Blech!

Yeah, I'm developing a pattern of really weird post titles.

I spent the the last two or three days with the most awful intestinal cramps. 
It was just horrible and I thought about going to the emergency room 
more than once. The thing is, there wasn't anything else wrong. Everything else was normal, I was just in a lot of pain. Weird. It finally stopped at 2am this morning.

So of course I haven't taken an Alli pill in a while. (I don't blame this on Alli at all. More likely it's some weird flu or food poisoning.) The scale this morning said 138 pounds and I have no idea how accurate that may be. I certainly wouldn't be shocked at the weight gain since I haven't had any exercise except laying in bed, moaning, for days.

So no, at the moment I have no weight loss goals. I haven't even thought about it.

For those of you who have set goals for the month, I wish you the best of luck! I hope to join you in a few days when the memory of the pain fades!

Oops!

No, not an Alli oops! Just a general, yes I'm an awful slacker "oops". I can't believe that I haven't posted in two weeks! I haven't kept my food diary or kept up with the MyAlli updates either. Bad diet blogger!

Unfortunately, I just went through one of those periods in life where I counted myself lucky to remember to brush my teeth each day. Daily blogging (and blog reading) definitely did not fit into my crazy schedule. I had to cut out something and, for once, it wasn't sleep!

Well, here's the good news - even though I've been kind of slack on my eating habits, and done NO exercise, I've still managed to lose 3 pounds in the last two weeks. Yeah, it's not great but it's not awful either and any day that the scale goes down counts as a victory. Thank you, Alli! I guess that even when life is too busy to count my calories and obsess over my carb to protein ratio, that little pill still works.

Oh and I'm definitely coming around to everybody's blogs to see how y'all did while I was gone but in the meantime comment and let me know how you did the last few weeks. While you're at that, who wants to set goals for September? I'll post mine tomorrow, let me know what yours are and we can keep each other on track!

~ Fitness Update ~

136 pounds - A whole 3 pounds lost in August. Those pounds aren't exactly melting off and I suspect that may be due to my complete lack of exercise this month. Gee, ya' think? 

MyAlli: I'm Back!

I know, I know. I said that I was ready to do this on my own without Alli. I said that I thought I was ready for the post-Alli pill lifestyle. What can I say, this is my first time dieting and guess what? It's not as easy as I thought.

For the most part, even though I was off the Alli pills, I've stuck with the MyAlli eating plan. For me that meant that I was limited to 39g of fat and 1200 calories. I did have few slip ups and they were doozies! That's the thing about the pills - you can't eat without thinking. You can't afford to make any mistakes. I never suffered some of the horrible treatment effects that you've heard about but that was because I was very conscientious about tracking my food as I went along each day. I never had any nasty surprises at the end of the day. Once I stopped the pills I got sloppy with my fat/calorie tracking. Mistake!

The weight didn't pile back on once I quit Alli but I certainly sabotaged myself enough to slow it down considerably. (Sabotage = sloppy food intake tracking and no exercise.) I was at 141 pounds when I quit on July 27th and I now weigh 139 pounds. That's discouraging and the last thing I need is to be discouraged at this point!

Alli was good to me once, here's hoping that it's just as good to me this time around. I'll be thrilled if it helps me to lose another 9 pounds in 30 days.

So here's the plan:

I restarted the Alli pills today.
I'm sticking to 39g fat, 1200 calories per day.

Starting tomorrow*:

20+ minutes of cardio 4 to 6 days per week.
Exercise with light weights 30 minutes 3 days per week.
30 minutes to 1 hour of walking 3+ days per week.

~ Fitness Update ~

139 pounds

*I was going to start exercising today but I was up from 2:00am on this morning with my sick doggy. I didn't exactly have the energy today to pound out 20 horrendous minutes on the exercise bike.

By the way, does anyone know exactly when I'm supposed to start to like cardio?

“Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.”

I discovered this morning that being forewarned is one of the most important steps in preparing for diet victory. 99% of my meals are prepared at home and a good portion of the day I'm entering food into Fitday as I go. When it comes time to prepare dinner I plug in a few different meal combinations until I get a calorie/fat gram daily total that complies with the MyAlli program. I've found that this is the best way to prevent any nasty surprises...like the one that I had this morning.

