Whole Life Challenge - Getting Back in the Groove

Today is the first day of the Whole Life Challenge, a new experience I am embarking on for 2014.  It is a combination of exercise, nutrition, and positive lifestyle habits to help maintain an overall healthier me. I am already excited about this program because we have a team of 17 people that we are competing with and it is already motivating me to work hard, plan my meals, and be accountable.

Today I had a great food day.  On this diet we are not allowed to eat any artificial ingredients.  So by sticking to Trader Joe's and Farmer's Market, I have been able to find lots of fresh items and even packaged goods with all natural ingredients.  I went to the farmer's market this morning to pick up onions, portobello mushrooms, free-range eggs, and apples.  My morning meal was a Kefir smoothie with frozen mango, pineapple and blueberries.  For lunch I had a Mexican inspired meal that was something like a tostada, but without the nachos.  Ground turkey with black beans, topped with tomato salsa and two tablespoons of guacamole.

For dinner I pan seared some thin sliced boneless pork with apples I got from the farmer's market and ate it on a bed of cauliflower rice with a side of steamed broccoli.  I cooked enough to eat throughout the week, and with the two dishes it should provide some variety.

I had a short workout this morning that included the WLC challenge pre-game workout with lots of squats, push-ups and sit-ups, along with some running.  I am ready for day two, and excited about being consistent and making it through the next 55 days.

I have to keep shocking my body and trying new things to keep this weight off.  It is a never-ending journey, one day at a time, one step at a time. 

It's been a long time, but I haven't forgotten the journey, it continues...

This morning I referred someone to look at my blog, then I went back and realized I haven't posted since January, SMH.  I realize that while the beginning Dec. 2011 story might be inspiring, it's like an unfinished story.  So I don't know how much I can back track today but I can at least tell you where I am and share some pictures :).

Today I got on the scale and finally! after a loooooong time, got under my last weight.  I lost 1.6 pounds and landed exactly on 202.0!  I still haven't broken 200, but I am 2 pounds away, and for some reason while at 203.6 and 203.4 going back and forth I didn't think I would ever break it, this one little pound has made all the difference.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a scale obsessive as it may sound, but when you get so close to a round number like 200, and when you've never been under 200 in your adult live, then it gets a bit exciting.

I have a confession... I left MyFitnessPal for awhile, got tired of MediFast and decided that I just wanted to eat like a "normal person."  Now the question is, what the hell does that mean?  Normal eating is not the same for everyone.  My definition became, eat whatever the hell I want to eat.  No good.  I gained 6 pounds, was nearing 210, and I said to myself, "Natalie, you need to chill out, you can't live in your definition of "normal person" because obviously it's bringing you down that downward spiral path again, and you said you'd never go back."  So I started reaching out to my fitness enthusiasts like Natalie Maddox http://www.reebok.com/nataliemaddox Crossfit extraordinaire and body competitors (whom I went to Undergrad with).  We had an inspiring phone call, and she reminded me who I was, how far I'd come and that it takes a village to reach your fitness and health goals.  I said I'm going to going to get back into Take Shape for Life (TSFL)/Medifast and try to get back down to where I was, and pass the 200 mark, then I was going to try something else.  I love TSFL but it's a bit pricy and is a tool to get you to your goals, but cannot be used for the rest of your life.

I'm happy to say I feel like I'm back on the road to glory.  I shopped in my BFF's closet through her 14s and dare I say 12s!  I gave up my LaneBryant card, except for the occasional bra (but even those are about to not fit either).  I still haven't Unsubscribed from the AshleyStewart email listserve, but I no longer open them because there are no options for me there.  I go in the department stores to shop for clothes, and often pause at the plus size section then remind myself that it no longer represents my home base.  It's weird, and great all at the same time.

Here are a few pics I've taken, starting with the beginning...

 December 2011 and April 2013

 October 2011 and January 2013

 Somewhere between February and May 2013

 

July 2013

Ok that's all for now.

Woke up after sleeplessness

And still got in my morning workout. Me demonstrating to myself that I can power through excuses says that this week will be a successful week for weight loss. I might just get over this slump I'm in. I'm aiming for three days of double whammy workouts with insanity in the morning and bikram in the afternoon. After this week work is going to pick up so I will no longer have this midday workout luxury, so I must make the most out of it while I can.

