LESS of Me, More of Him- Weight Loss Blog

Accountability Report for January 15-21 (2012 Week 3)

2012-01-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

Beginning Weight: 221.8
Ending Weight: 219.6
Weight Change: -2.2
Average Body Fat Reading: 35.75
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 36.02
Body Fat Percentage change: -0.27%
Total Calories for the Week: 13,157
Average Calories Per Day: About 1880
Cardio Minutes for the week: 336
Average Cardio Minutes per day: about 48
Average grams of protein per day: about 93

This week has been interesting. My area was hit with a large snow storm, which disrupted all of our schedules and kept us effectively snowed in because we couldn't make it up the big hill on our road to get out and go anywhere. I'd like to blame my lack of goal progress on the storm, but that wouldn't be honest.

I made good progress on some goals, but on others I continued to stagnate.

Progress told January-March goals:
1. Begin each day with prayer. I did this some days. Others I just rolled out of bed and got going.

2. Follow my Bible Reading plan and keep up with it. I missed a few days, but I' will get caught up tonight.

3. Get on a regular sleep schedule that will have me getting up no later than 5:00 AM, sometimes earlier, and still allow me to get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. Umm... not doing that great at this one.

4. Set aside at least 4 hours a day to actively help my kids with their homeschool. I think I actually did this most days this week.

5. Work out 6 days a week or more, trying to alternate between workouts that are mostly cardio, and workouts that incorporate more strength and toning. I worked out every day. I've been just using the 5 pound weights, and occasionally the 8 pound medicine ball. I am still considering changing this goal to just include some pure strength training three times a week, and only using light weights for the workout DVDs. I know that the 5 pound weights and 8 pound medicine ball are not building muscle, just maintaining it, because I'm never sore after using them. More on this in another post though. For now I'm maintaining muscle and losing weight.

6. Continue to limit the amount of meat, dairy, and eggs I eat to minimal amounts. I've been almost completely vegan in my food choices, there was one exception, which was when we had dinner at my mother-in-law's house, I had some chicken, but not much.

7. Limit calories to the amounts suggested by Spark People, trying to stay in the lower end of the allowed range whenever possible. I did stay in the limits.

8. Regardless of whether I am eating animal products that day or not, aim for 90 grams or more of protein per day, this may require the use of supplements. Some days was under this amount, some over, but I averaged out at 93 grams per day.

9. Study my personal training program for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, with the goal of getting certified as a trainer first, and later a lifestyle and weight management coach. Total fail here again, it is difficult to get this done while homeschooling the kids and still finding time to work out. However, I know that if I'd stay off of Facebook until I studied for the day, I'd get it done. That is probably what I am going to have to do.

10. Average at least a 1 pound weight loss per week, which would be 13 pounds by March 31st. I lost 2.2 pounds this week, for a total so far this month of 6.6 pounds. (My beginning weight for 2012 was 226.2). Since this was the third week of the year, I've averaged 2.2 pounds each week. So I'm on track to this goal, in fact, I'm more than halfway to that 13 pound loss already.

Accountability Report for January 8-14 (2012 Week 2)

2012-01-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

Beginning Weight: 222.2
Ending Weight: 221.8
Weight Change: -0.4
Average Body Fat Reading: 36.02
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 36.04
Body Fat Percentage change: -0.02%
Total Calories for the Week: 11,773
Average Calories Per Day: About 1682
Cardio Minutes for the week: 328
Average Cardio Minutes per day: about 47

One of New Years Resolutions was that by years end I'll be doing real push-ups, from my toes, with good form. This may seem like an easy goal to some or a silly goal to others... however for me it has become important. You see, there is so much that I can do now that I could never do before, and many things that I haven't been able to do in years. I can do things that man people who look more fit than me cannot do. I can do planks, when I started this journey I couldn't hold a plank for 10 seconds. I can do squat thrusts. I can lift weights. I can do jumping jacks. I can run. I can ride a bike up hill. I can do jump burpees. I can do lunges, something I never thought my knees would allow. I can do crunches, reverse crunches, bicycle crunches, oblique crunches... and yet I can't do a stinking push-up. Its as if this one exercise is mocking me... taunting me... laughing at me. SO I WILL DO IT BEFORE THE YEAR UP!!!!

I've altered my plan about how I'm working toward it, but I am still working toward it. I didn't keep count, but today I did a workout DVD that included knee push-ups, planks, and plank switches... all of which work the muscles I need for doing a real push-up. I also did a few "sort of" push-ups. I stayed on my toes but didn't go down very far, I went down just a little, so that I could push myself back up. I plan to do things like that every day, if its not on my workout DVD that day, then I'll do it after, along with doing some incline push-ups. I'm sure by the end of the year I'll be doing regular push-ups. I WILL CONQUER YOU PUSH-UPS!!!

Progress told January-March goals:
1. Begin each day with prayer. I did this most days. The one day I forgot, I did it the moment I remembered.
2. Follow my Bible Reading plan and keep up with it. I have missed a day or two here and there, but I've also caught up the next day, so that I'm still where I should be. Also, my husband and I are reading daily with our kids now, so even on the days I forget to do my own reading plan, I'm still getting into the word.
3. Get on a regular sleep schedule that will have me getting up no later than 5:00 AM, sometimes earlier, and still allow me to get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. Umm... not doing that great at this one.. but in my defense I was still a little sick at the beginning of the week. I did much better now.
4. Set aside at least 4 hours a day to actively help my kids with their homeschool. I don't think I've done 4 hours each day, but I have helped them when they needed it. Still, I need to schedule myself better so I'm available for them for at least 4 hours a day.
5. Work out 6 days a week or more, trying to alternate between workouts that are mostly cardio, and workouts that incorporate more strength and toning. I did work out 6 days, but the part about alternating the cardio and strength just hasn't been happening. My cardio workouts DVDs include strength and toning. I am thinking that perhaps I should limit the weight I use in cardio to 5 pounds, and include other strength training every other day with heavier weights. There are so many reps in the cardio workouts that it is difficult to increase weight, and I am moving around so much that it is difficult to use correct form if I increase the weight. I'll need to give this a little more thought though before I make up my mind.
6. Continue to limit the amount of meat, dairy, and eggs I eat to minimal amounts. I've been almost completely vegan in my food choices. The only exceptions have been things like soy sauce that says it may contain traces of fish, eggs, or milk. I don't think I'll ever get to the point where trace amounts bother me though.
7. Limit calories to the amounts suggested by Spark People, trying to stay in the lower end of the allowed range whenever possible. Spark people recommends that I eat between 1550-1900 calories a day, and my average per day was 1682, so I'm in range. However, I exercised more than I told sparkpeople I would, and its telling me I should adjust my fitness settings so it can make new recommendations. I figure I'm not going hungry. I'm making sure to meet my protein, calcium, and B12 requirements each day. All of the food I eat is healthy. So I'm doing okay. If I start feeling like I'm hungry all the time, I'll adjust the settings.
8. Regardless of whether I am eating animal products that day or not, aim for 90 grams or more of protein per day, this may require the use of supplements. Most days I had 90 or more grams, the lowest day was 82. I didn't figure an average but I would bet that it is at least 90.
9. Study my personal training program for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, with the goal of getting certified as a trainer first, and later a lifestyle and weight management coach. Total fail here. However, since I was recovering from being ill and just trying to get my exercise back on track, I won't beat myself up over it. Next week I'll make sure to do it.
10. Average at least a 1 pound weight loss per week, which would be 13 pounds by March 31st. Well, I didn't lose one pound this week, however, this was the second week of the new year, and so far I've lost 4.4 pounds in the new year. That's an average of 2.2 pounds a week... so I'm on track for this goal.

And the Winner of the Challenge is....

2012-01-08T19:08:00.000-08:00

Well today I figured out who was eligible for the drawing in the "Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge", and I put all of the names into a little dish, asked my 9 year old daughter to close her eyes and pick take out a paper... she did so and the winner is.....

Deb at Weight Loss and God Whispers, her prize will be a $15 virtual Amazon gift card

For all of those who stuck with the challenge to the end, congratulations! I wish I could have given all of you a gift card, but I can't afford to do that! It was great hosting the challenge, I just wish I was adept at computer stuff, so I could have gotten a Mr. Linky up and working. I look forward to joining other challenges again, but don't plan to host anymore unless I can learn the workings of the more automated link up systems like Mr. Linky.

Accountability Report for January 1-7 (2012 Week 1)

2012-01-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

This is a report on how I'm doing on each of my goals for January, February, and March, as well as my progress towards my New Years Resolutions. This week was both good and bad. Good because I succeeded in losing four pounds, bad because most of my other goals for the week were not met. I was sick all week. My workouts didn't happen, I think I worked out one day, and took a walk one other day, and that was it. But it was because I was really sick.

What this means is that all of workout goals have to take a step back as I work back up to where I was. So my pushup plan will have to be changed a little. Probably just as well, I didn't include recovery days in that pushup plan. I'll post an outline of my revised plan later but for now, a short recap of the week:

My beginning weight for the week is 226.2 pounds, my ending weight is 222.2 pounds, that's a four pound loss altogether.
My average bodyfat reading was 36.04%
My average calories per day was 1753 calories.
My average protein intake was 83 grams.
My diet was almost entirely plant based, although I don't scour labels looking for trace amounts of egg or milk.
I exercised a total of 124 minutes for the week, which averages to 17 minutes a day, but really I only exercised 2 days of the week.
My pushup plan was not done at all except for today, and I've decided it needs revision anyway.
I did begin each day with a short prayer.
While I missed my Bible reading a few days while I was sick, I went back and read those passages after so that I've read all I'd planned on by now.
I didn't do any studying for my personal trainer certification.
I don't know if I spent the amount of time I wanted to helping my kids with homeschool, but I did help them enough that work for the week got done.

