I want to lose 10 lbs in the next 3 months. That may not seem like a big deal. Especially for those of you who know me. I can hear the comments already, "But you look great, Carrie." "You don't need to lose any weight, Carrie." But for me, I've been trying to lose 10 lbs as long as I can remember and it's really not about looking great anymore. It's about overcoming this difficult road block I hit every time I try to lose a few extra lbs. The road block is self control with regards to food. It's not being able to say no. It's this insane drive towards sugar that feels completely out of my hands. It's this silly conversation I have with myself in my head that is me conversing with myself saying I shouldn't worry so much, go ahead and reward myself with a tasty treat. I will find any excuse in the book to validate that reward. But what's that about? Why reward myself with a tasty treat? Why not reward myself with health and energy? Vitality? Looking great in a bikini?!? It doesn't make sense. So this blog is my attempt at understanding this and getting out as much of the wacky process that goes on in my mind as possible so that maybe...just maybe...I can get past it.
I also want it to be online so that I feel somewhat accountable to someone other than myself. Somehow knowing that others may be reading this and that I will have to record my progress will make it more real, I think. So I can't just tell myself little lies and excuses and forget about it because no one will know. This time everyone will know.
Okay. SO...here's what you should know about me:
I am a 37 year old woman.
I'm 5'2"
I weigh 135 lbs and have weighed this for about 2 years. Before that I was around 127-132 for many years.
The standard weight for a woman my height is approx 115 lbs.
Waist = 30"
Hips = 39"
I have a desk job. (sedentary)
I ride my bike to work 3x a week. (45 minutes each way, keeping approx 135 bpm)
I do one day of legs/butt exercises.
I do one day of arms/shoulders/back exercises.
I try to follow a Paleo/Primal type diet (only meat, fish, veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, good fats, some dairy) but I allow TOO MANY exceptions and often derail all my efforts by eating too many sweets.
On the outset you're thinking, "that's a healthy and fit girl!". And you would be right. I am healthy, I have a lot of energy, I am strong. Most days I feel great about myself. But here's the thing: I'm aging and it's harder and harder to maintain a physique that I feel good about. Also, I weigh about 20 lbs too much for my height and my body fat ratio is way too high for a girl as short as me. (last time I checked it I was around 25% body fat. I should be somewhere around 17%) I guess whats frustrating is that I work hard to maintain where I'm at and I feel like I should be gaining while working hard, not just maintaining.
So in order to get to where I want to be I'm going to have to dial in my diet a bit more and shave off a few bits that have been holding me back. I need to harness my will power to say NO to sugar and sweets at all costs and I have to work really hard to show restraint with portions. Luckily, I'm not coming into this with awful eating habits. I have been working the last 5 years or so to dump many of my old bad eating habits (this all came mostly due to some health issues I was having that was a BIG wakeup call to me). I used to eat Coco Puffs every morning for breakfast, have giant bowls of pasta on the regular, toss back candy every time I passed a candy rack, eat sandwiches with white bread practically every day, tons of rice, caramel macchiato from Starbucks 3 or 4 times a week (sugar!) and not think twice when eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Oh, and lots of soda. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I didn't cook so I was really good at grab and go type foods that I could heat up or get for takeout. READ: PROCESSED FOOD. So I basically rocked my blood sugar on a regular basis. I never thought of food as nutrients and fuel - I only thought of it as sustenance or something to make the hunger pains go away. Since I was young and exercised regularly I didn't notice the effects so much. But as life would have it, this caught up with me and I was experiencing major vitamin deficiencies and developed a thyroid nodule that eventually led to thyroid surgery and the loss of one lobe. I lost my sense of smell (and consequently taste), experienced MAJOR hormonal imbalances where my doctor put me on hormone replacement therapy, and I was depressed/anxious, tired, and well you know how it goes.
I've since had gotten my hormone/vitamin levels back to normal, I have tons of energy, have almost completely gotten rid of processed foods and breads/starches, am managing stress better, and feel pretty great most of the time.
Okay. SO...here's what you should know about me:
I am a 37 year old woman.
I'm 5'2"
I weigh 135 lbs and have weighed this for about 2 years. Before that I was around 127-132 for many years.
The standard weight for a woman my height is approx 115 lbs.
Waist = 30"
Hips = 39"
I have a desk job. (sedentary)
I ride my bike to work 3x a week. (45 minutes each way, keeping approx 135 bpm)
I do one day of legs/butt exercises.
I do one day of arms/shoulders/back exercises.
I try to follow a Paleo/Primal type diet (only meat, fish, veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, good fats, some dairy) but I allow TOO MANY exceptions and often derail all my efforts by eating too many sweets.
On the outset you're thinking, "that's a healthy and fit girl!". And you would be right. I am healthy, I have a lot of energy, I am strong. Most days I feel great about myself. But here's the thing: I'm aging and it's harder and harder to maintain a physique that I feel good about. Also, I weigh about 20 lbs too much for my height and my body fat ratio is way too high for a girl as short as me. (last time I checked it I was around 25% body fat. I should be somewhere around 17%) I guess whats frustrating is that I work hard to maintain where I'm at and I feel like I should be gaining while working hard, not just maintaining.
So in order to get to where I want to be I'm going to have to dial in my diet a bit more and shave off a few bits that have been holding me back. I need to harness my will power to say NO to sugar and sweets at all costs and I have to work really hard to show restraint with portions. Luckily, I'm not coming into this with awful eating habits. I have been working the last 5 years or so to dump many of my old bad eating habits (this all came mostly due to some health issues I was having that was a BIG wakeup call to me). I used to eat Coco Puffs every morning for breakfast, have giant bowls of pasta on the regular, toss back candy every time I passed a candy rack, eat sandwiches with white bread practically every day, tons of rice, caramel macchiato from Starbucks 3 or 4 times a week (sugar!) and not think twice when eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Oh, and lots of soda. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I didn't cook so I was really good at grab and go type foods that I could heat up or get for takeout. READ: PROCESSED FOOD. So I basically rocked my blood sugar on a regular basis. I never thought of food as nutrients and fuel - I only thought of it as sustenance or something to make the hunger pains go away. Since I was young and exercised regularly I didn't notice the effects so much. But as life would have it, this caught up with me and I was experiencing major vitamin deficiencies and developed a thyroid nodule that eventually led to thyroid surgery and the loss of one lobe. I lost my sense of smell (and consequently taste), experienced MAJOR hormonal imbalances where my doctor put me on hormone replacement therapy, and I was depressed/anxious, tired, and well you know how it goes.
I've since had gotten my hormone/vitamin levels back to normal, I have tons of energy, have almost completely gotten rid of processed foods and breads/starches, am managing stress better, and feel pretty great most of the time.
So I want to keep this positive swing in motion and just kick it up just one more notch. Because why not?
The game plan:
This week (starting Monday) I'm going to begin recording all my calories and food in MyFitnessPal, which has an app I downloaded on my phone. The goal is to eat 1500 calories a day. Delete all sugar treats minus a teaspoon of sugar in my morning coffee. Up my water intake. See how this goes for the next week.
Stay tuned!
Excited for you, Carrie! The only lame little advice I sheepishly offer is to consider what precisely you want to see as results & consider changing the goal away from the pounds. I guess the body fat percentage is more specific but I'm thinking more along the lines of measurements or some other indicators of the increased health. That way it won't become a concentration on the scale. But! You do this for a living so you know the ropes! And, of course, I would say that every sustainable health-focused diet plan allows for exceptions so your mental health is not completely restricted. But I know there are many ways to achieve that balance. Ok! Signing off in support of you!
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