Caroline's Weight Loss Journal

~Caroline~ · #1 December 31st, 2007, 11:50 AM

I am so ready for this!!! My goal for 2008 is to exercise more and eat better! I haven't decided if I'm going to log all my food (everytime I try to do that I get tired of it and give up). We'll see. But I really want to log my exercise and track my progress.

And feel free to comment, I need motivation!

Right now, I weigh something between 135-140. I will weigh myself tomorrow morning so I can know for sure. I'm 5'2. My goal is to get under 120. My ultimate goal would be anywhere between 108-112. But right now, just getting under 130 would be great!

My food goal: Simply to eat better. My meals are ok I think but I need to reduce the portion size. Seriously, I eat like a guy! And I need to choose better snacks. Fruits and veggies. My New Year's resolution is to cut soda totally. I only drink diet, but still, it's not good for me.

My exercise goal: I want to go to the gym 3-4X a week. 3x is really the minimum. I only work part-time right now so I have no reason not to go. I'm going to try the Couch to 5K thing and do some strength training. I also want to get back into yoga, at least once a week. The gym is closed tomorrow so I'll go on Jan. 2.

Good luck everyone

~Caroline~ · #2 December 31st, 2007, 12:10 PM

And here's a pic of me taken 5 minutes ago! Sorry, Chris isn't home and this is the best I can do with the self-timer thingy:

Ugh!

~Caroline~ · #3 January 1st, 2008, 10:21 AM

Ok. So I weighed myself this morning and I was.... drumroll...

138! Ouch. That's a bmi of 25.2 (slightly overweight).

I made an account on CalorieCount and apparently, I need to eat roughly 1600 calories a day to lose weight. They gave me a goal weight of 123 pounds and they told me I could reach it by April 15. That sounds good!

Unfortunately, the gym is closed today so I'm not going to work out. That and I'm working from 2-10pm. But the eating has been good so far. I ate a bowl of Special K for breakfast and I made a tuna casserole for lunch. I took the recipe from a magazine and it was branded as healthy. The sauce is made with milk and a little bit of soy sauce and dijon mustard. I also added tons of veggies to the recipe and I made sure I took a small portion. It was delicious and I'm bringing leftovers for tonight at work. I also ate some lf yogurt for dessert.

~Caroline~ · #4 January 2nd, 2008, 12:38 PM

I woke up late today so I skipped breakfast. Bad I know.

Lunch: Tuna casserole leftovers + some lf yogurt for dessert
Snack: Apple + lf cheddar cheese

That's it for now. Dinner should be pork souvlakis with potatoes and steamed veggies.

The good news today is that I finally went back to the gym!

I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill (intervals) and then I did 30 minutes on the elliptical.

I want to start strength training again, probably next week. And I registered for a Cardio Tae Bo class, every Tuesday. It should be fun!

Mod-LadyCoconut · #5 January 2nd, 2008, 05:33 PM

WOWEE Liney!

Our dinners were quite similar! lol

That's awesome about getting back to the gym! It's hard going back when you get in the habit of not going! I bet you're feeling pretty good! And that's a GOOD workout! I can't do the eliptical to save my life, let alone 30 minutes!

I'm impressed, girl!

~Caroline~ · #6 January 3rd, 2008, 12:06 PM

Thanks!!! The elliptical is one of my favourite thing to do at the gym. But I was pretty tired after the run so I entered it as "medium intensity" on CalorieCount.

Today hasn't been a good food day so far. I had brunch with my friend and I chose a crepe with apple and cheddar inside and some syrup. Yummy, but it's probably a lot of calories!

I defroze some chicken breasts for dinner. I'm not sure how I'll serve them yet.

~Caroline~ · #7 January 4th, 2008, 08:52 PM

Today was definitely a cheat day, but I knew it would be even before the New Year! My parents and my boyfriend's parents came over for dinner. They met for the first time!!! (It went well). I made lots of food and dessert and it was fantastic.

Back on track tomorrow!

~Caroline~ · #8 January 5th, 2008, 07:17 AM

Ok so let's hope I can get back on track today! So far I had a piece of bread and some lf cheddar cheese for beakfast. I'm leaving for the gym in 15 minutes. I am READY!

Mod-LadyCoconut · #9 January 5th, 2008, 09:22 AM

What's all the If stuff you're posting?

#10 January 5th, 2008, 12:15 PM

go caroline!

~*sierra*~ · #11 January 6th, 2008, 06:40 AM

u rawk! you're doing so well!! keep it up!