You see, last night I cheated. I thought it was just a little cheat and it wouldn't hurt to go over my fat goal just a little for the day. It wasn't until this morning, when I was entering dinner into Fitday, that I found that my "little cheat" was one hell of a mistake. I had Popeye's spicy fried chicken: a thigh, wing, biscuit and red beans and rice. Sounds innocent enough, right? Checking Popeye's nutrition chart this morning I discovered that meal, that ONE meal, added up to 1290 calories and 77 fat grams. Day-umn! I guess now that I've been forewarned I won't be doing that again. I'm just glad that I'm not taking the Alli pills any longer. I'm pretty sure that if I were I'd be in for a nightmarish day of treatment effects. 

So here's the questions bouncing around in my head today: If I were still taking Alli would I have been as sloppy with my diet? If I add up this massive cheat with the other little cheats that I've had lately, how much have I undermined myself? Did I quit Alli before I really implemented that "lifestyle change"?

~ Fitness Update ~

141 pounds - Exactly where I was 2 weeks ago when I quit the Alli pills. 
(Note: Remember, I lost 9 pounds in 30 days with the pills! Not one pound of sustained loss since then.)

No exercise since I quite the pills! 
For some reason taking the pills and seeing the scale move motivated me to work out ever day.
Without them? Not so much.

My Husband is Lucky to be Alive

When I started dieting and using Alli my husband also made a couple of adjustments to his diet. First, I'm serving lower fat meals with smaller portions of meat and an extra vegetable (now for a total of 3 instead of our usual 2). Second, he cut back on all the junk food that he normally ate at night, he always ate dessert and a lot of it. He's cut back on the sweets but by no means has he cut them out. And finally, he cut out sodas and artificially sweetened drinks. He now drinks juice or sugar sweetened tea. (I swear I can't tell you the last time I saw him drink plain water.)

No radical changes, no dieting, no exercise, Hubby's made just a few small tweaks, right? So imagine how I took it last night when he jumped on the scale and announced that he's lost 9 pounds. 9 pounds! With no effort, no dreadful workouts, no MyAlli, no calories counting. No obsessing! It's a good thing for Hubby that I have a good sense of humor and a healthy dose of self-esteem. After I picked my jaw up off the floor I thought it was hysterical and we shared a really good laugh over it.  

And then this morning I stepped on the scale to find that I've put on 3 pounds. 

It's not so freaking funny now.

Experts Issue New Exercise Guidelines

The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association have issued new guidelines on physical activity updating the influential recommendations originally issued in 1995.  

The new guidelines call for healthy adults to engage in moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity for at least 30 minutes five days each week, or vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise for at least 20 minutes three days a week. They also state that exercise above the recommended minimum amounts provides even greater health benefits. Moderate-intensity aerobic activity can be a brisk walk, light jogging or other exercise that noticeably accelerates the heart rate. Vigorous-intensity exercise like jogging causes rapid breathing and a substantial increase in heart rate.

The guidelines called for weightlifting to work on muscular strength and endurance, with eight to 10 different exercises on two nonconsecutive days a week.

Well, why are you still sitting there? Get moving! Short and sweet, here's a 30 minute full body workout with light weights. Don't have any dumbells? Not a good excuse! Just grab a couple of soup cans out of the pantry.

Looking for the "Right Way" to Eat Real Food

I don't want to spend the rest of my life being afraid of food, terrified that the depression associated with the gain of a single pound may cause me to suddenly give up healthy eating and dive face first into the nearest Derby cake. I'm determined to lose weight and eat the foods that I enjoy. I'm certain that it's possible to do both. 

Mm, cake.

My grandparents were thin, physically healthy and lived to a ripe old age. Those were my genes in them, if they could do it so can I! I'm fairly certain that they never once bought or knowingly consumed anything that was manufactured and touted as some low-fat, low-carb super food. They were farmers and they mostly ate what they grew, a lot of fresh vegetables and meat cooked and served with butter and whole milk and contradicting just about everything that the "experts" tell us today.

Raised in a farm family I grew up eating good, wholesome food and a definite lack of processed foods and chemicals. Of course as I grew older and became responsible for providing for myself I did what most people of my generation have done, I got lazy and started reaching for a box instead of a real vegetable or even skipping meals altogether. More interested in saving time and "convenience" my body is now paying the price for my poor choices. I'm trying to correct that and re-learn the right way of eating.

One thing that I've learned while shedding the pounds, manufactured diet foods are swimming in chemicals. What makes us think that the chemicals that manufacturers put in are any better for us than the fat that they take out? I think I'd feel safer and more satisfied having a smaller serving of real food.

