My Path to Outer Skinniness

For about a week and a half now I've been on a basically vegetarian diet. What's really surprising to me is how much easier it's been than I expected. I tend to get it in my head that I need to do all this planning and preparation to make dietary changes. It really just takes awareness and determination, both of which are improved by the diet itself. For years I've been learning about nutrition and how your body processes food, not just in a weight loss program capacity, but in a science and health research capacity. The more I learn the more I'm convinced that being completely or nearly vegetarian and even vegan is what's best for humans to maintain their health. Because I know better, I thought that I'd continue to improve on my knowing better. I spent a bit of time researching foods that improve high cholesterol and found that what I've been eating is basically in line with multiple recommendations. Speaking of recommendations, a friend recommende...

I say pseudo because I really don't have the ethical conviction to be a true vegetarian. I'm not a fan of mass meat production so I've been trying to buy local when I can afford it, but seriously, I'm not going to join PETA anytime soon. I will say that I do like eating more toward the veggie side because I feel like it gives me really healthy manageable boundaries for my diet though. For anyone who missed my facebook updates, I've been put on a diet by my doctor. I suppose I could choose to ignore her advice if I really wanted to, but I feel like I'd rather not be diabetic by 40. I had a physical last month and my blood test showed that I have high cholesterol. When I've been on diets in the past, it has been both because I don't want to be fat because I feel like a whale (whale's are pretty, but definitely not sexy and not the most agile) and because I wanted to avoid health concerns later. These health concerns were always hypothetical before....

I had my lady visit to my new doctors clinic today and it was kind of a startling experience. All through my pregnancy I decided to take the attitude of "don't panic, you're completely fine" in regards to my health. I didn't want to gain so much weight, but gain I did. My midwives were thrilled with my health and I couldn't have had a more "normal" birth. But that was pregnancy. This is me by myself now. And me by myself is very overweight and has high cholesterol. The RN at my doctor's office is a sassy black lady. She basically gave me a verbal ass-kicking. Something like, "girl, you need to eat right and exercise, don't give me no excuses!" I told her I'd been steadily losing weight on weight watchers albeit not much because I'm breastfeeding and all. She gave me some ideas for exercises to do every day and told me to eat steel cut oats to get my cholesterol levels down. She also told me I needed a vitamin D supplemen...

I was sitting on the floor of my full weight watchers meeting today thumbing through the weekly newsletter when I ran across an article about staying motivated. The author of the article talked about going to her class reunion and how she wanted to go and show everyone how great she looks now. This things got me thinking. I remember trying to reach my goal weight even back in high school. Next year is my 10-year class reunion, and while I really could care less about what my old classmates think about my physique, I do care that I have yet to reach my goal.  The good news is that even though I've been trying to lose weight unsuccessfully for 10 years, I have at least made some good dents in my lifestyle.  I went to the gym with my sister tonight and started to think about how much my attitude has changed towards food and exercise. I remember hating the gym when I first went back on swim team in high school. It felt like such a waste of energy, and the machines were ...

As of today I have completed 1 week of the points plus system on weight watchers. If you have done weight watchers before, you'd be surprised the differences they've made to their program. They added carbohydrates to their points calculator, they've made all fruits a 0 points value, and they've changed how many points you get on a daily basis and on a weekly basis. I get 31 points per day and 49 per week normally and then an extra 15 a day for breastfeeding. Needless to say, I had no problem staying on program this week. I found myself eating far more fruit because I knew it didn't count for anything. I also ate more vegetables, not because they were low points, but because I wanted to be able to check off all the marks for fruits and vegetables. I know I'm eating healthier and it's not difficult to do so.  What's a challenge for me this time around is that I'm not allowed to lose too much weight at a time because of the breastfeeding. If I ...

Well, project skinny butt is over. It pretty much failed. I did really good the first few days and then I just got busy! My mom told me she read something about how not getting enough sleep leads to belly fat. I believe it. I don't sleep much with a newborn and I pretty much have a deflated balloon full of sand on my front. I've decided that exercise is only part of the equation and I need to relearn how to eat again. So I signed back up for weight watchers and went to a meeting yesterday. It was nice to see my old meeting leader again. She was really excited to see the baby. I haven't seen her since our wedding. I was quickly reminded about why I hate going to meetings. Everyone kept talking about how hard it is to go grocery shopping or out to eat and to stay on program. For me rather than dwelling on the the foods I like that I can't eat, I dwell on the foods I like that I can. Weight watchers has completely revamped the program too. Now you can eat basically as ...

It seems that it's been a few months since I've posted to this blog...like, 7 months. Now that baby's out and I can exercise it's time to get my behind into gear! I had intended on really hunkering down when Charlotte got to 6 weeks old (which was a week ago). Rather, I really started thinking about it and entertaining ideas for what I wanted to do to get back in shape for the last week and yesterday was my redemption day. So now in the spirit of what's worked for me in the past I'm on a new path. I have two goals right now. Short term is that I have a bridesmaids dress I have to squeeze into on the 28th this month. I had to buy it when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant without any idea how big I'd be now. Thankfully it fits but it's snug. So I would like to get it to be a bit more comfortable. Long term is that I'd like to get back to paddling. I had multiple dreams about dragon boating when I was pregnant and I miss it somethin' fierce! My team...

Well, I'm 18 weeks at this point and about 180 pounds. I haven't weighed myself in about a week though so I'm not 100% sure if that's accurate, and honestly I don't want to know. My diet has been pretty much not great. The thrill of unlimited calories and slow digestion has started to wear down and I finally sat down and read the list of what my midwives recommend I eat on a daily basis. Let's just say, I'm not even close. The good news is that I'm starting to be more conscientious of what I'm eating. I'm supposed to have 4 servings of dairy, 2 eggs, and 80 grams of protein per day. I've been getting closer to these goals with things like chocolate milk, subway breakfast sandwiches, luna protein bars and decaf lattes. I'm also going to start doing prenatal yoga with a video. I can tell that I need it because I get pretty sore pretty quickly unless I stretch. The last step is to try to start walking each day. I do fairly well walking in...