water.  I'm usually pretty good at planning ahead for meals, but lately I've kind of lost the desire, but I really need to focus on that again this week, seeing as I didn't see a loss last week, and that's probably part of the problem.

Tomorrow should be interesting ... it's my first day working having to consume all this water.  When it was just the 64 oz I would drink 32 oz during work, then save the rest for the evening, but there's no way I can do that with the increase in fluids.  So it should be interesting.  I know the school, and the room I'll be in is, thankfully, right across the hallway from the staff washroom.  As a sub I hate leaving students alone, so I'll try to maximize break times, but I'm sure I'll have to pop out for a few minutes.

Hope everyone had a great first day, and an even better second!

DDDY Weigh In #2

Well I maintained my weight this week, still sitting at 240.0 lbs. 

While I'm sad I didn't lose, maintaining is actually better than what I was thinking would happen.  The dreaded TOM is here, and I usually gain, not to mention feel the need to eat everything in a 5km radius. 

Part 2 of the challenge starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.  Hopefully I'll see a few pounds fall off this week. 

There is still time to join the Double Dog Dare You Challenge, if you want, go check out Allan.

Small Victory

First off: Hello to all the new followers!  Thanks for following!  I hope you enjoy the blog :)  I swear, whenever I see the tally of people following grow I get happier and happier :)

Second:  I'm staying at my grandma's again tonight.  It's been a long 6 hours ... I know that sounds harsh, but I'd say 95% of the 6 hours has been her trying to get me to eat Halloween candy, chips, ice cream, crackers, and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Normally I'm kind of tempted, moderately tempted,  completely tempted, but today, all I could think about was how full I was from all the water I was drinking.  I must have walked by the Halloween candy about 30 times.  So if we're keeping a tally, 1 point Allan, 0 points grandma.  Small victory for me!

Third:  I found a career fair to go to, it's put on by the city, so I hope it'll be alright.  It's being held on my birthday, so maybe I'll get a bit of birthday luck and something will pan out.

Despite my depression/anxiety the past few days, I took a look back at the past couple of month and realized that this year has been my busiest for subbing.  I'm getting way more jobs than I usually do, so I just need to relax a little.  Stress is bad for weight loss so I need to calm down before it starts to show on the scale.

Speaking of scales, I was telling my mom about Allan's challenge and she's intrigued.  Now a normal person would simply give her the link to Allan's blog, but, as I've kept my actual weight a secret from her and the rest of my family, as well as this blog (which has been a secret since it started, they know I write it, they just can't view it) ... so, instead I'm feeding her the information.  I think she may try to play along.  She wants to lose a bit of weight, but honestly, she really doesn't need to lose much.

This is GREAT news for me, because it means that there will be 2 of us (out of 3) that will be trying to hit 1200 calories a day... which should make for less temptation in the fridge and pantry, as well as balanced meals no matter who's doing the cooking.

November Goals

I've been feeling extremely anxious and depressed today.  It all centers around the fact that I'm only working part time. 

I'm a substitute teacher, desperately wanting a full time job, but those are few and far between, and the ones that become available have such a high competition rate that it's pretty much swinging in the dark.  Really the only choice I have if I want to be a teacher is to move to some small town.  So I'm going to start looking into that.  It's not something that I particularly want to do, but, I don't really see another option at the moment regarding teaching.

So my goal for November, is to seriously look into finding an out of town teaching job.  Also, I'm going to start applying for City and Government jobs.  I must be qualified for something, I have a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Education. 

It's frustrating to me, and when I get like this I want to eat a truckload of candy/chocolate/chips - anything I can shove in my mouth really.

I know that if I had stability in my career life the weight thing would be a lot easier.  When I was doing one of my student teaching rounds, I lost 15 lbs without drastically changing my diet or adding exercise.  When I have a routine I just naturally eat 3 meals with a light snack. 

So November goals:

• stick to 1200 calories a day
• drink a minimum of 64 oz of water a day
• attend a career fair
• look into teaching out of town :(

DDDY Challenge Day 8 - Weigh In

Well, after a week on Allan's Double Dog Dare You Challenge I have lost 2 lbs.  So I'm down to 240 lbs!  Now, those that have actually been following my blog will probably remember that I seem to be gaining and losing the same 2 lbs, which is discouraging.  But I think week 2 of the challenge will get me out of this slump.

Hope everyone had a great weigh in, and has a great day!