Wednesday, January 8th, Cardio & Cafe

Happy Hump Day Botters:

Thank you all for your comments yesterday.  I survived but finished the day with 2 hours of overtime at my job plus had to drive 60 miles out of my way from the trip to the doctor to check on water pipes at a new construction for my boss.  Best news I had at the end of the day is that my compressor came back on my heat and it seems to be working okay again.  I am ready to start a new day.  My eats for today are:

Breakfast:  Coffee & Miralax

2nd Breakfast:  Oatmeal

Snack:  Fiber One Bar

Lunch:  Quest Protein Bar

Snack:  Fiber One Bar

Dinner:  Lean Pocket

Snack:  Deep Chocolate Vitatop

Exercise:  Bike

I hope everybody has a wonderful hump day.  Please remember to take those vits and fluids.  Oh, forgot to tell you, as I get "older" my boobs get "longer" and they smash pretty well now without hurting.  I remember those days when they were plump and perky and hurt like the devil on that machine.  That was the highlight of my morning yesterday...

Good morning BOTTs.

I'm glad yesterday ended up better than it started for you Tess.  I also agree with you on the mammogram factoid!  Mine is scheduled for this coming Monday and it's a lot easier these "years".      

This morning on my way to work, I said to my self, "ick...it's only Tuesday." So I was happy to see Tess's mention of hump day.  Ahhhh....it's hump day, indeed.  That already is making my day easier to face, work has been challenging recently, to say the least, so ahhhhh....alas it is hump day.  I can do this.

Breakfast:  greek yogurt

Snack:  SF hot chocolate

Lunch: cottage cheese and lemon-pepper tuna

Snack:  cheese stick

Dinner:  Steamed fish and veggies

Snack:  Deep Chocolate vitatop

Walking today during my breaks.  I may even try a 20 second plank or two, during the day at some point.  *Might*

Drinking more water, and remembering to take my afternoon calcium have been my focuses, so far so good.

Have a great day, BOTTS.  Keep warm.

Gaby

Sitting here nice and warm enjoying a mid-morning cup of coffee......don't do this very often because the coffee is downstairs and I don't have the time to trapse down there between classes....just worked out today that I had to go to another part of the school, so I got me some coffee.

mammograms..........that is what I give myself for my birthday every summer.....from me, to me !  😳.  I agree that it hurts less now, but is thought it was because they had improved the technique !!

my walking has been good so far today.....hope to reach that elusive 10,000 steps today......scratch that....I WILL REACH 10, 000 steps TODAY !!!

my eats for today.....

vits already taken.....working on second 32 oz. jug of water right now....

breakfast........coffee/miralax elixir

snack..............oatmeal to go 

lunch...............chicken fajita with 1/2 the tortilla and veggies

dinner..............hubby won't be home until late, so......maybe a sandwich or homemade soup ?

protein enhanced coffee ?

have a great day !     

Alright three weeks of sticking to program and gained on the week I worked out the most.  I have given up fruit and nuts and one slice of protein bread and still no results. I lost 6lbs first week then lost 2.5 2nd week and bam gained 4.5 third week around same calorie in and exercise out. The only thing is maybe water intake less. Getting discouraged here I see I do eat more then everyone else and even what I do consume I am still hungry. Do I need to just settle and say this is my goal. And just maintain. My body is in shape working out I feel good. Dang scale,  thin is just not going to be me I guess. Outside of starving myself I don't know what more to do. :'(

B egg with ham slice bagel thin

l muscle milk

d homemade soup beef tips carrots mushroom with Amish barley

snack sf Popsicle sf jello winkky

Hi, Nikki2092...

Please don't get discouraged by the slowing down of your weight loss.  Have you checked the "fit" of your clothes?  Do they feel tighter, or do you have any evidence to "support" gaining 4.5 lbs?  As far as what you eat, you do realize that you cannot starve your body by giving it fewer calories, then work out vigorously...it will try to hold on to every lb.  It takes roughly 3500 cals, and those are unused calories, to gain a lb of body fat.  Did you eat enough calories to "support" that much regain, PLUS enough to carry you through the working out, not to mention the calories your body uses just in it's daily life functions?  Think about it...

