Its been one week...

Well its been one week and time for the weigh in.  Drumroll please....Cheryl since you last weighed in you have lost 8pds (insert the Alison grin)! I am down a whooping eight pounds!  Seriously I am pumped! That's biggest loser style baby!  Its pretty frig-gen motivating let me tell you!  But I am aware - very aware because the second week is never that great for numbers!  So I am prepared for a low number next Tuesday! I am going to stick to the same plan as this past week.  I have a 1773 calorie intake that was determined by myfitnesspal.com .  With that I am taking am drinking water - not quite the 8 glasses but I am up to 4-5 glasses. Anybody who knows me knows that I am a coke-a-holic and its a struggle.  I have a good low calorie healthy breakfast, a visalus shake for lunch and a normal Cheryl dinner.  I just watch the amount of carbs I eat because carbs are my weakness!  My snacks have been consisting of 100 calorie snack packs that I have purchased like my emerald almond snack packs or granola bar. I found some great flavours of the laughing cow spreads over the river and I have one of them with a few crackers!!!! Soooo yeah!!! So excited that I don't want to sit here and write - I wanna get up and move!!!

Day Two - out and about

So I had to hit up Hamilton today for CTscan! I asked my momma bear if she wanted to come with me and we would hit up some thrift shops for her blue mountain pottery.  She was game!  We started our way to Hamilton at 9:30.  By noon she had acquired several pieces and I had done tons of walking.
Because I was going to be gone for the day I couldn't have my shake for lunch, I decided to have my shake for breakfast  and omg it was soooo good.  I make mine with yoghurt and the Caribbean fruit medley.  Its sooo delicious!  For lunch I was good.  I went to subway and had a six inch sub.  Dave made me a really nice spinach salad and lemon chicken for dinner.  So it sounds like I breezed through day two right - WRONG!  Let me tell you I was jonesing for a coke soooo bad.  I had this horrific headache when I was in the waiting room.  When they told me they were going to put an IV in I was probably more pissed than usual because of the headache!  It took everything inside me not reveal my frustration.  I had to lay there still while my arms where above my head cutting off the oxygen supply.  When it was all over, instead of waiting to see if I had a reaction to the dye I hiked my arse back to the car where my poor mother had been hanging out in for the last two hours.  I wanted nothing more than to get the heck out and have the coldest can of coke I could find. Instead, in that rooftop parking spot, I was stuck.  The car battery was dead.  Thankfully we were able to get a  boost rather quickly (thank you dear stranger).  So we head down the parking garage to the gate.  The gate that will not open.  The stupid ticket machine now wants three more dollars on top of the 12 I had just paid.  I pushed that help button like nobody's business.  Thankfully they freed me.  I started to cough and without a word my mother hands me a water bottle - I chugged that in seconds flat.  She handed me a digestive cookie.  Ahhh cookies soothes the savage soul.  I thought better of my choice to have a cold can of coke and headed home.

I was like this late last night -  jonesing pretty bad last night during biggest loser for a cold coke!  and I was famished!  I did give in and had some trail mix (yes Sue I ate bird food).  I don't think I struggled like this when I quit smoking!  I am just trying to be conscientious of my choices and I know its going to be rough.   I am literally taking this step by step.  I just wish it was an easier path.  But as the saying goes, "Nothing good comes easy".

The Dreaded Reveal

I don't get it but every time I see a picture of myself I feel am shocked and my first response is OMG I AM HUGE.  I don't know why because I am well aware that I am -  especially around the skinny chicks. Pictures don't lie and apparently neither do the numbers.  I stepped on the scales for my starting weight.  In my head I could hear Alison, "Cheryl your starting wieght is..." and the numbers bouncing up and down in head as I try to guess what it will be...116kg...WTF what does that mean.  UGH! The scale I bought doesn't do my stone-age pounds.  I jump on the computer for a conversion...SHUT THE FRONT DOOR thats 256 pounds!  I guess I am going to have to work a little more harder than I thought eh!  Next week when I step on that scale it will read 253.  It will be in that moment when my own disgust in myself will turn into a sense of pride for goal one reached! 
I had Dave help me with the measurements.  If I am going to put my journey out there then I need to continue with full disclosure.

Neck: 16.75 in
Shoulder: 49.5 in
Chest: 52 in
Ribs: 43 in
Waist: 47.5 in
Hips: 46.5 in
Thighs: 27.75 in
Calf: 18.5 in
Ankle: 10.5 in

UGH says it all. 

As far as the day goes I did ok foodwise.  I went over my calories for the day by 30 - if I exercise I can get rid of the overage which is the plan before biggest loser comes on tonight.  The shake is omg crump-dilly-ious!  I can see myself looking forward to those sins of the day.  It was dinner that I struggled with.  I love starchy foods!  I had a big bowl of salad with my sausage.  It looked good on paper.  I am going to have to rework how I do my dinners so I can feel more satisfied.  I'll do that tomorrow *wink*.  Day 1 down 364 to go!

The Start Date is almost upon me!!!