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

Before I launch into this post, let me say that if you are looking for where to link up your final posts in the Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, click HERE or just scroll down to the previous post.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

Okay, earlier I posted my goals for January, February, and March, and I was sure to point out that those were not New Years Resolutions, most of them were not designed to continue for a full year, but rather just for three months, at which point I would re-evaluate and set new goals. However, I do have some New Years Resolutions, a few are the same as the goals I mentioned earlier, but most are a little different.

1. In 2012 I want to read the entire Bible, I've done it in the past, but its been a while. I wanted to do it in 2011, but fell behind and never caught up. 2012 is a new year, and I want to give it another go.

2. Before the end of 2012 I want to be doing pushups correctly from my toes. I'm not setting a goal for how many, because right now I can't do one correctly, but I do hope I can do more than one or two by the time year is out.

3. At years end I want to look back and see that lost at least an average of 3/4 pound a week... although more would awesome too... 3/4 pound a would be 39 pounds, which would put me at 187.2 pounds at years end. I was only trying for half of 2011, and I managed to lose 37 pounds, so I think if I keep trying all of 2012, thirty nine or more pounds is reasonable.

4. I want to set new workout and diet goals every three months, assess what's happening, and what needs to change, in order for me to accomplish Resolutions 2 and 3.

Okay, so there you have it, four New Years resolutions, all measurable, so that I will know that I either accomplished them or did not accomplish them. None of this vague "work out more" stuff that is hard to measure, these will leave no question in my mind.

So how will I accomplish these?

Well, for Resolution 1 I will just be following the through the Bible in a year plan that is included in my Life Principles Daily Bible, but in order to make sure I do it, I am going to be tracking it, just like I track my calories and exercise.

For Resolution 2, I plan to use the following schedule until February 11, after February 11 a similar pattern would continue. If at any time I succeed in doing a toe push-up in correct form, I will begin eliminating one knee push-up at a time with toe push-ups, then if I replace all of the knee push-ups, I will begin also replacing the incline pushups until I am doing 20 real pushups. If I get to 20 real pushups, I will reassess what to do next in terms of progress. Anyway, here is the schedule I'll be following, feel free to click on it to see it larger. Note that this will be IN ADDITION to my regular workouts.

For Resolution #3, I will continue workout out at least 5 days a week and trying to eat according to the calorie limits suggested by sparkpeople, and for resolution #4, I'll just do it!

Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 15, Post Your FINAL update below!!!

2011-12-31T22:00:00.000-08:00

This wraps up the very last week of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post! Your final updates will be due by midnight on January 2nd, and I'll post the prize winner by January 9th, and will also visit the prize winner's blog to tell them personally that they won, at which point we can exchange the information needed to give them their $15 Amazon gift card.

I want to say that its been great doing this, even though I feel like I didn't do as well as I should have done in regards to following up with everyone. It helped keep me on track, and helped me end the year on a positive note.

Anyway, now for my own update:
This week went pretty good, considering that Christmas, New Years Eve, and a friends wedding all fell in this week, I did okay. I gained back 1.8 of the 5.8 pounds I lost last week, but that's not too terrible for a holiday week really.

Here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

So, how did I do in regards to this statement? I think I gave myself the gift I said I wanted to. I started this challenge weighing 234.6, and I'm ending weighing 226.2. That's only an 8.4 pound loss, but the majority of people in the country gain around ten pounds over the holiday season, I lost 8!!! I consider that a victory!

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I did pretty well on this goal this week.

2. ~~I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day.~~ I will keep my calories between 1600-1900 a day, or under 13,300 a week. I didn't track every single day, but with the exception of Christmas Day and New Years Eve, I am fairly sure I stayed in my a calorie limit.

3. ~~I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week.~~ I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. I met this goal, I exercised my booty off this week!!!

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. Yes, I did this! :)

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
Yes, I am fairly certain I did. I don't know that I tracked every single glass of water, but I know I drank a lot of water.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. As I mentioned before, I didn't track every single day, but I did track some of them.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, here I am!

Stats for the Week

Total Calories for the Week: Unknown
Average Calories per day: unknown
Beginning Weight: 224.4
Ending Weight: 226.2
Pounds Lost or Gained: +1.8
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.45%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36.13%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 258
Average Exercise minutes per day: 36.85
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Goals for January, February, and March

2011-12-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

Every few months I like to assess how I've been doing in various areas of my life, and set new goals, or in some cases renew my commitment to pursue goals I've set in the past. The last time I did this was in September, just before starting the "Give Yourself the Best Gift" challenge, so its been a little more than 3 months, which means it is time to do it again. Not all the goals are related to weight or physical health, quite a few of them are related to other areas of life. After each goal, I am listing a brief explanation of why I set the goal.

These are not New Years resolutions, I am not promising to do these to perfection through an entire year, I am setting them as goals to aim at for the next 3 months, at which point I will assess how I've done and make adjustments where needed.

1. Begin each day with Prayer. This is my number one goal, I consider it important for starting my day off right. It doesn't have to be a long session of prayer, but I want to start my day by asking God's guidance for the day and determining to obey Him. I may often have another longer prayer time later, but I want to develop the habit of talking to God first thing in the morning.

2. Follow my Bible reading plan and keep up with it. My Bible reading this last year has been less than consistent. I started out with a plan that would have taken me through the entire Bible in a year, but large sections of the plan were skipped. I am going to try to follow that same plan this year... hopefully with more success this time.

3. Get on a regular sleep schedule that will have me getting up no later than 5:00 AM, sometimes earlier, and still allow me to get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. I really would like to get up at 4:00 most mornings, but 5:00 needs to become my limit. It sounds early, but if I don't get my quiet time, workout, shower, and breakfast done by 8:00 then I am not available to help the kids with their homeschool as much as I should be, and our whole day gets behind schedule. So since I'm getting up at 5:00, I also need to be in bed by 9:00 or 10:00 most nights. That is where the real challenge comes in, I tend to want to stay up late.

4. Set aside at least 4 hours a day to actively help my kids with their homeschool. This is really necessary to get the best experience with our homeschooling. Its hard to do, especially on days when I work outside the home, but I really have to try. They can do a lot on their own, but they still need me for some things and I have to make sure I am available for those things!

5. Work out 6 days a week or more, trying to alternate between workouts that are mostly cardio, and workouts that incorporate more strength and toning. Okay, the reason I want to work out is obvious, its for my health and weight loss efforts. The major change I'm trying to make though is to start alternating the days I do lots of strength with the mostly cardio days. I can do this by either selecting "pure" cardio every other day, or by choosing one of my workout DVD's but using much lighter weights than usual so that it is essentially a recovery day. I keep reading how important it is to give your muscles recovery time, and I never really felt the need when I was using light weights with all my workouts, but now as I've been increasing the weights I've realized that virtually all my workout DVDs have strength and toning, and therefore if I do a DVD every day, my muscles never rest. So I'll either do some pure cardio every other day, or I'll switch from the heavier weights to the lighter weights every other day to give my muscles recovery time.

6. Continue to limit the amount of meat, dairy, and eggs I eat to minimal amounts. Even though the movie "Forks Over Knives" has been somewhat debunked in my eyes because of the way it twisted facts to support its point of view, there really was still a lot of truth in it. Other research has shown the benefit to a plant based diet. Now, I'm not going to try to be totally vegan, but I'm still trying to minimize the animal products I use, and greatly increase the vegetables, fruits, and legumes in my diet.

7. Limit calories to the amounts suggested by Spark People, trying to stay in the lower end of the allowed range whenever possible. While animal products have been linked by some research to increased cancer risks, excess weight has been overwhelmingly shown by massive amounts of research to increase the risk of cancer. In fact, it has been shown to increase your risk of cancer as much as smoking cigarettes does! For that reason, I simply have to stay in my calorie limit, and that needs to be even more important to me than avoiding the animal products. Therefore, if a chicken stir-fry will help me stay in my calorie limit, I'll eat a chicken stir-fry! However, I do think it will be possible, with planning, to stay in the limit on a plant based diet and still get the protein and nutrients I need.

8. Regardless of whether I am eating animal products that day or not, aim for 90 grams or more of protein per day, this may require the use of supplements. According to my body fat percentage, I have approximately 144 pounds of lean body tissue. That means if I lost every ounce of fat on my body, I'd still weigh 144 pounds, that 144 pounds would be composed of muscle, bone, nerves, water, and any other body tissue except for fat. Supporting that lean body tissue is important to me, because it is the lean tissue, most pointedly the muscle tissue, that will burn calories, shape my body as I lose fat, and keep my metabolism going! In order to adequately support 144 pounds of lean tissue, I need to be consuming between 80-140 grams of protein per day. On vegan days, I may need to use a vegan protein supplement, and even on some non-vegan days a supplement may be needed in order to get that much protein without exceeding my calorie limit. I am not really trying to build more muscle right now, although if I build a little that's okay. I think I have adequate muscle, its just covered up by fat. What I want to do is be sure to maintain that muscle as I lose the fat. When a body does not get adequate protein, it enters a catabolic state, which simply means that it starts breaking down its own muscle tissue to supply the protein it needs. When a person is not limiting calories, and not engaging in lots of cardio, it is easy to get enough protein, but when you are limiting calories and increasing energy needs, it is much more difficult to get the needed protein, even on a omnivorous diet, put yourself on a herbivorous diet and then it becomes even more difficult. Fortunately, there are vegan supplements which nicely fill in the gaps.