Our weight can fluctuate by as many as 5 lbs per day dependent on many factors, most of them involving fluid balances, or hormonal changes (TOM?).  I have never eaten less than 1000 cals/day, and average 1200 plus some days, balanced by working out on my recumbent bike every day and burning at least 400-600 cals or more there.  Exercise counts!! and that is any movement that you do throughout your day after getting out of bed.  I also belong to myfitnesspal.com, and I have found my BMR (basal metabolic rate) and other factors involved in determining how many cals I need to consume each day.

But I also stay refined sugar free, eat very little fruit (as long as watermelon season is out lol), no white foods (flour, rice, pasta)...in fact, no brown rice, nor whole wheat pasta at all.  I eat burgers (lean beef, sometimes grinding my own sirloin), chicken, fish, lots of vegetables, and I eat vegs throughout the day as a snack sometimes.  I'll roast some in a tbsp of olive oil and mix up the vegs (brussels sprouts, broccoli, sugar snaps, green beans, asparagus, cherry or grape tomatoes, etc) add dry spices plus S&P.  If I'm not full from a certain meal, or want a snack, I'll eat a half cup or a cup of vegs...easy to get in my daily requirement AND stay full and on track.  Or you can do the same with low cal soups or broth, or small salads (watch the dressings).

I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to starve yourself AND work yourself to a pulp to get the weight off.  You work out, and that's half the battle right there.

I've lost 73 lbs since starting BOTT last Feb, and I did not starve myself.  I am influenced by the scale, but I don't worry when I see a small gain here or there.  I watch it, and increase my water.  If it's still there after 3 days, then I would fret, but it's never lasted a day.  I will admit that I an very anal and almost fanatical when it comes to watching my weight now...weighing and measuring everything, because I'm in this for the long haul and it has become a way of life for me.

Lastly, this is MY own opinion and my own story...ymmv.  But please don't give up.  Check back over old posts and see what everyone eats.  You don't have to eat like anyone else...just develop your own plan and if it works, stick with it.  Looking back at old posts helped me when I started here, and gave me lots of ideas and substitutions for foods that weren't good to me, lol (Tess introduced me to Quest bars, Vitatops and now Calcet creamy bites calcium citrate).

Best of luck to you and everyone of us fighting this battle.  Have a great day :)

Thanks for the encouragement. I am doing all you say nothing white. my fitness pal is saying I am eating too few with exercise most days my intake is between 600 to 900. I'm not eating back my cal burned. This next week I'm going to try yet again something different. I'm tired of this charting and sticking to strict schedule to the point of not getting anywhere. My cloths do fit nice. I haven't been able to relax sense my initial gain. It's very frustrating I haven't gone crazy on no no's this pill would be easier to swallow if I had. No my intake does not negate  a 4 lb weight gain I'm scared to step on the scale this had knocked me off kilter. I keep giving up weeks of  my life to being on an elliptical for almost hour a day where production else where would be evident instead of a HOPE of loss only to gain. I know talking never gets you to where you need to be and me going round and round. My resting cal is 1463 I haven't ate over 1000cal keeping my carbs below 75 most days getting all protein in vitamins working out for no less than 30 min a day. 5 days a week. Last week didn't take a day off. I am now I'm bummed... It's like my body wants to be at 160 and no matter what I do it is holding it. I'm not at Tom for two weeks. I don't believe I was taking in enough water would that cause a scale gain?  Everytime I drank water my tummy felt hungry growling  and with no calories left on my 1000 cal plan I stayed away from drinking. This last week. I wish I felt like I just needed to get back on track. Because I just keep omitting food and calories from where I was. Maintaining my 150-155 

Hi Nikki.  You know, not eating back your cals burned puts you at a huge deficit, and could be why your body is not letting go.  You may need to eat more.  I eat back at least 1/2 of my cals because if I don't, I'm asking my body to survive on 600 or less cals per day.  That can cause you to plateau, or stop losing altogether sometimes.  You may also need to "shock" your body into restarting the loss by consuming a little more cals.  I wouldn't go all out and eat anything I wanted though...maybe just a snack here or there, like peanut butter and a few apple slices, or some yogurt, hummus and vegs or even baked pita chips.

