Random thoughts Monday

In an attempt to clear my head for a new week I’m going to try out a new weekly posting, called “Random thoughts Monday.”  We’ll see how it goes.

• A normal Gambling man: in talking with one of my husband’s clients yesterday, who had just gotten back from winning over $100 at a poker tournament, I got to thinking.  Are there men out there who go to poker tournaments 5-days a week?  Men who consistently make $100 or more a day and bring it all home to a family?  I know my husband, who is a musician, makes almost all his money playing gigs.  Gigs where he rarely drinks, doesn’t do drugs and his paycheck is automatically deposited.  He’s such a normal guy, but most would never guess that (unless they had met him once) and would assume he’s the stereo-type for a rock-n-roll musician.  So are there family men out there who actually support their family via poker?
• Organization Intervention: how did I ever get anything done when I worked 50-60 hours a week in an office.  Some how I did, but not now.  Sure I still work part-time (all these hours are at home, telecommuting is the best invention!!) and I’m taking care of two kids, but it’s so hard for me to keep the house clean, get the laundry done, food on the table/keep food in the house and the zillion of other things you do each week to keep a house moving.  But I have a to do list that grows and never lengthens.  I’m a certified project manager (PMP) and proud of it, you’d think I’d be able to use some of my skills and get moving on my list.  But no, it never happens.  Well PMP, it’s time to get to work.  First things first, lets get all the special to-dos (i.e. things that are not normally done daily/weekly) onto one list.  That’s it, just make a list…see you next week.
• When’s the book going to be done?: hmmm, I remember my original plan which had my books first draft getting finished in June 2011.  Well I’m sure fitting into the stereo-typical author profile, I barely wrote this summer.  Maybe 2,000 words all summer.  I’m happy to report I got over 1,000 words down today and tomorrow I’m going to write some more.  I need to get back into the habbit of working on my book and come up with a daily or weekly goal that puts me on the right path to getting all my first thoughts down.  I need them out of head!!!  Do you have a side goal or hobby that you have not worked on lately?
• Remembering 9/11: it’s always hard to think of all those that were lost ten years ago, but yesterday’s memorials were especially moving.  It is comforting to know they will never be forgotten and we will always come together to remember them.  Did you think yesterday where you were ten years ago?  I was at the dentist.  Having no cavities would have filled my day with joy, but that was forgotten, as my heart cried for all those living in H E double hockey sticks.  I thought of you yesterday and today and in all my years to come.

August 26, 2011

A couple of insights, change in goals and a little joke…

I set out yesterday to see what else I could be doing to help me in my weight loss journey, besides: good food choices/portions, getting enough water/sleep/exercise, finding a good balance in my workout schedule.  My search began with looking for information about metabolism and I actually learned a few things.  According to The IF Life we do not actually raise our metabolism by eating small more frequent meals.  They’ve quoted Martin over at leangains.com

“if you eat six small meals throughout the day, you will store and burn less fat between the meals compared to three meals a day, while you will store and burn more fat with three meals a day. Note that I say ‘store’, because fat storage and fat burning is an ongoing process ‘ with six small meals you will store less AND burn less, and with three meals a day you will store more AND burn more”

Ok, yes, metabolism is more complicated than I thought.  I even found a site that had a scary statement, “even more important is the observation that an increased metabolism has been shown to cause premature aging“.  WHAT, OMG, you’ve got to be kidding me.  To all you superior athletes out there that is so not fair.  Ok, lets calm down and let cooler heads prevail.

During my search I found over and over again that weight loss is simple, create a calorie deficit and you will lose weight.  Simple.  I like simple.  But we all know it’s not that simple.

There are many reasons to eat frequently, especially if you have blood sugar problems, but there is another reason, especially those of us who have had problems listening to our hunger scale.  We are more likely to over eat or choose foods poorly when we are past a 5 on the hunger scale.  I’m thinking we could use smaller more frequent meals as a training ground for making better food choices and allow the good addiction to how good you can feel to grow strong.

The Calories per hour article (see scary link above) states:

It is important to understand what happens when you skip a meal or go on a crash diet. When you skip a meal your metabolism slows to conserve your energy. And when you lose weight too quickly for a few days, your body thinks it is threatened with starvation and goes into survival mode. It fights to conserve your fat stores, and any weight loss comes mostly from water and muscle.