How many times have you thought "I'll have just a little bit more because it's low-fat"? I've done it even while bemoaning the fact that whatever didn't taste as good as the real food. So much for the whole idea behind eating the taste deficient, chemically reprehensible faux food in the first place.



[Image via I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? which you should be reading daily along with Cute Overload to lift your spirits. Both are much sweeter than candy and they have none of the associated guilt or calories.]

Fiber - It's What's for Lunch!

So I had no time for breakfast this morning and very little time for lunch. What to do? Cereal! Eating cereal for lunch made me flashback to college days when food was less of a priority than the real necessities, like books. And beer.

The cereal was actually pretty good. I combined one cup of Fiber One Honey Clusters (tasty!) with a half cup of All~Bran with Extra Fiber and a half cup of milk. It was really, really good (not too sweet, no cardboard aftertaste) and very filling. Fitday gives the macro breakdown:
295 calories, 6g fat, 71g carb, 11g prot, 24g fiber (Those fat grams are my fault, solely the blame of my continued addiction to whole milk. Lurv it! Never gonna change. I'll drink less rather than drinking white watery faux milk, thank you.)

Look at all that fiber! Pretty darned impressive. Now I just have to make sure that I get enough water the rest of the day to keeps things, um, moving. 

I usually get plenty of fiber during the day noshing on raw veggies and fruit. It's just nice to get it out of 
the way without all of that endless chewing. (I'm a lazy eater. If I could just spend the rest of my life being fed intravenously, that would be just fine.)

Dinner tonight will be grilled mako shark, steamed broccoli, baby lima beans, baked potato and tossed salad. Yum!

In trying to fill out my food journal for the days that I was sick there was only two days that I'm completely blank on. I have no idea what I ate on those days. I have no idea if I ate on those days. After torturing myself and Hubby over it for a few hours I finally decided to just fill the data in with my worst meal of the week that way I don't feel guilty for fudging the numbers.

And I'm Back!

Where was I? Stuck in bed with an awful attack of vertigo. I spent the last week holding on to the sheets praying for the world to stop spinning. Now it has, though I must say that right now I'm not too happy with the effects of the scrolling computer screen.

You'll be proud to know that I have stuck to my eating plan. You'd think it would have been fairly easy considering the state of my stomach but you have to realise I was counting on Hubby for food. Apparently pizza, McDonald's and KFC eaten for a week will not lead to disaster if you make smart choices and watch your portions. Not that I was ever in any danger of over eating, of course. Nausea can be a great diet aid.

I did manage to weigh each day (once, I gave up my usual "best two out of three" routine). I'm down to 139 pounds!

The weight loss has definitely slowed down since I quit Alli but since I also haven't worked out for the last week (I can just see myself falling off the stationary exercise bike!)  it's not exactly fair to lay the blame solely with stopping the pills. And I haven't journaled my food intake for the last week so I have no idea what my calorie/fat consumption has been. I just know that I did the best I could in adverse circumstances and didn't GAIN weight. That to me, my friends, counts as a victory!

~ Fitness Update ~

Day # ? - 139 pounds
Exercise - watching the world spin and holding tightly to the bed sheets.

I've Taken My Last Alli Pill

...for now, at least. I've hit a bump in the financial road and I can't justify the added expense of another bottle of Alli right now. Just when my weight loss was really gaining momentum! Well, 30 days later, 9 pounds lighter and no regrets.

I certainly didn't plan on taking Alli for the rest of my life and I did say the entire time that it was more about the MyAlli program than it was about the pill. Right?

I'll just consider this an interesting twist in the MyAlli experiment. I'll be sticking with my MyAlli plan (and I'll keep posting my results). Is my weight loss solely due to the pills? Or, now that I no longer have an Alli, will the dietary changes and work outs keep the momentum going?

If it only takes 21 days to form a habit, how long does it take to create a lifestyle change? 

~ Fitness Update ~

Day #30 - 141 pounds (9 pounds lost)
Exercise bike - 20+ minutes 6 days/week
Light weights - 3 days/week

Welcome Laura!

Ya'll go on over and say "Hi!" to Laura at Laura's Alli Blog. She started Alli on Monday and like all of us could probably use some support.

I've already made myself at home at her place by leaving a comment and stealing this gorgeous photo from her!

Good luck, Laura!