Detox Update – Week 1

My husband and I have been doing the detox for a week now.  I think that my brain (or subconscious anyway) likes to think of this as a detox, because I did a really good job at keeping at it.  Weekends are still tough, I still have 5 weeks left.

As mentioned in my last post, I stayed as close as possible to a 1200 calorie eating regime – balanced to the food pyramid and without unneccessary fats, salts, and sugars.  Even though my husband and I veered off this weekend, I am very excited that I have been able to lose weight this week. 

I weighed myself everyday this week because, as you can see from my previous posts,  I have fluctuated quite a bit from week to week.  My goal is for this detox to help curb that and help me have lasting loss over the next 4 weeks, then continuing throughout the rest of the year.

To kick off the second week of my detox, I am adding my 10,000 steps goal.  Yes, I mentioned earlier that my daily number of steps have been sorely lacking – left to my own devices, I am embarrassingly sedentary.  I have been wearing my pedodmeter and marking my daily steps since that post, but I have not really gotten serious about meeting my 10K goal.  On average, I would say I’ve gotten about 2500 steps during the week.  Even less on the weekend.  Yeah, it’s bad.  But I’m putting all this out there because I need to be brutally honest with myself.

So this morning I woke my poor husband up at 10 til 5 for a trip to the gym.  After waking ourselves up and dragging ourselves down to the workout area of our apartment complex, we worked out for about 30 minutes.  I choose the cardio program on the treadmill that is provided.  Level 1 offered walking/running between 2.0 mph and 4.8 mph.  I think this is perfect for me because I still have that goal of a 10k in June and the program provided me with both walking and running during the 25 minute session.

Weigh In: 257.4 lbs (-1.6 lbs)

Getting Through the Holiday and into a New Year

Weigh-In: 255.6 lbs (-1.4 lbs)

Review: The last two weeks have been up and down in terms of my food choices and exercise (or lack thereof).  I did some honest-but-difficult-to-swallow assessments of my lack-of-exercising-lifestyle because I want the reality of my situation to hit me as hard as possible. 

What is worse than Sedentary?  That is probably what I fit into right now!  I put on my trusty pedometer and “followed myself around” for the week.  My shockingly low numbers ranged from 668 steps to 4442 steps per day.

668?!?!?! I am beyond embarrassed about that.   The good thing in this I can’t do much worse than that!  My goal is to clock 10,000 steps per day this year.

If I did nothing else to change my lifestyle, walking 10,000 steps a day will have a significant impact.  Here are some of the things I can look forward to:

* 10,000 steps (for me, 4.16 miles which I figured out here) would help me burn 374 calories per day.  According to this, you burn about 35 calories per mile for every 100 lbs that you weigh.  I can expect to burn .75 lbs a week or 38.9 lbs per year! 

* Improved mood, stronger heart and better blood circulation.

* According to this site, I can expect increased muscle tone, boosted metabolism, ease stress, raise energy levels, and improve sleep.  Ah, blissful sleep.

While my goal for this year of 1 lb per week (52 lbs for 2011) is higher than what I estimate losing by simply walking 10,000 steps per day (38.9 lbs), it is definitely a step in the right direction!

Week 2: Get Real!

Weigh In: 257.0

RECAP: Last week was not as smooth as I had hoped.  I got was really psyched up to get right back into my “old” routine and lose some weight, but my brain was trying to do something my body wasn’t ready to do.

I suppose I should say that differently.  My logical brain said “ok, let’s do it” and my creative brain said, “ok, let’s rebel!”   I think we all know which side won.

Some positive results of this past week include:

• Food journaling: I was pretty consistent about keeping a journal and making positive choices where I normally would have “failed.”  At the same time, I convinced myself that I was doing a great job and allowed myself a few “rewards.”  *cringe*
• Seeing Green:  I started to see a lot more green in my diet.  You know, vegetables!  I am really talented at skipping veggies, but I did a fair job of getting in my 2 1/2 servings each day. 
• The E-N-E-M-Y:  Carbs and fats.  When sugary food of any kind calls to me, I cannot resist.  My best friend, Pepsi, and I have so many sweet memories together that I can’t picture my life with out him.  My other BFF, chocolate, also has a strong grip on me. 

I don’t really believe that sugar and fats are the enemy, but I do know that I am apparently powerless against their siren song.

BABY STEP 1: Food Journaling

Keeping an honest journal for myself really helped amped up the awareness factor on what I was eating, and how much I was knoshing on.  I plan to contineu to journal and make small changes to my every day fare.

Week 2 Plan of Attack!

I plan to continue journaling my calorie intake and get serious about attaining my goal of a 5 or 10K in 6 months.  But first, I will vow to stop saying “6 months.”  Instead, I will say:  my 5 or 10K in June 2011.  To begin, I shall amp up my walking with a goal of 10,000 steps per day.  For me, that equates to about 4.16 miles.  See how to calculate your steps in miles here.

Walk a Mile in My [Your] Shoes…

To calculate how many miles you walk in 10,000 steps, you will need:

• A wall or straight “starting line”
• Measuring tape
• A friend or painters tape to mark your “finish” line
• Paper, pencil, and a calculator

Standing at your starting line with the back of your shoe lined up with the “starting” marker, take ten natural steps forward.  It feels a little awkward to do it but don’t think about that too much.  If you have a friend handy, have them measure from the back of your shoe to the starting line.  (If you don’t have a friend handy, just place a marker on the ground in line with the heel of your shoe and measure the distance to the starting line).

To get the number of miles in 10,000 steps (the “healthy” number of steps we should all aim to reach each day), use the following worksheet:

Week 1: Getting down with the basics

Weigh In: 254.6

Yesterday I went shopping for the food I would need for this week as well as cooking up a few things to have on hand.  I will be following the Dietary Exchange program that my doctor put me on while I went through the medical fast last year.  I get a food budget of 1200 calories, but all “counting” comes in the form of dietary exchanges.  My exchanges look like this:

1200 Calories

5 Protein

3-5 Vegetables

2 Dairy

3 Fruit

5 Carbohydrates

3 Fats

3 Miscellaneous

One baby step at a time…

I’ve thought about what I need to do so much, that I’ve paralyzed myself.  I’m so paralyzed, I’m trying to avoid my problems by distracting myself.  That is something I have become very good at this past year, even though I have some really good ideas to try.

Ok, here they are:

1. Review the program.  Re-read the materials I got from my 6 month class. The medical fast I went through really brought a lot of my unconscious decisions to the surface.  I had to face decisions I had been making.  I was forced to realize why I hid behind food and the messed up image I had of myself.  I conquered my own perception of things, and it felt really empowering.  I need to rediscover that, because I think it will be encouraging.
2. Plan my meals. Planning my meals and sticking to the structure that I discovered was so easy.  Of course, it was easy to stop doing it too and that’s a big part of why I am here.  Again.  I need to be conscious of my eating choices and aware of my progress towards a healthy diet.  My portions need a new perspective.
3. Exercise. During my program, I discovered an internal yearning to run.  I started to run and it felt really good.  But I am scared of running.  I don’t know why; even thinking that truth sounds silly in my head.  I am going to train for a 10k.  It will be in 6 months.

6 months is nothing!  The medical fast was 6 months long and I got through it.  This time, I’ll be able to eat real food the entire time.  I can do it.  🙂