Never skip a meal, especially breakfast, and eat healthy snacks between meals. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs and the binges that follow, provides consistent energy, and may be the single most effective way to maintain metabolism efficiency.

What have I learned?  Don’t over complicate the situation.  I’m going to continue to eat 3 big meals a day and one or two small snacks.  Those hunger pains are not my friend, they are not a sign of losing weight, they are a sign of a slowing metabolism and can cause me to lose muscle, yikes, I don’t want that!!

I also took a good hard look at my final weight loss goal.  I can imagine a lot goes into deciding our final goals and there are many ways to determine what is a healthy weight.  Although I really like the idea of my initial goal, it really wasn’t necessary.  Remember I am 5′ 2″, when I reach 136 pounds I will be at the top of the normal BMI range (24.9).  I was originally planning to reach 120 pounds (my wedding day weight), but for now I’ve adjusted my goal to be 130 pounds (BMI: 23.9).  With my new goal I will still get into the normal weight range and have 6 pounds to spare.  My goal is still to make my goal in the 1st Q of 2012, but I have just over a pound to reach 30% of my final weight loss goal, and that’s pretty cool.  I keep second guessing my thought process in changing my goal and that is in large part to my demons.  I do not need to be the same weight as when I got married.  I no longer want to beat myself up about my weight and to be honest I still have a lot of work to do.  Luckily I have a little angel in my pocket and she helped me talk through it yesterday, thank you Dacia 🙂

And finally here’s the funny from a friend on Facebook: Claiming a product promotes weight loss when combined with diet and exercise is like claiming it grants wishes when used with a leprechaun

TGIF Gang!! (quote from my favorite high school teacher)

August 24, 2011

We all know opposites attract and it can be so very true in weight loss any everyday life as well.  I’m creating a list, let me know if you can think of some too

• Drink more water to lose water weight
• Exert energy to gain energy
• Spend money to make money (ok, this only applies to the entrepreneurs out there, but it’s still true)
• If you sleep too much you’ll feel tired

For those of us on the weight loss journey we also know there is a fine line between eating enough calories to keep up your energy, ensure your body doesn’t go into starvation mode (i.e. lowering your metabolism to hold onto weight) but is still losing weight.  Balance is so important.  Not only do we need to have a balanced diet, we need a balanced life style.  Sure there is not enough hours in a day to get everything done.  But there are still 24 hours in everyday.  A lot of the hours of our day are eaten up by sleep, exercise, travel and work; but there are still many hours left to enjoy.  Some days you may only get 5 minutes, make them count.  It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in our struggles, too easy to be hard on ourselves.  I’ve got a lot on my plate these days and I’m working at finding my balance.  It’s really easy to get very caught up in the negative or to feel you’ll never get to your destination.  Remember that 1/2 of our journey is how we get there, enjoy the ride.  Finding joy in the simple things makes it easier to handle the struggles.

Breathe. Balance. Enjoy.

Today was a weigh day for me and I’m most pleased at the little resistance my mind had towards the event.  Sure I’ve worked hard over the past several days, made good food choices and got in almost all the water I had planned for, but you just never know what that dang scale is going to say.  Again, knowing I’m not leaving this journey, I’m going to keep chosing me is making it easier to face the reality of the scale.  Through thick and hopefully one day thin I’m staying in the game for as long as I live.  I’m happy to say I’ve lost 1.8 pounds since Friday (I weighed in two days late last week), how cool is that.  I’ve also lost another inch off my waist and hips, for a total of two inches down in my trouble areas!!  My BMI is down to 28.5, which is pretty cool considering I got off track earlier this month.  Once again I have had three weeks in a row of losses, which I also had in early July.  I guess really getting off track isn’t the worst thing that could happen, as long as I get my head back in the game.  Hey, if I can go another three weeks I just might reach my 30% goal!!  This week my head will stay fixed on my goals, no getting side tracked.  Well I do have a huge party to throw on Sunday for my boys birthdays.  No, I will not be side tracked, head in the game, straight forward one foot in front of the other.

Breathe. Balance. Enjoy.