At the end of the day though, it's still a balance of calories in vs calories burned, and even though we may all be here for similar reasons, our bodies are all different and react differently.  The key is investigating, and finding what works for us.

BTW, have you tried taking your measurements vs weighing on the scales?  Also varying your elliptical workouts...doing interval training, adding weight training?  I wish I could do weight training, but my bad back won't allow it yet, so I vary my recumbent bike workouts by doing intervals when I can.  Otherwise, I just ride like hell several times a day.  Movement is key:)

Shocking my system is the plan and I did eat the heck outta my non plan today. Back to the drawing board tomarrow. I do weight train two to three times a week plus at work I'm sorta lifting and pulling weights for eight hours every other day. I do not realize how much movement in a day I get besides my elliptical I know all of the charts is a calculation. My cloths fit great so measurements are good I'm sure. I just got to get back to it. Two days off tomarrow back to it. 

My sister is giving me a treadmill!  My husband and I have been talking about buying one so now we don't have to spend the money.  That's a blessing!

EATS

Early Morning:  2 cups coffee w/SF hazelnut creamer

B:  Quest Protein Bar

S:  7 Triscuit crackers, banana

L:  Roast Chicken Toss Salad, 2 Tbs. French dressing, Kashi cereal bar

S:  none

D:  Spaghetti w/marinara & 4 meatballs, garlic bread

S:  none

TOTALS:  1490 calories, 71g Protein 

WEIGHT:  Pre-Op: 302, Current: 194 (Height:  5’ 7”)

Oh Tess I'm glad to see your day ended better than it started. Mine started better than it ended. We didn't lose power or water the night of the freeze but something happened to the water pump while we were gone yesterday and it froze up during the day. My Miracle worker husband and Kiddo got it fixed before dinner was done last night. Just in time to wash dishes. I made everybody take showers last night. I wasn't willing to risk losing water overnight. Plus while loading the dishwasher I tripped over the puppy. My good knee is officially my bad knee.

Had my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment this morning to go over the lab work. Iron levels had dropped a little bit in the past 3 months since the infusions but no more than she had expected. D levels were holding steady at the bottom end of normal (high for me if you look at a 5 year average). LDL was not making her happy 3 months ago and she still wasn't impressed with it. She'd like to put me on statin drugs but we decided to give it a dedicated 6 month effort of diet, exercise and double up on the fish oil. Meanwhile the first thing we're focused on has got to be my knees. She confirmed my suspicion that it's a pretty intense flare up of arthritis. They popped and cracked and hissed this morning when she tried to put me through a simple range of motion test. I ended up going to the hospital for x-rays. She'll decide which ortho she wants to recommend that I follow up with For emergency measures she's given me a 10 day sample supply of an arthritis medicine that has a nexium/prevacid type component to coat the stomach and lessen the chances of ulcers. At this point an ulcer would be the least of my worries. Her biggest advice for me food & weight wise was to up the dark leafy greens, beans and iron rich foods.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Today's plan is simple:

Commute: Coffee (before appt)  Coffee (after appt/ before xrays)  Coffee (after xrays on the way to work)

Breakfast:  1/2 Everything bagel with plain cream cheese

Lunch:  1/2 6 inch roast beef sub  & 1/2 apple

snack:  1/2 apple & greek yogurt

Dinner:  Chili

Hope yall have a great afternoon & evening. Stay warm!!!!

- Iris