Sleepless Nights

Since I can't sleep given I made the wise decision to have expresso after 5pm yesterday, I decided to post a thought.

Sleep, is a great weight loss tool.  Not only do you burn calories in your sleep, it allows your body to rejuvenate and prepare  for your workout the following day.  I may have said this before, but the earlier you sleep. , the less you eat.  The less you eat, the more weight you lose.

Ok, it's 3:42am and I'm going to go try to lose more weight by gaining some zzz's!

It ain't easy... but I gotta do it for me

73 pounds down

That was the hardest 7 pounds I ever lost.  I'll tell you, weight loss does not get easier as you lose, it gets harder.  You have to outsmart your body, keep changing and most of all... stay motivated!

The Medifast program, some days I feel, is starting to wear off in terms of its effect on my body, and/or my ability to stay perfectly stuck to the diet plan.  It still works, I am just failing to work it how I did for the first 20-30 pounds down.  Therefore its time to switch, supplement, and overcome this slow pace of progress. 

I've tried to maintain my Medifast plan as close as possible, while not denying myself of the types of foods I want to eat, and upped my exercise in supplement.  I also have returned to www.myfitnesspal.com to get a true calculation of my calories in, calories out.  Additionally, I've started wearing my heart rate monitor daily again, and most times all day, so I can measure my actual calorie burn throughout while exercising and resting. 

In terms of exercise, I've started Insanity again.  Yes, I know I always tell people beware of injury since its such a banging on the joints, but I am being very careful, listening to my body, and modifying the moves wherever necessary. 

Today, since I still have some work flexibility, I added a Bikram Yoga class midday.  It helped me recover from the Insanity banging I did early in the morning.  And it totalled more than 1300 calorie burn combined with the two workouts.  I created such a calorie deficit, that I can eat almost anything and still stay under my allotted daily number.  But the goal is, NOT to do that.  I am trying to eat how I normally eat everyday, around 1200 calories so it will be like, I ate nothing at all for the entire day since I already burned more than 1200.  It's just a numbers game really.  If I am able to do this even two or three days this week, I will definitely drop 2-3 pounds this week alone.  Maybe more if I'm extra diligent about my diet. 

Some days I have cravings for things that once were a regular part of my life, greasy foods, high sugar substances.  Some days I give in to those cravings, however I have found a way to modify my "cheating."  For my chocolate addiction, I no longer feed it with milk chocolate, or ice cream.  I stick to trader joe's dark chocolate, my favorite is the one with Toffee in it, and I keep it to half a serving or one serving in a day, a couple times per week.  That doesn't stop my weight loss, and it isn't as bad as having chocolate cake.  But it fills my urge.  When I walked by the pizza shop on the way back from yoga, I smelled it, and had a brief urge to go get something greasy, but I had just sweated so much, that the thought quickly slipped away, because I wasn't going to ruin a perfectly good burn day to indulge in a short lived greasy sensation.  Sometimes when I have a craving during the day, I look at the clock and make myself wait 30 minutes, then busy myself with something else.  If the craving is still there, I'll find some way to indulge with modifications, if it isn't I give myself a pat on the back and say I never needed it in the first place.

It's all about trade-offs, sacrifice, and balance.  Sometimes we can give in, sometimes we don't really need to.  All the time we should continue to strive for the goal, forward is the motion!

Weightloss...

In two days it will be the one year anniversary that I started on this journey of weight loss.  And guess what I found out, it doesn't get easier, it gets harder to keep losing.  After losing continuously for the last couple of months I had my first gain week and I freaked out!  I know what I did to gain, and knew what I was doing while I was doing it, but I did it anyway.  It was all in the line of my thoughts... I wish I could just eat like a normal person.

Truth is, I am not "normal," I am extraordinary in both good and bad ways.  I have never had a "normal person" metabolism, nor been a "normal person" weight at any point in my life.  Even child birth I was over 10 pounds coming out of my momma's C-section (yep I was too big to come out the "normal" way).