Ok - so here it is! I am fatty and I am going to do something about it. I am a rather tall woman who has managed to carry my weight all over but there has many challenges in the last few years that have sent my weight spiralling out of control and I want to take back control.  Three years ago I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and fibroids the size of my fist.  Having such a fear of doctors, I opted to get the full hysterectomy first and then work up to getting my throat sliced.  I was so afraid of the rumours that doctors won't perform surgery because I smoked - I quit.  Imagine that to kick start my weight gain - instant menopause, no thyroid and quit smoking!  The muffin top was almost instant or so it seemed - because those huge fibroids filled that area out...good lord nothing worse then underwear that rolls down LOL.  After all was said and done, a new array of challenges arose.  I have struggled with this constant vibrating in my legs, sometimes awful swelling in my feet that would hurt so bad it felt I like stones for feet.  There was this constant pain up in between my shoulder blades - all this and more turned out to be rheumatoid arthritis complied with fibromyalgia/chronic pain syndrome/lupus!  In a nutshell I had bad days where I just friggen hurt so bad that I don’t move.  So now add that to the weight gain challenge - immobility and compile that with my love of food - cooking and eating! Man this is suicide at its slowest! 

I have been making a conscious effort to deal with my other life challenges one item at a time.  I am now at a stage where there are no other issues that I can use as an excuse to put this off any longer.   This is it! The time has come.  I have felt the desire to do this for a while – I faithfully watch biggest loser the season of no excuses!  With bag of chips in hand, I laugh and cry for those contestants because I understand them – I am one of them! As the bag of chips empties and the show comes to an end – the last words they utter, “….and the next time you see me America, I will……” Man!!!! they have direction, they have a plan, they have a goal.  They have done it in a fashion that America will be holding them accountable come finale night.  So I have given my direction, my plan and my goals A LOT of consideration and I, too, am going to put it out there so others can hold me accountable.

My first step was to recognize my strengths and weaknesses and work with them instead of setting myself up for failure:

1)     When I am in a rush, I hit up the drive thru fast food joints and proceed to make bad food choices.  To counter that I have started preparing meals or side dishes that are a much healthier choice and sensible calories.  I am in control of the amount salts and other ingredients.  They are then packaged in appropriate portion sizes. An example of this I have made my own Egg McMuffin and have about 5 portions individually wrapped in the freezer.  When I am on the go I pop one in the microwave for 1min.   In doing that I have avoided the temptation of having the fried hashbrown and a coke to wash it down and it was only 300 calories!

2)     I struggle with a healthy calorie intake.  If I make a plan, much alike a to-do list then maybe I will be more likely to stick to it because it’s like a commitment on paper.    Breakfast is ok. Its lunch, dinner and snacking.  So my plan is to do the Body by Vi shake for lunch.  I am sure everyone has an opinion about incorporating it and how it should be used but hear me out.  On any given day of the week I can hit up the King for lunch for 1200 calorie take out of a burger fry and a coke.  If I make the conscious effort to substitute that for a Visalus shake that starts at 90 calories and add to that what I want say flavoured yogurt and fresh fruit I will still be under the 500 calorie mark for lunch – healthier choices.  The nutrients alone will be much better on my brain than the King.  I choose to do the Visalus shakes because when I left the gym the protein shake stand didn’t open until 9am. The protein shakes are helpful in helping the body recover.  I was going to invest in my own protein shakes until I watched how friends were enjoying the Visalus shakes and getting results.  I liked that they are delivered to my door for the same price as driving across town.  Convenient eh! And I know I can’t stay on the shakes for life – but as anyone who works out knows you can’t do the same workout routine you have to switch it up.  I figure when that plateaus I’ll try something different. 

3)     Creating a routine that I can follow through on.  I found that working out first thing in the morning is most effective for me – and according to Dr.OZ it’s the best time to workout LOL.  I experience the least amount of pain in the am if I have had a full night’s sleep (which I think I have finally mastered). I have tried the whole “I’ll go to Zumba at 5:30pm”.  That time rolls around I am spent or some sort of excuse will follow like interruptions to my routines.  My only solution to that was if something or someone needs my services then it needs to be planned out.  This provides me opportunity to make adjustments.  If not, then I need to put myself first and other situations need to wait.  That’s the hardest part, being ok with putting myself first. 

4)      Creating a supportive environment.  So I have pitched any clothing that it too big.  I have emptied cupboards of really bad food choices.  I portioned many foods into appropriate sizes.  I don’t have a steady work out buddy and I am ok with that.  I don’t want to use the crutch of I had no one to go with to stand in my way.  But your reading this saying I could use a workout buddy then by all means come along!

5)      Inspired by my daughter in law, I am gonna to use Myfitnesspal to monitor my progress.  It’s a handy tool because I have access to it on my phone, my ipad and comp! 

So that’s the basics.  I am starting tomorrow!  As I was typing away this blog, the Purolator guy dropped off my shakes!  Join in my journey whether you just want to read about it, chime in with your two cents or you want to join me in the gym or for a shake then do it because IN A YEAR FROM NOW YOUR GONNA WISH YOU STARTED WITH ME! xoxo