ETA - I cut soda (reg & diet), and all artificial sweeteners, out of my diet probably 8-9 months ago and my tummy has never felt better, i don't even want it anymore! id way rather drink water, when i'm thirsty it's all i want now......i think i was sensitive to artificial sweeteners......which kind of makes sense, i mean, its really just chemicals if u think about it

~Caroline~ · #12 January 6th, 2008, 08:21 AM

Thanks girls!

Shannon: It's actually LF, as in Low Fat!

Sarah: My goal is to eventually cut out all artificial sweetener. Right now, I'm still using it in coffee, but I want to cut out coffee too in the next few months (I'm drinking it only because I used to drink so much Coke Zero that I'm totally addicted to cafeine.) Right now, I drink a cup a day. I also sometimes drink Cristal Light when I really don't want to drink water. Eventually, I'd like to drink water only and coffee only once in a great while.

Yesterday ended up being not so great. When I went to my room to change to go to the gym, my boyfriend was half asleep and he wanted to cuddle and he was so cute... I ended up not going to the gym. Oops.

I was also working from 4pm to midnight. I work for a news website. My job is basically to watch news feed and to update the site with the news that I find interesting. On Saturday night, I work all by myself and when it's a slow news night (like it was yesterday), it can get pretty boring. And when I'm bored, I want to eat. And there's a vending machine.

Hopefully today will be better.

Mod-LadyCoconut · #13 January 6th, 2008, 08:25 AM

hahaha low fat... I'm an idiot. I kept thinking IF cheese was something like that 'activia' yogurt that has all that live bacteria in it or sometihng... haha WOW.

Maybe try keeping a couple boxes of 100 cal packs with you at work or in your car. The portions are much better for you and you still get a 'bad' snack food and get to keep sticking your hand in the bag to pull out a chip or cookie or whatever... and it's not going to be as bad or as expensive as the snack machine!

~Caroline~ · #14 January 6th, 2008, 11:57 AM

Shannon: I love the Activia yogurts, they're my favourite!

For the snacks, I think I'm going to try these 100 cal. packs if I can find them. I know my grocery store has the 100 cal cookie packs, I buy them all the time but I'll try to see if they have chips or nuts or something for when I'm craving something salty. Or maybe I'll buy pretzels and bring some at work.

Today so far:

breakfast: English muffin with all natural peanut butter

lunch: spaghetti! I tried to take a smaller portion. Unfortunately, I also ate a couple of cookies for dessert but they were oh so good.

I'm not sure what I'll have for dinner yet. My fridge is empty!!! (that explains why I haven't eaten fruits and veggies yet!). I'm working tonight so I'll go grocery shopping tomorrow.

Exercise: 40 minutes cross training on the elliptical

~Caroline~ · #15 January 7th, 2008, 11:10 AM

Last night ended up being ok. I didn't pig out. I probably went over my calorie limit but at least it was with good food and not junk.

Today has been good so far. I had a bowl of Special K for breakfast. I finally went grocery shopping so now I have fruits and veggies again!

For lunch I had an English muffin with cottage cheese, as well as baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. Oh and yogurt for dessert.

I will have a snack later this afternoon and I'm not sure yet what I'll bring to work for dinner. I didn't have time to cook anything so I'll probably bring a sandwich, veggies, fruits and yogurt. And to make sure I'm not tempted by the vending machine, I'll bring a 100 cal cookie pack and a couple of white cheese-flavoured rice cakes, that way I'll have something if I crave sweet or salty during the evening!

No exercise today, unfortunately. I'll go to the gym tomorrow for sure.

~*sierra*~ · #16 January 7th, 2008, 05:02 PM

nice planning with the sweet n salty stuff.....

Mod-LadyCoconut · #17 January 7th, 2008, 06:09 PM

ditto what sarah said... great game plan to tackle those cravings!

~Caroline~ · #18 January 8th, 2008, 08:32 AM

The craving planning worked! Yesterday was great as far as food goes, I stayed within my calorie limit.

But I weighed myself this morning and I was so disappointed! I'm at 140!!! That's UP two pounds from last week.

I know I wasn't good every day. But I think I did ok most days and I exercised. I didn't really expect to lose this week, but I didn't think I'd gain either. Oh well.

At least I should have more time for the gym this week since I'm not working until Saturday.

So far, I've eaten an english muffin with a little bit of peanut butter for breakfast. I'm not sure what I'll have for lunch. Maybe chicken and noodles soup with some cheddar cheese.

Mod-LadyCoconut · #19 January 8th, 2008, 01:13 PM

don't beat yourself up over that gain... it may just be water retention depending on where you are in your cycle. Just like with charting, ya gotta see the forrest through the trees, and hey, if it continues to be a problem, you have your food log right here to see what you can tweak, or what your trigger foods are, etc.