Fortunately I figured out a way that even I could lose weight despite my abnormalities (LOL). I'm happy to report, that although the last two weeks have been rocky and not as productive as the last two months, I am

66 pounds 

less than I was this time a year ago. 

66 pounds down = 4 dress sizes smaller = quite a few bra sizes down (none-ya as to how many) = rings falling off my fingers = longer looks in the mirror while winking at myself

I am still quite a distance from the goal.  I haven't quite decided what the goal is, but I feel like I'll know when I get there.  I have already hit the original goal and surpassed it back in October.


Natalie, how did you do it?

Well it's a long story, but to put it short first I feared for my life when the obesity was getting so morbid it was destroying other areas of my health, then I got passionate about my health, then I went to the fitness camp for two weeks and learned how to eat right, how to find healthy food in a super market, ideas to cook healthy, and that my body could take a lot more exercise in a day then I originally thought so 3-5 days a week should be a piece of cake.  I took all white carbohydrates out of my diet, and most sources of sugar as well and replaced it with Truvia (the natural stevia sweetener). I started playing flag football, dancing Zumba, tried Tennis (that failed), but just tried to mix it up so I stayed moving. That worked for about the first 45 pounds then I plateaued when I started working a very sedentary job. 

When the exercise is minimized, the diet has to be adjusted to continue weight loss.  I talked to a friend on facebook about how they lost 60-70 pounds in a quick time and they introduced me to Medifast, take shape for life www.tsfl.com.  I got a free coach and invested in their meal replacement products which I ate 5 times a day every 2.5-3 hours along with a 6th "lean and green" meal of my choice and I dropped another 20 pounds in a month or month and a half. 

I could continue to lose weight on Medifast if I would stick to it, but I've recently come to a slow.  So now I'm looking at which way I will turn now, all the while knowing that whichever way it is, it will continue to be a forward motion, because I'm never going back to where I used to be.  That's the plan.

The New Intervention

September 2012 post (can't remember when I wrote this one)

Situation:

So, I have managed to lose over 40 pounds and keep it off since I started this journey back in December.  I recently started a new, very sedantary, job with a crazy travel schedule and lots of money for expensing food.  I got a little too excited for not having to pay for my meals for half of the week anymore, and started buying more than  I could chew.  I stayed conscious of they types of food  I was eating, so no crazy fast food binges.  I frequent trader joe's and whole foods with the corp. credit card. I've come to realize, that even though I'm still eating a majority of healthy food, I'm eating more healthy food than I was before.  In short, too much of anything does not produce the desired results (even if its healthy).  I also came off of a high of working out 2-3 hours per day for 4-5 days a week when I finished school in May and didn't have to work until August.  I dropped a lot of my pounds in those few months while I was cooking for myself and burning fat because I had lots of free time.  All of a sudden, I have no free time, or very limited free time as a full time employee of someones company.  My workouts have moved to more like 2-3 times per week if I'm lucky.  And some of those are only 20 mins, while some are 60 mins.  So what do you get when you increase food and reduce exercise....drum roll....weight gain!  I gained back 3 pounds since I started working.  I also hurt my shoulder lifting weights so my muscle mass in my upper body is dwindling given the reduction in weights and pushups. 

Action:

The intervention...
When the time reduces and the exercise does too, there is only one way to continue weight loss, the diet.  In order to allow me to not have to think to hard about food prep, or reduce my need to cook but still be able to be healthy, I'm trying a new program.  It is called Take Shape for Life.  It is comprised of 5 meal replacements and 1 lean and green meal.  It was referred to me by a brother who lost 60 pounds on the program.  Today is my first day.  I thought that I could use the blog to write about what I'm feeling with this foreign food.  It's apparently piled with a lot of nutrition, but the portions are tiny.  The good thing is only 2-3 hours can go by before you eat again, so albeit small amounts, the eating is frequent which may curve hunger eventually.

It is lunch hour at my job now.  A lot of people eat at their desk.  I can smell soup and possibly Indian food.  It's a little painful, but I will reach about 2.75 hours shortly and I will be able to pull out my lunch as well.  Medifast Chili.  I hope it tastes good.  I'm starting to get hungry, but I'm trying to stretch it out since I spend so many hours awake. 

Ok, this was an unfinished post, but I decided to publish anyway...