9. Study my personal training program for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, with the goal of getting certified as a trainer first, and later a lifestyle and weight management coach. The course I am using is wonderful because it is self paced, I can take as long as want to finish... and its horrible because it is self paced and I can take as long as want to finish! When I don't have a dead-line, I tend to just stall out and stop progressing. So, I need to be more disciplined about my studies.

10. Average at least a 1 pound weight loss per week, which would be 13 pounds by March 31st. I will take note of my starting weight on December 31st, and subtract 13 pounds, and that is where I want to be by March 31st.

Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 14

2011-12-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

This wraps up week 14 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post! Remember, the challenge runs until December 31st, so there is there's still another week to go before the end! The challenge itself will end on the 31st, but everyone will have until January 2nd at midnight for their final update. However, first we'll have this week's update, which is due December 27th at midnight (I'm giving people an extra day because of the holiday).

Now, I'll need to find time to review all the updates, and see who is still eligible for the $15 gift card prize. Then I'll do the drawing, and announce the winner. My plan is to be making that announcement by January 9th at midnight, and then I'll contact the winner to get the needed info from them in order to give them the card.

Anyway, now for my own update:
This week went really well for me. See my goals for the details.

Here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
Doing better this week than last.

2. ~~I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day.~~ I will keep my calories between 1600-1900 a day, or under 13,300 a week. I decided not to worry about counting on Christmas Eve, but for the other six days of this week I averaged 1839 calories, which is right under that 1900 a day upper limit. While I don't normally want to come so close to the upper limit, considering the time of year, I think that's pretty good.

3. ~~I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week.~~ I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. I exercised every day except for Christmas Eve, and my total minutes of exercise this week equaled 309 minutes. If I had done only 30 minutes all seven days, it would only have equaled 210, so I am going to consider this goal met.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. Yes, I did this! :)

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
Yes, I am fairly certain I did. I don't know that I tracked every single glass of water, but I know I drank a lot of water.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. Did this all except for Christmas Eve.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, here I am!

Stats for the Week

Total Calories for the Week: 11,034 not including Saturday.
Average Calories per day: 1839 not including Saturday.
Beginning Weight: 230.2
Ending Weight: 224.4
Pounds Lost or Gained: -5.8
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.13%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36.13%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 309
Average Exercise minutes per day: 44.14
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Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 13, Post your Updates Below!

2011-12-17T21:48:00.000-08:00

This wraps up week 13 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post! I encourage everyone to stick with posting and accountability, even if you aren't doing that well. There have studies that show that worst thing you can do is just "give up" until after the holidays. Even if you fail to meet your goals, if you keep aiming at those goals you will tend to do a lot less damage than you would have if you just decided on a free for all until January 1st! You might even find that you lose some weight in spite of all of the temptations!

Anyway, now for my own update:
I started this week off struggling, but improved as the week went on. I'm not sure what happened to my motivation the past few weeks, but it seems to be back now... so hopefully the coming week will be better. While I've been slowly improving all week, this morning's weigh in was a wake up call, I crossed back over the 230 line! That has been my unspoken "RED LINE" weight since I entered the 220's back in week 3 of this challenge, what I mean by red line weight is that it is the weight that I refuse to let myself cross, or at least, refuse to do so without taking serious action to correct it! I know what I need to do this week. So I won't bore you with all the details... I'm just going to stop making excuses and get to it!

Here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
No, but I've been doing better the past few days.

2. ~~I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day.~~ I will keep my calories between 1600-1900 a day, or under 13,300 a week. I didn't track on Sunday, but I did the rest of the week, although Wednesday had some estimating going on. Since I don't know about Sunday, I can't say exactly how I did, but I can stay accountable and report honestly that I know I was over goal. For the six days I did track, I averaged about 2003 calories a day, and around 89 grams of protein per day, in all I averaged 19.3 percent of calories from protein. This is a little lower than what I'd like, but it wasn't because of vegan eating, I really didn't eat "vegan" most of the week, the low protein was simply from too many "treats" like cookies. I'm glad though that I'm doing better the past few days.

3. ~~I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week.~~ I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. No, but I did get in 212 minutes of exercise altogether, which averages to 30 minutes a day. Not as much as I'd like, but better than nothing!

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. In terms of total minutes, I exercised just enough, but I didn't do any exercise at all several days this week.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
Who knows?

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. I addressed this above, no tracking Sunday, and guess-timating everything after lunch on Wednesday.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, here I am!

Stats for the Week

Total Calories for the Week: Over Limit.
Average Calories per day: 2003 for the days I tracked, probably near there on the day I didn't.
Beginning Weight: 225.3 (On Wednesday of last week)
Ending Weight: 230.2
Pounds Lost or Gained: +4.9
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.13%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36.1%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 212
Average Exercise minutes per day: 30.29
_______________________________________________________

Hearing both Sides

2011-12-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

"The one who states his case first seems right,

until the other comes and examines him."

Proverbs 18:17

As those who read this blog regularly probably know, I recently changed my view of what I thought was a "healthy diet", and this change of view was primarily caused by my watching of several documentaries, namely Food Inc.; Food Matters; Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead; and Forks Over Knives.

While all of the movies played a part in my change of view, one in particular influenced me more strongly than the others, it was "Forks Over Knives". This movie seemed to show a whole lot of scientific evidence that any kind of animal based protein contributed to the development of cancer.

One particularly convincing section of the movie focused on some experiments with lab rats who had been exposed to aflatoxin (a known carcinogen) and then fed diets containing varying amounts of casein (an animal protein). Some of the rats were given 5% of calories from casein, and some were given 20%. According the documentary, 5% casein switched off the growth of cancerous cells, while 20% encouraged it. Looking at the data presented in the movie it seemed obvious that casein was supporting the growth of the tumors in the rats. Even when I first watched the movie, I had a nagging question in the back of my mind... namely that the study only looked at casein, not ALL animal protein, and yet seemed to stretch the implications to all animal protein. I put that question out of my mind because there was plenty of other evidence in the movie that did seem to point to other animal proteins. Although I had questions about some of those parts too.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I decided on caution and switched to a mostly vegan diet while I tried to research further. One thing I found out was that movie was very selective about the information it reported regarding the rats. For example, the movie failed to point out that the mice on the 5% casein diet died off at an alarming rate... it would seem that many of them didn't develop cancer because they died too quickly to have time to develop. Of those in the 5% casein group that managed to hang on for more than a year, while they didn't have cancer, they did suffer from widespread liver necrosis (their liver cells simply died). By contrast, all of the rats in the 20% casein group survived beyond one year, and while their livers were riddled with tumors, their livers were still functioning better than the 5% casein group.

Another interesting thing to note, is that the toxin the mice were exposed to comes from a fungus that grows exclusively on plants, and most notably on plant based sources of protein! (peanuts, legumes, rice, other grains) Strangely enough, that information was not discussed either, neither was the fact that casein didn't actually cause cancer for any of the mice, simply seemed to have supported the growth of cancer which was already started from this toxin.

If you a much more detailed and more cited look at the problems with the way the movie presented data, look at this article. You'll see that the data with the mice was not the only data that was manipulated in the movie. Several other pieces of data were presented while leaving out other data that would have changed the conclusions drawn by most rational minds.

This new information has now once again challenged my thinking about healthy eating. I am left wondering who to believe. I am left wondering what to eat! And basically, the movie Forks Over Knives has lost all credibility in my eyes. While I am sure there was still some truth to some of the conclusions made in the documentary, I don't trust the film maker or the experts who spoke out on the film to give any kind of unbiased information.

Looking at other sources though, there have been people who were told they were sure to die but who reversed their diseases through a vegan diet, and went on to live for many years. So there still could be something to it. I just wonder if it has less to do with eliminating meat and more to do with eliminating processed foods and eating more vegetables. After all, if you are vegan, especially raw vegan, you aren't going to be sitting around munching on junk food, and you will quite likely be eating large amounts of antioxidant containing fresh vegetables. This alone could account for the reversal of disease, even if they had continued eating organically raised meat and dairy. I would love to see a study of people following a diet like that.

I am not sure where I'll end up in regards to all of this. I may continue trying to limit or eliminate animal proteins, I may not. I have a lot of thinking to do on it, and probably more reading too. I will say that it is not as cut and dry as it seemed. I am disappointed that it is not. You see, I would have preferred to know that there was something I could do to overcome my family history of cancer. Something in my own control that would undo the effects of my "bad" genes. Now I know it is not that simple, and I am back to feeling somewhat like a victim of my family tree, with prevalence of breast cancer standing out starkly from both my maternal and paternal branches.

There is still the matter of the heavy use of chemicals, the irradiation of our food, the gassing of our meat with Ammonia gas... the list goes on. Information on this kind of thing can be found by watching the movie "Food Inc." This movie examined the heavy processing our food goes through, the irresponsible use of herbicides and pesticides, the power that chemical companies such as Monsanto and Dow have over the FDA and the USDA. The bullying of farmers by those companies as well as by other large corporations such as Tyson. The disgusting conditions that animals used for food are raised in, as well as lots of other disturbing information about our food supply. I encourage anyone who hasn't seen this to view it, if for nothing else, just to inform yourself. However, I would also recommend that you check on data presented in the movie. I haven't had time to check on much of it yet, and the only criticisms I've heard of it came from people involved in the beef industry who stood to gain financially by convincing others to continue eating their products. If anyone has solid data refuting "Food Inc.", please feel free to share it with me, as I am wanting to hear both sides.

Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 12, Post your updates below!

2011-12-10T23:59:00.000-08:00

This wraps up week 12 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

Anyway, now for my own update:
I started this week strong, but ended it in a fizzle. I pretty much blew all of my goals. I don't even have a "true" final weigh in, as the last time I weighed in was Wednesday. This week has been full of different celebrations. My sons and my birthday was on Friday, but we are celebrating it on Sunday... but I've been busy preparing for it for several days. Our homeschool co-op had unofficial Christmas parties in just about every class on Thursday, and than an official one on Friday. I don't offer these as excuses, just facts. I was surrounded by temptation and gave in. I don't have exact calorie counts either. Anyway, after our dual birthday party on Sunday, I plan to get back on track and stick to it without exception until at least December 23rd.

I noticed that a lot of people have dropped out of this challenge, some of them have told me that it gets hard to post week after week that aren't doing any good. Well, I can understand that. I feel the same way. However, that is why I started this challenge, its not about perfection, its about progress and accountability. Since I am leading the challenge, I can't just drop out. I have to keep posting, for better or worse. This does motivate me to do at least a little better than I would if I just put it completely out of my mind until January 1st. Even if I don't lose anything over December, if this striving keeps me from gaining, its worth the effort!

Here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
No.

2. ~~I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day.~~ I will keep my calories between 1600-1900 a day, or under 13,300 a week. I don't know for sure the amount, but I know I went over by quite a bit.

3. ~~I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week.~~ I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. No.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. In terms of total minutes, I exercised just enough, but I didn't do any exercise at all several days this week.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
Who knows?

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. I did keep track of exercise, but not calories, at least not after Thursday.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, here I am!

Stats for the Week

Total Calories for the Week: Unknown, but over limit.
Average Calories per day: Unknown, but over limit.
Beginning Weight: 224.2
Ending Weight: 225.3 (on Wednesday)
Pounds Lost or Gained: +1.1
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.1%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 220
Average Exercise minutes per day: 31.42
_______________________________________________________

Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 11, Post your updates below!

2011-12-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

This wraps up week 11 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

I hope everyone had a great week, I wish I could get organized enough to go to everyone's blog on Wednesday and encourage them. I am just having a difficult time adjusting to my family's new schedule. My husband has gone from working swing shift to day shift, and while in many ways it is working much better for our family, my blog is suffering. Always before, it was in the evening, when the homeschool was done, the kids were fed, and hubby wasn't yet home, that I would do my blogging and my visiting of other blogs. Now hubby is home in the evenings, but I am still just as busy during the day! I'll get it worked out eventually, I just need to give it a few weeks... plus with the holidays upon us, that adds more surprises to our schedule.

On another note, I have trying to stay as much vegan as I possibly can, but between the holiday turkey, my husband "forgetting" and making chicken, me finding a pack of salmon patties that I had forgotten were in the freezer, and the food bank loading my food box up with meat even after I told them I didn't want the meat, just the beans and other dried/canned goods... well, we haven't been adhering too strictly to the vegan thing this week. My food budget is very limited, and if people are going to give my family free food, I really don't feel right about being picky, and I certainly don't feel right about throwing it away, so we are eating it. We are still eating far less meat and dairy than before, and most of the vegan dishes I make are much less expensive than meat, so its actually helping the budget some. Eventually I'd like to transition to vegan eating at least 90% of the time, but its a process, and I'll never be militant about it, as some are who value animal life above human life.

Now I've been reading a lot about protein requirements, and it turns out that there is a LOT of disagreement out there about how much a person needs. "Experts" range for recommending as high as 50% of your calories from protein, to as low as 5%. The majority of recommendations seem to come somewhere between 20%-30% though, and most acknowledge that the forms of protein provided in a varied vegan diet are more bio-available than animal protein, so vegans usually do fine to come in at the lower end of the range.

I also looked back to the days before I started moving toward a vegan diet, I checked over my old diet entries on sparkpeople, and discovered that even when I was willingly eating animal products several times a day, there were plenty of days when my protein intake fell below the 80-140 grams of protein I have been trying to get. All this to say that I think I am going to relax that goal a little. Sparkpeople says I should get at least 60 grams, so from now on, as long as I get that much I'll be happy with that. If I get more, fine, if not, that's okay. This should allow me to stay in a lower range of calories on most days. I'm still letting my upper limit be 1900 calories as sparkpeople recommends, but I am going to try to keep it around 1600 as much as I can. I may not build muscle as fast as I would with more protein, but its not like I'm trying to be a body builder anyway! I want toned, visible muscles, but I don't want to look like some kind of cross between a woman and Arnold Schwarzenegger... and even if I did want that, everything I've read indicates that I should focus first on losing the fat and simply toning and strengthening the muscles, rather than really trying to build muscle bulk, and then if I wanted to bulk up the muscles (which I don't) I would need to do that after reaching my weight goal.

Anyway, now for my own update:
I had a pretty good week as far as eating, but I didn't exercise as much as I should have, perhaps that's why I showed no weight loss this week. In fact I weighed in with a two-tenths of a pound gain.

Here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I wasn't perfect at this, but not horrible either.

2. ~~I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day.~~ I will keep my calories between 1600-1900 a day, or under 13,300 a week. My calorie total for the week was 12,024, so I met this goal.

3. ~~I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week.~~ I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. I didn't exercise every day. Friday and Saturday were misses. I've been battling some kind of cold, and I just didn't feel up to it... but I also must admit that I could at least have done something easy and low key, such as Wii Fit Free Step... I just didn't do it. I need to kick myself back into gear for next week, because I know that without exercise, I plateau and stay on a plateau indefinitely.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. I did this for the first part of the week.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I'm pretty sure I did okay on this, but I forget to track it.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. I tracked on Sparkpeople, but only put the weekly total here, rather than the day-by-day breakdown.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, here I am!

Stats for the Week

Total Calories for the Week: 12,024
Average Calories per day: 1717.
Beginning Weight: 224.2
Ending Weight: 224.4
Pounds Lost or Gained: +0.2
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36.3%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 175
Average Exercise minutes per day: 25
_______________________________________________________

Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 10, Post your updates below.

2011-11-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

This wraps up week 10 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

I apologize that this post is late... no excuse, I just forgot to post it last night! Because I was late with this post, everyone is being extended an extra day to get their updates linked up, instead of the deadline being Monday at Midnight, it will be Tuesday at Midnight for this week only.

Now for my own update:
I had a pretty good week. I didn't track calories with 100% accuracy, but I did lose a little weight this week, which is an accomplishment on the week of Thanksgiving.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I wasn't perfect at this, but not horrible either.

2. ~~I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day.~~ I will keep my calories between 1600-1900 a day, or under 13,300 a week. As I stated above, I didn't really track every day this week, but I tried to practice moderation. I did track part of the week, and did my best to estimate on the holidays, I am pretty sure I went a little over my calorie limit, but not by that much.

3. ~~I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week.~~ I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. Well, I didn't exercise every day, but my total exercise minutes came to 286 minutes, which is right about at my goal for total exercise.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. Yes, I did this.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I'm pretty sure I did okay on this, but I forget to track it.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. See my other comments on tracking.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, here I am!

Stats for the Week

Total Calories for the Week: Unknown.
Average Calories per day: Unknown.
Beginning Weight: 228.6
Ending Weight: 224.2
Pounds Lost or Gained: -4.4
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.3%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36.4%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 286
Average Exercise minutes per day: 40.85
_______________________________________________________

Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 9, post your updates below.

2011-11-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

This wraps up week 9 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

First off, if I didn't make it around to comment on your blog, don't take it personally, I don't think I managed to comment on anyone's. I did take note of who posted an update last week, but I was busy this week, and very determined to get my workouts in no matter how busy I was, so I just didn't spend that much time on the blogosphere.

Now for my own update:
I had a pretty good week. I stayed in my new calorie limit, and I exercised every day as I planned. I gained 9/10 of a pound... but its that T.O.M. again and I think that is the cause of the gain. Even so I am once again adjusting my calorie levels. I set them according to what sparkpeople.com recommends, but the other day I realized that sparkpeople was basing the recommendation on the activity level I kept up over the summer, which I simply can't do when the kids are doing homeschool. So, I adjusted the activity level to reflect what I can do now, which is basically to do one of my exercise DVD's six days a week, and get in some kind of activity on Sunday. Now sparkpeople recommends between 1550-1900 calories a day, so that is what I will try to keep it to. Now this week was a little over that, but only by a small amount, not enough to account for the gain on the scale, but like I said, that T.O.M . is to blame for that.
So now I adjusting my calorie level, but for the next week I will continue my focus on working out, more than focusing on what I'm eating. I had to force myself to workout for much of this week, but toward the end of the week I was beginning to enjoy it again. I just need to stay committed to doing it every day no matter what, knowing that when I do it consistently it becomes enjoyable, and its only when I'm inconsistent that it starts to seem so difficult.
I have been thinking of how to handle Thanksgiving. If I was making my own food, I could make healthier versions of all of the classics, and know exactly how many calories were in everything... but I'm not making my own food. I am eating at my husband's uncle's house (my uncle-in-law?). I won't know the calorie content of the dishes. I mean, I can try to estimate, but I won't know how much butter went into that green bean casserole, whether the Turkey was basted with broth or butter, or whether the gravy was defatted before being served.
So I've decided not to try to actually count calories on Thanksgiving. Instead, I plan to write down what I eat, with approximate amounts. Then when I get home I can try to find averages on Sparkpeople's database for similar dishes. I won't beat myself up if I'm over my calories for the day, I'll just move on to the next day and try to stay in my limit all the other days of the week. I may sneak in an extra workout on Friday or Saturday to help burn off any extra.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I wasn't perfect at this, but not horrible either.

2. ~~I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day.~~ I will keep my calories between 11,200 and 14,140 each week. This is an average of 1600-2020 a day. The plan is to limit it to 1600 if I am not eating vegan, but to allow up to 2020 on days when I do eat mostly vegan in order to allow myself to get enough protein, my goal is to get between 80-140 grams of protein each day. (Note, a little less than 11,200 will still be acceptable). I made this goal, but I am adjusting it once again, as I mentioned above. From now on I will trying to keep it under 1900 calories a day, or 13,300 a week. That's very close to what I did this week anyway, I just need to trim back a little.

3. ~~I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week.~~ I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. Yes, I did this.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. I pushed myself this week, and plan to again next week.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
There were many days when I forgot to track, so I'm not sure, but I am in the habit of carrying my water bottle everywhere, and sipping from it all day, so I'm fairly sure I did this at least most of the days.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. I tracked my calories and exercise, didn't keep as careful a track on water as I'd planned on.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, here I am!

Stats for the Week

Total Calories for the Week: 13,635
Average Calories per day: 1948
Beginning Weight: 227.7
Ending Weight: 228.6
Pounds Lost or Gained: +0.9
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.4%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36.5%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 293
Average Exercise minutes per day: 41.86
_______________________________________________________
Sunday, November 13
Weight: Not taken
Body fat: Not taken
Total Calories: 1852
Exercise: 20 minutes up body strength routine.
Water: 8 cups
Protein: 99 grams
_______________________________________________________
Monday, November 14
Weight: 228.2 +0.5
Body fat: 36.5%
Total Calories: 1884
Exercise: Biggest Loser Cardio Max Weight-Loss, 35 minutes
Water: Unknown
Protein: 101 grams
______________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 15
Weight: 228.2
Body fat: 36.5%
Total Calories: 2,272
Exercise: Billy Blanks, TaeBo, Insane Abs 50 Minutes.
Water: Unknown
Protein: 98 grams
______________________________________________________
Wednesday, November 16
Weight: 228.2
Body fat: 36.3%
Total Calories: 2,174
Exercise: Biggest Loser Challenge for Wii, Circuit Training, Hard Level. 37 minutes
Water: Unknown
Protein: 83 grams
______________________________________________________
Thursday, November 17
Weight: 230.4
Body fat: 36%
Total Calories: 2,099
Exercise: 30 Day Shred 29 minutes
Water: Unknown
Protein: 115 grams
______________________________________________________
Friday, November 18
Weight: 229.5
Body fat: 36.4%
Total Calories: 1,776
Exercise: Billy's Boot Camp Cardio Sculpt, 53 minutes
Water: 8 cups
Protein: 93 grams
______________________________________________________
Saturday, November 19
Weight: 228.6
Body fat: 36.6
Total Calories: 1,578 (May have been slightly lower, because lunch was all juice with protein powder, the calories of the protein powder and the vegies and fruits that went into the juicer came to 446).
Exercise: Biggest Loser Power Walk, miles 1-4, plus cooldown, 69 minutes
Water: 8 cups
Protein: 91 grams
______________________________________________________

"Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge, Week 8, post your comments below.

2011-11-12T22:59:00.000-08:00

This wraps up week 8 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

Now for my own update:
Once again I did not do as well as I really should have. I know that I can do better than this, and I need to head on straight once again. My eating was much better this week, although it was certainly not perfect. I didn't track every single day, but I did keep better track than last week.

I have been wondering about my lack of motivation, and I thought perhaps it was because of the mostly vegan diet I'd switched to. So for two days I've not been eating vegan, and it hasn't helped at all. If anything its made me feel more sluggish and less like staying in my calorie limit. I do know though, that it is difficult to get enough protein on the vegan diet without eating more than 1600 calories a day... so I am going to change that goal a little, the details will be in the list of goals below. I think when it comes to my motivation, my biggest problem is getting my workouts done. I got out of the habit, and I'm having trouble getting back into it. This means that not only am I getting less exercise done, but I am also less motivated in the area of diet. When I work out in the morning, I feel like eating healthy all day after, I also tend to feel like being more active, taking walks, getting in a second workout later in the day, playing with my kids. When I don't work out, I tend to feel more like having a doughnut, or some ice cream, or even just eating too much of the healthy selections I have at hand.

So, for next week I am going to be more concerned about getting my exercise in. I am going to put even more emphasis on that than on my eating... although I will try to stay in the revised eating goals too. I am going to strive for doing some kind of workout every day, on Sunday it may just be 1 or 2 sets of a series of weight lifting exercises, but I'll do something. Starting Monday I want to start selecting workout DVDs to use each morning. I am thinking that the following schedule will be good: Sunday: Pick whatever I want, but exercise for a minimum of 10 minutes. Monday = Biggest Loser Cardio Max Weight Loss, Tuesday = Billy Blanks Tae Bo Insane Abs, Wednesday =Biggest Loser Challenge for Wii, Thursday = 30-Day Shred, Friday = Billy Blanks Tae Bo Boot Camp, Saturday = Biggest Loser Power Walk. Of course I won't worry that much if I swap some on some days, but I want to do all of those workouts at least one time this week, preferably in the morning, although on Thursday it may not be possible... if its not I will do it in the evening.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day. I did okay, not every day, but more often than not. I will make this a priority in the coming week.

2. I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 or less a day. I didn't do this. The revised goal is below.

"I will keep my calories between 11,200 and 14,140 each week. This is an average of 1600-2020 a day. The plan is to limit it to 1600 if I am not eating vegan, but to allow up to 2020 on days when I do eat totally vegan in order to allow myself to get enough protein, my goal is to get between 80-140 grams of protein each day. (Note, a little less than 11,200 will still be acceptable)."

3. I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week. I didn't do this this week. My revised goal is as follows: "I will do some kind of exercise every single day, and for at least 5 of those days will get at least 30 minutes of exercise, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise."

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on.
Okay, I haven't done this. However, to meet my goal above, I will need to in the coming week.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I think I did this. I'm not positive on the days I didn't track it, but it has mostly become a habit.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. I did not do this every day.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Here I am, posting even though I haven't been doing very well!

Stats for the Week
Total Calories for the Week: Unknown, but over 11,200
Average Calories per day: Unknown, but over 1600
Beginning Weight: 231.7
Ending Weight: 227.7
Pounds Lost or Gained: -4
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.5%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Recorded Week: 36.5%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 116
Average Exercise minutes per day: 17

"Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge, Week 7, post your comments below.

2011-11-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

This wraps up week 7 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

Once again I kind of dropped the ball on encouraging everyone. I'll try to do better.

Now for my own update:
This week has gone really BAD in some areas, and really good in others. I didn't work out as much as I wanted, in fact for the fist time in a very long time, I didn't make that goal. However, for most of October my workouts were almost completely made up of going for walks or doing my power walk DVD, and this week I once again began doing more in the area of strength and body sculpting... so I feel that even with the smaller amount of time spent at it, in some ways my workout habits were better this week. Now I just need to combine this variety WITH more time in exercise.

My food also has been a little off. Sunday and Monday both had events that gave me a convenient excuse to not watch what I ate. Unfortunately I used those excuses. Tuesday I went on a juice fast. I did fine on the fast and didn't even feel all that hungry. Wednesday I started out on a fast, but in the evening decided to eat. I didn't over-eat though, so that was okay. Thursday I did well early in the day, but then I went to my Mother-in-laws house and thought I'd have "just one" cookie. Next thing I knew I was in a total binge, which included eating quite a few cookies at my MIL's and then continuing the binge at home later. I don't have an exact calorie count, but afterward I tried the best I could to add up the damage. I calculated 3057, but I am well aware it may have been more, since I was only estimating after-the-fact exactly how many cookies, pieces of candy, tablespoons of peanut butter, and other junk I ate.

On top of that, most of the week I didn't track. Thursday, as I said, I tracked after the fact the best I could. Friday I got back onto the regular tracking, and continued today. I didn't weigh in daily either, but I did weigh in today and the results show the kind of week I had... I gained over 7 pounds.

Well I'm back in the saddle now, been back in for two days, and plan to keep it up.

I've made some decisions regarding juice fasting. I do feel it has some real benefits, particularly if you HAVE eaten some unhealthy things and want to cleanse your system. However, for me, NOT tracking is asking for trouble, so even if I can't track completely accurately when I juice, I need to still keep a count. If I juice five carrots, I'm not eating all the pulp, so I'm probably not taking in as many calories, however, I'm also not getting all the fiber and my body is not working so hard to get at the calories. So I think it makes sense to go ahead and count it as if I took in ALL the calories.

I recommit myself today to recording my calories. When I record, even if I go over, its not by as much as it is if I just don't keep track at all.

Now as for my weight gain, I am pretty sure a large portion of that is water. My sodium has been high the past few days... (I never realized before how much salt my favorite salad dressing had!), so I'm not terribly worried about the weight, it will come back down. I just need to make sure my behavior is where it needs to be.

I am and addict.

I need boundaries to keep me from losing control. Those boundaries are a calorie limit. There may be occasions for adjusting those boundaries, but I know I cannot eliminate them. There may be times when I decide that I will set my boundary higher for a special reason, but I still need that boundary and the accountability of recording how well I stayed in that boundary.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day. I did okay this week. I did miss a few days and then caught up on the reading the next day. I am sure other Christians will understand, I knew very well I was not in God's will as far my eating went, so I wasn't overly eager to spend time in His word and prayer and give Him the chance to point that out to me. I've gotten back on track now, and plan to stay on track.

2. I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 a day.
No, I didn't manage this.

3. I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. No I didn't manage this, while I DID put in the minimum number of minutes total, I didn't work out five days... and I BARELY made the minimum total minutes.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. Well, I have pushed myself to get back into the strength training and body sculpting, but I have not worked out nearly as much as I should have. So with this goal, it was so-so.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I have no idea.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog.
Nope.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, I'm here.

Stats for the Week
Total Calories for the Week: Unknown
Average Calories per day: Unknown
Beginning Weight: 224.2
Ending Weight: 231.7
Pounds Lost or Gained: +7.5
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: Didn't take any.
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 36.5%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 162
Average Exercise minutes per day: about 23

Give Yourself the Best Gift challenge, Week 6, Post your updates below!

2011-10-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

This wraps up week 6 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

I haven't done a good job of visiting and encouraging this week, but when you read about my week, I think you'll understand.

Now for my own update:
This week has been a little different than most. I went on a women's retreat with my church, and I didn't track those days. Then when the weekend retreat was over, I felt so overfed and stuffed that I decided to do a juice fast, so I fasted Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I didn't track on those days, but I am positive that my calorie intake ranged between 900-1400 each day. The fasting consisted of fresh homemade vegetable juices sweetened with a little fresh homemade fruit juices. To this I added some vegan protein powder, so I was not starving, in fact most days I probably took in around 1200 calories in juice and protein powder. My digestive system got a chance to rest and recover from all the heavy food served at the women's retreat.

On Thursday I started getting a sore throat, on Friday I had a full blown cold and a slight fever, on Saturday I was feeling better, but didn't have much energy. I wasn't the only one in my family with these symptoms, so I don't think it was a result of the juice fast, in fact, I was the quickest to recover so if anything the juice fast may have helped me. Even so, the down time affected my ability to do my workouts and get my miles, and because of that, my goal of walking 100 miles during October might fall a little short. During the retreat I did some walking but forgot to wear my pedometer to track it.

The remainder of the week has been somewhat busy, which is why this post did not make it up on Saturday night, but rather Sunday morning. On Saturday I attended a memorial service for a friend who I hadn't seen for many years, but who I have kind of "kept up with" through other ways. I was friends on Facebook with him and his wife until two years ago, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The last Facebook status I remember reading from him was something to the affect of, "Life is too short to waste time sitting at the computer playing silly games, get out and live!" After that he wasn't on Facebook much, and eventually deleted his account. I didn't really have any way to contact him or his wife after this, but I did pray for them regularly and kept up to date on him through the "grapevine". That status hit me at the time I read it, and I believe may have been part of my motivation for beginning to change my life. Now it has hit me even more deeply, after attending the memorial service and learning even more about how he spent the last years of his life.

He lived. He did the things he wanted to do. He didn't waste time. He served God as much as he was able, and he lived and enjoyed life.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I missed one day this week. Other than that I have been on track with this goal. In fact my time with God has been so vibrant. This isn't my devotional blog, so I'll spare you the entire thing, but I will say that God is awesome, and is faithful, and pours out blessing on those who seek Him. Even when our seeking is not as consistent or faithful as it should be, we take one little step toward Him and He will run to meet us there. We just have to take that one little step.

2. I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 a day.
While I can't be 100% sure on this, considering that only Sunday was spent at the retreat eating things I normally wouldn't, (because the other days were actually part of the week before) and that most of the remainder of the week was spent on a juice fast, I'd say I met this goal.

3. I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise.
For this goal I believe I met it. Five days had exercise recorded, but I only timed it for four of those days. The total minutes for those four days was 404.33 minutes, which if I divide by 7 to see how much I averaged each day, comes to 57.76 minutes a day.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on. I've been pushing myself to get my 100 miles in October, but because of the missed days of exercise that were sort of thrust upon me, I don't know if I'll make it anyway. At any rate, the "100 miles in a month challenge" has distracted me from doing my other workouts regularly, so I look forward to the end of it whether I make the goal or not. I want to do my Cardio-Max, my Kick boxing, my 30-day shred, my insane abs workout, and other things, not JUST my power walk workout and walking my dog day after day after day.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I did well on this except for the last day.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog.
With the retreat, and the fasting after, this was only done for a few days.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Here I am, a few hours late, but here!

Stats for the Week
Total Calories for the Week: Unknown
Average Calories per day: Unknown
Beginning Weight: 226.2
Ending Weight: 224.2
Pounds Lost or Gained: -2.4
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.48%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 36.5%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 404.33
Average Exercise minutes per day: 57.76
___________________________________________
Sunday, October 23
Weight: no weigh in
Body Fat Reading: no reading taken
Total Calories: unknown
Exercise: Some walking but no mileage or time tracked.
Water: 8 cups
___________________________________________
Monday, October 24
Weight: 232.6 (+6.4)

Body Fat Reading: No Reading
Total Calories: Unknown, doing a juice fast, estimate the calories to be well under 1600, since the total of all ingredients was under 1600, and a lot of the ingredients end up as pulp, not put in the juice at all.
Exercise: 10 reps each of crunches, reverse crunches, crunches with a twist to the left, and crunches with a twist to the right (about 2 minutes total), 100 squats (about 6 minutes), 20 each of the following exercises: Arnold Press with 8 pound weights, Lateral Raises with 8 pound weights, Upright Rows with 8 pound weights, Forward raises with 8 pound weights, biceps curls with 8 pound weights, Triceps extensions (20 each side) with 5 pound weights. (about 2.33 minutes altogether). Walked 6.06 miles (131 minutes). Total Exercise time: 141.33 minutes
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Tuesday, October 25
Weight: 228.8 (-3.8)

Body Fat Reading: No reading taken
Total Calories: <1378 (juice fast)

Exercise: 20 Squats, Walked 3.91 miles 89 minutes
Water: 12 cups
__________________________________________
Wednesday, October 26
Weight: 226.4 (-2.4)
Body Fat Reading: 36.5%
Total Calories: <1,400 (Juice Fast)
Exercise: Walked 3.06 miles 54 minutes

Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Thursday, October 27
Weight: 224.9 (-1.5)
Body Fat Reading: 36.5%
Total Calories: Juice Fast
Exercise: Walked 6.89 miles, 120 minutes.
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Friday, October 28
Weight: 222.9 (-2)
Body Fat Reading: 36.1%
Total Calories: 1364
Exercise: None

Water: 8 cups
_________________________________________
Saturday, October 29
Weight: 224.2 (+1.3)
Body Fat Reading: 36.8%
Total Calories: 1588
Exercise: None

Water: 4 cups
__________________________________________

Give Yourself the Best Gift Challenge, Week 5, Post your updates below!

2011-10-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

This wraps up week 5 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

I must apologize for not going around to encourage everyone this week, I have been very busy. I am keeping a running list of who has and has not used their grace week though.

This post is being written ahead of time, and scheduled to publish on Saturday, because I will be gone this weekend. The trip has somewhat affected my ability to track everything accurately. For example, I am having to weigh in early, and won't be tracking my food (or even having that much choice of what to eat) from Friday-Sunday. However, I am making the healthiest choices I can, and posting my Friday morning weight as my final weight for the week.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I did a little better on this this week.

2. I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 a day.
Umm... Because I am going off on a retreat the last two days of this week, I can't be sure. I do know that I continued to eat healthy, but I think I might have gone over calorie wise even before the retreat. It seems I have more difficulty sticking to my calorie level while being mostly vegan, but I'm losing weight anyway, maybe I need to adjust this goal to suit my new habits.

3. I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise. I did this up until the day of the retreat, and will plan to the day after.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on.
Not sure I did this this week, I did push myself to walk a certain number of miles, but other than that, I'm not so sure. I did maintain my level of strength though, making sure to do enough crunches, pushups, weight lifting, etc. so that I didn't lose muscle.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I did pretty well on this.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog. I logged my food faithfully until Thursday, but at that point I was so busy getting ready for the retreat that I didn't track, and on the days of the retreat I won't be able to, however, I do still plan to make the healthiest choices possible and not make a pig of myself. I will update my exercise when I get back from the retreat.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.

Stats for the Week.
Well, I am writing this before the week is up, since I won't have internet access this weekend. My summary as best as I can do it is below.

Total Calories for the Week: unknown
Average Calories per day: unknown
Beginning Weight: 226.9
Ending Weight: 226.2
Pounds Lost or Gained: -0.7
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.5%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 36.76%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 362 as of Friday morning pre-workout.
Average Exercise minutes per day: 51.62 as of Friday morning pre-workout.

Give Yourself the Best Gift, Week 4, Post Your Updates in the Comments Below!!!

2011-10-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

This wraps up week 4 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

Now for my own update:
I had a much better week than the last one, but there was still room for improvement, details below. You'll notice that in the day by day report, I post a daily body-fat reading. The device I use for this uses various data, to calculate this, and one of the pieces of information is body weight. I only update the device once a week. So on a week like this one where I lose 5 pounds, the accuracy of the reading can be affected. The accuracy can also be thrown off by water retention or dehydration, as it depends on an electrical current running through your body and measures how easily that current goes through (fat resists the current more than lean tissue), however hydration levels can also throw off the accuracy. So the company recommends taking readings over a series of days and using an average to get the best results. That is what I do, but still, this week saw such a drastic weight loss, that I think the accuracy even of the average was affected, so that it looks as if I've gained fat when I haven't. If that is the case, tomorrow's reading should be lower, since I'll update my weight data tonight.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
Again, I didn't do as well with this as I'd have liked to. I was in the word quite a bit, with my husband and kids, but my own personal quiet time with God has been inconsistent, and here's the thing, God loves me just as much regardless. He is not angry with me for not doing it. I don't earn "points" for doing it either. I put this goal here because I want the time with Him, and I miss it when I don't get it, I miss it so much in fact, that sometimes I will end up reaching for food when what I am actually craving is time alone with Him.

2. I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 a day.
I didn't quite make this goal this week. If you look at my summary of the days you will see that on Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday I was over my limit, and on Thursday I was considerably over. Although I cut back on the last few days of the week to compensate, it was just not reasonable to try to make it all up, I wasn't willing to only have 700 and something calories two days in a row. I was very active this week, and I think maybe my body was just crying out for some more fuel, because I was legitimately hungry on those days when I ate over my limit. If you check out my exercise goal, I exercised more than double my minimum goal, so I guess it makes sense that my body needed more fuel to run on. Also that TOM has arrived again, and that probably had something to do with too, fortunately, the worst of that is over, so it shouldn't be affecting me any more until next month.

3. I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise.
As I said I was very active this week. My total exercise minutes for the week were 583 minutes. If I divide that by 5, it averages to 116.6 minutes a day... more than double my goal. Figured for all seven days it averages about 83 minutes a day.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on.
I have certainly pushed myself with my walking! I joined two challenges on Facebook. One is called "Marathon in a Week", and as of today I officially finished that one. The other is called "100 Miles in October", and it will tough because I didn't start going for it the first week of October, but it is still possible if I keep pushing for it like I did this week.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I've been doing pretty well with this, I might have come up short one day, but for the most part this goal is now a habit.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog.
I've been doing this.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
Well, my stats are below, and my summary below that. All in all I lost 5 pounds this week!

Stats for the Week
Total Calories for the Week: 12,546
Average Calories per day: about 1792
Beginning Weight: 231.9
Ending Weight: 226.9
Pounds Lost or Gained: -5
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.76%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 36.6%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 583
Average Exercise minutes per day: about 83 for all seven days.
___________________________________________
Sunday, October 9
Weight: no weigh in
Body Fat Reading: no reading taken
Total Calories: 1866
Exercise: 3.03 mile walk/run 62 minutes
Water: 8 cups
___________________________________________
Monday, October 10
Weight: 229.9 (-2)

Body Fat Reading: 36.8%
Total Calories: 1546
Exercise: Biggest Loser Challenge for Wii, Circuit Training, Hard level (23 minutes), Biggest Loser Power Walk miles 1, 2, 3, and 4, with 5 and 8 pound weights, plus cool down (69 minutes), 3.03 mile walk (70 minutes.) Total exercise time: 162 Minutes.
Water: 9 cups
__________________________________________
Tuesday, October 11
Weight: 229.3 (-0.3)
Body Fat Reading: 36.9%
Total Calories: 1537
Exercise: Biggest Loser Power Walk miles 1 and 2 with 5 and 8 pound weights, walk outside 3.06 miles. Total time: 96 minutes.
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Wednesday, October 12
Weight: 227.7 (-1.7)
Body Fat Reading: 36.5%
Total Calories: 1691
Exercise: Walk outside, 4.57 miles, Total Time: 80 minutes.
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Thursday, October 13
Weight: No weigh in
Body Fat Reading: No Reading
Total Calories: 3,010
Exercise: None

Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Friday, October 14
Weight: 228.8 (+1.1)
Body Fat Reading: 36.8%
Total Calories: 1215
Exercise: Biggest Loser Power Walk miles 1, 2, 3, and 4, (with weights where called for), plus cooldown. Total Time 69 minutes.
Water: 12 cups
_________________________________________
Saturday, October 15
Weight: 226.9
Body Fat Reading: 36.8%
Total Calories: 1681
Exercise: Biggest Loser Power Walk miles 1, 2, 3, and 4, with weights when called for, plus cool down. Walk outside 2.38 miles. Total Time: 114 minutes.
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________

Give Yourself the Best Gift, Let's Encourage Each Other

2011-10-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, Here is a list of ALL the challengers who started this challenge. A few have missed a post, but I won't list who they were, because of the "week of grace" those who missed only one post still qualify as long as they don't miss another. So far, only one person is ineligible for the drawing because of missing two weeks in a row, and even that person is still welcome to stay with the challenge for the health benefits and accountability. I thought posting a complete list of EVERYONE who originally joined would make it easier for other challengers to go offer encouragement.

Jeannette
Deb
Myra
Charlene
Michelle
Sabrina
I will be skinny
Sarah
Lisa
Ayla
Empty Nester
Kailien

So drop by and encourage everyone to stay in, regardless of whether or not they still qualify for the prize!

Congrats to all these Challengers!

2011-10-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

These are the Challengers who posted their updates on time, they are still in the drawing for the prize at the end. If your name is not there, don't worry, everyone is allowed one week of grace, just let me know what happened to cause your update to be late. Even if you've already used your week of grace, please don't leave the challenge, you are still welcome to participate, your name will just not be in the "hat" at the drawing! You can still get the prize of better health by sticking to your goals!

Jeannette
Deb
Myra
Charlene
Michelle
Sabrina
I will be skinny
Sarah
Lisa

Give Yourself the Best Gift Week 3, Post Your Updates Here!

2011-10-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

This wraps up week 3 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

First I want to apologize to all challengers for not posting a list of those who updated! However, I have counted the updates, and I believe that everyone progressed on to this week. If I miss counted, then whoever did not can count themselves lucky and still be in the drawing for the prize!

Now for my own update:

I did not do well this week. I ate too much, and exercised too little. I always struggle with this right before that TOM comes around, but this is the worst week I've had since June. I gained 2.2 pounds. I am hereby declaring war on my lackadaisical attitude this week! In the coming week, I absolutely MUST do better! If it means that I have to sit down with a pencil and paper and figure out each meal before I eat it, than that is what I must do! If it means I must make myself drink two cups of water before eating anything, than that is what I must do! If it means that I must go to bed early to avoid evening snacking, then good, that will make it easier to get up and do my workout! Which reminds me, I also simply MUST get back into getting up and doing my workout before my days begin. As I explain below, if I had to grade my goals as I do my children's schoolwork, I would have gotten an F this week.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I didn't do that well with this. It could have been so much better.

2. I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 a day.
I didn't do this, my weekly calorie total came to 12,054. That averages 1,722 calories a day.

3. I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise.
Okay, I only exercised four days this week. However, if I add up the total minutes and divide by 7, I averaged around 30 minutes each day, for all seven days. I also did some exercise I didn't record, because I did make sure to do some some upper body strength training every other day, but didn't time and record it. So I didn't do horribly at this goal, but I could have done much better.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on.
I can't honestly say I've done this.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
Pretty good on this one. There was one day when I came up short, but other than that I did well on this goal.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog.
I did this, you can see my summary below.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
I did this, you can see my summary below.

All in all, if I had to grade myself on this week it would be an F, because if I grade strictly, I got 2 out 7, and if I grade generously, I got a 4 out of 7... If I land in between the two it comes out to 3 out 7, which is still an F. This is unacceptable, I can not allow it to continue.

Stats for the Week
Total Calories for the Week: 12,054
Average Calories per day: about 1,722
Beginning Weight: 229.7
Ending Weight: 231.9
Pounds Lost or Gained: +2.2 >:(
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 36.6% ???
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 37.2%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 214 (plus some more spent strength training, but I forgot to time myself).
Average Exercise minutes per day: 30.57 minutes for each of the seven days.
___________________________________________
Sunday, October 2
Weight: 231.3 (+1.6)
Body Fat Reading: 36.7%
Total Calories: 1569
Exercise: Rest day
Water: 8 cups
___________________________________________
Monday, October 3
Weight: 231.9 (+0.6)
Body Fat Reading: 36.7%
Total Calories: 1487
Exercise: Biggest Loser Cardio Max Weight Loss Levels 1, and 2, plus cool down. 45 minutes
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Tuesday, October 4
Weight: 230.2 (-1.7)
Body Fat Reading: 36.8%
Total Calories: 2243
Exercise: none
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Wednesday, October 5
Weight: no weigh in
Body Fat Reading: 36.7%
Total Calories: 2312
Exercise: 3.03 mile walk, 69 minutes.
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Thursday, October 6
Weight: 232.1 (+2)
Body Fat Reading: 36.7%
Total Calories: 1272
Exercise: Biggest Loser Power Walk 1,2 and cool down. 37 minutes.
Water: 4 cups
__________________________________________
Friday, October 7
Weight: no weigh in
Body Fat Reading: 36.3%
Total Calories: 1570
Exercise: None.
Water: 9 cups
_________________________________________
Saturday, October 8
Weight: 231.9
Body Fat Reading: 36.3%
Total Calories: 1601
Exercise: 3.03 mile walk, 63 minutes

Water: 10 cups
__________________________________________

Vegan vs. Vegetarian vs. Plant Based Diet = A Balancing Act

2011-10-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Since I've started this blog, I've always stated that I believe it is possible to improve your health and lose weight without going on extreme diets that forbid you from ever eating your favorite foods again, restrict your calories until you feel you are starving, or eliminate entire food groups from your meal plan, and I believe that I've shown that to be true. I have lost over 54 pounds total from my highest weight, and more than 43 of those pounds have been lost since June 4, 2011.

The health benefits have been far greater than just weight loss though. I've gone from often having trouble just getting up out of a chair, to being able to spring up from the floor when I need to. I've gone from walking with a cane, and barely being able to manage that, to walking several miles at a time, and sometimes doing jogging intervals in the middle of my walking workout, I've gone from being in constant pain from my feet and knees, to doing jumping jacks and squats, and even combining the two without undo difficulty. I've also gone from having trouble breathing at night, and having a bounding heartbeat when I laid down, to sleeping with ease and comfort. I've gone from running on caffeine, to often forgetting to even have my morning Chai drink, because I no longer need the caffeine just to feel normal.

Obviously what I've been doing has been working, and has improved my health to an incredible degree. So why would I ever consider changing it? Well I wouldn't... unless someone or something convinced me that there was a compelling reason to do so, and that is what has happened recently.

It started out by me watching a documentary titled "Food, Inc.", that documentary had me disgusted in the way food was handled in this country, especially with the way livestock is raised and fed, so disgusted in fact that my husband and I were discussing the possibility of raising our own meat so we could be assured we were not eating meat raised that way. Soon after watching "Food, Inc.", I decided to watch "Forks Over Knives", this documentary radically challenged my view of what was really "healthy" food. In short, this documentary discusses a lot of scientific studies which indicate that consuming the amount of animal protein most Americans consume is dramatically raising our risks of cancer. I won't go into every detail of the movie, since anyone who really wants to can simply watch it themselves, but my initial reaction after watching it was to declare that I wanted to completely eliminate all meat, dairy, eggs, poultry, and fish from my diet. And for a few days I did that, since soy has also been shown to increase cancer risk, I decided not to rely on soy products to replace meat and dairy.

Let me say that I felt surprisingly satisfied without these foods, I really didn't miss them much. I discovered that while it was certainly possible to meet my protein needs without animal products, it was difficult to do so without also increasing either my carbohydrate intake or my fat intake, and therefore also increasing my overall calorie consumption. Of course, I could purchase vegan protein powders, but to me, and "ideal" diet would only use supplements as insurance, if at all, not rely on them to meet daily needs. Even on the documentary, the statement was made that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to be protein deficient without being calorie deficient, but therein lies the problem, I am TRYING to create a calorie deficit so I can lose weight, so in the process it becomes difficult to get the protein I need, add to that the fact that I am attempting to change my body composition by building muscle through strength training, and it becomes even harder. A similar issue came up about vitamin B12, and the fact that aside from a few rather obscure "super-foods", there are NO non-animal sources of it, this again made me question whether this was really the ideal diet, after all, a person living in some remote location would not necessarily have access to supplements or superfoods, nor would such a person be likely to realize that such things were needed... so how is it that human beings would be designed to follow a diet that requires the use of those things?

Yet I still cannot ignore the evidence of animal protein contributing to cancer, so what am to do? Well, I've been thinking over the studies discussed in the documentary, and realizing that while the science clearly shows that those with low levels of animal protein in their diets have lower cancer rates, it did not actually show that it is necessary to eliminate all animal protein. In the case one of the most convincing studies, which involved experiments with rats fed carefully controlled diets and measuring the rate of tumor growth in the rats, the rats were put on a diet of either fairly high levels of animal protein, or very low levels of animal protein, and at no time in the study were they fed a diet of NO animal protein, and yet their tumor growth stopped at the lower levels, and escalated at the higher levels. Similarly, the human cultures that were shown to have the lowest cancer rates were not completely VEGAN cultures, they were cultures where meat is not served every day, and when served it is served in small amounts to flavor their food, but does not constitute the main course as it often does in America, some of the people studied probably were dairy free, but I am not sure.

So to make a very long story just a little bit shorter, I have now decided to simply greatly reduce my consumption of animal protein. In the documentary, dairy was even more heavily indicted than meat, so I am being even more strict about dairy, but even with dairy I will allow it on occasion. For the first time in a week I had a little bit of fish last night, and it was very good. I still haven't eaten any red meat, or poultry, but will allow it in small amounts on occasion. I am still going to continue cooking lots of vegan dishes, and since I am restricting my calories somewhat, I may even buy some vegan protein powders as insurance for the days we don't eat animal proteins, but I am not going to even try to completely eliminate all animal protein. So once again I end up back to the basic idea that no food group need to be completely eliminated, but some must be controlled and carefully balanced!

I track my calories, protein, calcium, and vitamin B12 on Sparkpeople, and I will supplement where needed, but I don't expect to need to continue supplementing once I reach my weight loss goal.

Give Yourself the Best Gift, Week 2. Post your updates Below!

2011-10-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

This wraps up week 2 of "Give Yourself the Best Gift" Challenge! How did everyone do? Post links to your updates in the comment section of this post!

CHALLENGERS, please give me your opinion on this:
One challenger had some technical difficulties that kept her from the first week's update, I'd like to still keep her in the running for the prize, but feel it would be unfair to do so without asking all of you tell me your opinions. So, along with your update, please cast your vote, should we extend some grace to Charlene and still let her be in the drawing? Bear in mind that however the vote comes out, everyone else will be similarly treated for the rest of the challenge, if the majority of you vote "yes, give her some grace", that means that you will all be allowed one week of "grace" at some point in the challenge, provided you post as quickly as possible and explain why you missed the post. If the majority of you vote "No, don't make an exception.", then I will not be extending any exceptions for anyone, no matter what the circumstance. So please tell me how you feel about it below.

So here is my statement:

"This Holiday Season, I want to give myself the gift of health, and further progress on my weight loss journey. This Holiday Season I want to give myself more muscle tone, and the sense of accomplishment I'll have when I look at the scale on Christmas morning and see a lower number than I saw a month before. I want to give myself the great feeling and the flood of endorphins that I get whenever I work out and give it my all. I want to give myself the gift of knowing that I have glorified God in my body all through the Holidays."

Here are my action points:

1. I will pray and read my Bible each day.
I did better at this goal this week, but still missed a couple of days.

2. I will keep my calories under 11,200 each week. This is an average of 1600 a day.
I did this... as far as I can tell, there were a few dishes where I ended up estimating the calorie content.

3. I will continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, no matter how busy I am, unless I am sick and bed-ridden, I can make time to exercise.
I did this, however I feel like I could have done more. I've spent a lot of time cooking new meatless recipes, and I think I need to do some cooking ahead or something so I don't have to spend so much time in the kitchen.

4. I will push myself to progress in my workouts... whenever I can finally manage an activity or exercise that has given me trouble, I will then find a new, harder one to work on.
I don't feel like I pushed myself that much this week, I need to try harder next week.

5. I will keep staying hydrated aiming for 8-12 cups of water each day.
I've done this.

6. I will keep track of my calories, exercise, and water on Sparkpeople, and will post at least a weekly summary on this blog.
I've done this, although I did estimate the calorie content on some dishes.

7. I will blog and post my weight along with my summary of how I did at least once a week.
See the summary below.

Stats for the Week
Total Calories for the Week: 10,097
Average Calories per day: about 1442
Beginning Weight: 230.6
Ending Weight: 229.7
Pounds Lost or Gained: -0.9
Average Body Fat Reading for the Week: 37.2%
Average Body Fat Reading Last Week: 37.2%
Total Exercise Minutes for the week: 348
Average Exercise minutes per day: 49.7 minutes for all 7 days.
___________________________________________
Sunday, September 25
Weight: 229.1 (-1.5)
Body Fat Reading: 37.3%
Total Calories: 1295
Exercise: Rest day
Water: 8 cups
___________________________________________
Monday, September 26
Weight: No Weigh In
Body Fat Reading: No Reading
Total Calories: 1672
Exercise: Billy's Boot Camp Cardio-Sculpt 53 minutes
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Tuesday, September 27
Weight: 230.6 (+1.5)
Body Fat Reading: 37.2 %
Total Calories:1593
Exercise: Biggest Loser Challenge for Wii Circuit Training (15 minutes), Biggest Loser Challenge for Wii Box Fit (15 minutes) Total time 30 minutes
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________
Wednesday, September 28
Weight: 230.6 (No Change)
Body Fat Reading: 37.3%
Total Calories: 1594
Exercise: Walked 3.03 miles, 68 minutes
Water: 10 cups
__________________________________________
Thursday, September 29
Weight: 230.2 (-0.4)
Body Fat Reading: 37%
Total Calories: 1340
Exercise: Biggest Loser Power Walk 1, 2, 3, and 4, with five and eight pound hand weights, and an eight pound medicine ball. 69 Minutes
Water:10 cups
__________________________________________
Friday, September 30
Weight: 231.5 (+1.3)
Body Fat Reading: 37.1%
Total Calories: 1427
Exercise: Walked 3.03 miles, (57 minutes), upper body toning with hand weights, (about 15 minutes), 72 Minutest total.
Water: 10 cups
_________________________________________
Saturday, October 1
Weight: 229.7
Body Fat Reading: 37.2%
Total Calories: 1176
Exercise: Walked/Jogged 3.03 miles, 56 minutes.
Water: 8 cups
__________________________________________

Congrats to all these Challengers!

2011-09-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I feel like such a bad leader!!! I should have gotten this post up on Tuesday morning, but my days have been occupied with revamping my diet, as I move toward a more plant based diet, (I will post more on this later). So finally on Wednesday morning, I get around to doing this. By now most of you have probably already visited the other challengers, but if not, please drop by and offer a word of encouragement to them! Below is a list of everyone's fist week's updates, except for mine, since everyone in the challenge has already seen it!

Congratulations to all these challengers for successfully posting their week 1 updates!:

Sabrina
Deb
Michelle
Myra
Ayla
Sarah
I will be Skinny
Empty Nester
Kalien
Berry Patch
Jeannette