Almost a Year...

... since my last post on this blog.

I've pretty much put it to bed, but I want to keep it online because it chronicles the success of my weight loss and I hope it may be encouraging to other dieters.

As I said, it's been almost a year since my last post and it's been 18 months now since I reached my goal weight using the Nutrisystem plan.

I'll admit I've slipped a bit now and then over the last 18 months, but at the most I have gained 5 pounds and am consistently still below my original goal weight of 140 pounds ( just not as low as the 134 I reached at one point)

I still exercise on a regular basis and still, at almost 51 years of age, fit in the size 6 clothes I bought when I reached my goal weight.

The Nutrisystem program, especially when done without the purchased foods, really teaches you what you need to know to eat healthy for the rest of your life. I can go out for the occasional fancy meal and it doesn't hurt because the next day I'm back eating sensible foods in sensible proportions.

If I can do it, anyone can!

Total Gym Gold - Update

Wow! I don't know why I felt guilty about buying the Total Gym! I really think it's a great investment for my future health!

It came with a DVD of a workout which exercises just about every part of the body. Since I don't have a TV in the same room as the Total Gym, I wrote down what all the exercises were, in sequence. Now I keep that workout list next to the Total Gym and refer to it as I do my workout. I'm at the point now where I have it down, but the notes are there just in case my mind goes blank, LOL!

I wholeheartedly recommend this piece of equipment to anyone who is looking for a home gym. I love it!!

Recommitting Myself

For the past couple of weeks, I've let things slide. My exercising has been sporadic (at least it seems so to me) and I've been allowing more and more "additions" to my diet.

I've discovered that when my period is approaching, and during my period, I have a tendancy to want to eat everything in sight! I really need to stop that!! Every month I gain two or three pounds during that time and then I have to work to lose it again.

Some of it, of course, is water retention, but I think some of it is just plain bad choices.

So... I'm recommitting myself to:

a) Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day.

b) Follow the NS guidelines for eating and NOT add in all kinds of snacks, desserts and extras (I do need to stock up on sugar free Jell-O etc. to help me there)

c) Get back to my daily exercise.

Wish me luck!

Total Gym Gold

I've been thinking about , wishing for and wanting some sort of exercise equipment for a long time. Never enough to actually BUY anything, but it's been there in my mind since I started my weight loss journey.

I did, in fact, get an exercise bike (which didnt cost me anything) but it only gets sporadic use because it tires my legs, but does nothing for the rest of me. (I suppose I should just look at it as cardio, but I prefer my Walk Away the Pounds for that)

Anyway, so there I was watching a movie one Sunday afternoon and it was a movie I had already seen, so I went channel surfing. Two or three clicks down the dial I came across QVC and they were selling the Total Gym Gold at a "special anniversary price." I've seen the infomercials with Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley and thought it looked ok, but had never seriously considered getting one. However, watching the QVC segment I realized what a good machine it appeared to be. Within ten minutes I had bought one on Easy Pay!

Five minutes later the guilt set in but a post on the NS boards eased my mind that it was a good investment (and besides, I could always return it if I didn't like it)

It arrived yesterday and let me tell you, just getting it in the door from my front porch was a workout in and of itself! Then setting it up was a bit challenging (I think I still have a piece I haven't attached to anything yet)

It comes with a dvd, which I watched part of last night. I wish I had a tv/dvdc combo in the bedroom, where I have the Total Gym, but I don't. I had to watch an exercise, go back and do it, then watch the next exercise. It also comes with a book of all the exercises and suggestions for beginner/intermediate and advanced workouts.

I read through it on the bus this morning and think I have enough of a handle on the beginner exercises to give it a try tonight. I can't wait to get home and start working out on it!

Help me, I'm turning into a Fitness freak!!

Online Diet Resources

When I was actively losing weight, I was keeping track of everything I ate in a program called Diet Sleuth. It was specifically for Macintosh, but there are a number of options available for Windows users too. There's also an online diet tracker at FitDay.com, where you can enter your height, your weight, your activity level etc. and it will figure out a diet plan for you. You can also track your weightloss, your activity etc. I'll admit, having reached goal, I haven't kept up with the tracking. If I find my weight starting to creep up again, it will definitely be one of the main tools I will use to get things back in control. Seeing how all those "just one little cookie" additions to your diet add to the total calories for the day definitely makes you think twice!

The program I used, Diet Sleuth, allowed you to enter custom foods, in addition to the thousands of foods already in the database. As I entered nutritional information about the foods I was eating, it struck me how many Kraft foods I eat! In fact the Kraft Foods website has a lot of information, including tons of recipes and a great section on Healthy Living. I signed up for a newsletter which sends me recipes and nutritional information once a week - it's pretty neat.

Seven Months on Maintenance

While I don't post often in my blog, now that I'm not actively trying to lose weight, I am still maintaining the weight loss I managed to achieve. To me, it seems like it is relatively easy to maintain (mainly because I live alone, so I don't have temptations around me all the time)

So what do I eat, now that I'm not on Nutrisystem anymore? Well, since I actually did most of my weight loss without the Nutrisystem foods, my maintennce plan has been very similar to the actual diet. It includes lots of whole grains, fresh vegatables, salads, and all the water I can drink.

I'm still not really what I would consider a cook and usually opt for convenience. So items that feature high on my grocery list are things like Lean Cuisine Spa Cuisine entrees, that feature whole grains.

Browsing around to find that link, I found that the Lean Cuisine website has a handy-dandy tool called Build Your Own Meal Plan. You enter in your height and weight information, it calculates your BMI and then presents you with a meal plan that is designed to help you attain the optimal BMI for your height. Pretty neat -- I just signed up for it.

Other items on my shopping list are the Lipton Whole Grain Pasta Sides -- I just have to be careful with the portion size. I also have to keep track of the sodium content or I swell up like a water balloon. On the plus side though, they are very tasty and make a nice change from plain whole grain brown rice.

I'll post again soon with some more convenience items for the diet-watchers.

Mind Over Matter

One day, a couple of weeks ago, I had a revelation while I was exercising.

As I mentioned in my previous post, recently it's been getting harder and harder for me to get out of bed at 5 am in order to exercise. Well this particular day, I woke up with a headache, but I really didn't want to blow off my exercise (knowing I would feel guilty for doing so) so I got up, took a couple of Excedrin and went ahead and exercised.

Towards the end of my workout, I realized that, not only had the headache gone, but I felt like a million dollars! I couldn't believe it, since I had felt so crummy when I got out of bed.

Anyway, I resolved to file that feeling away and try and draw on it in the future, when I don't feel like getting out of bed.

That, along with my "no-tuna" experiment, has kept me bouncing out of bed in the morning for the past week.

I'll let you know how it goes

Chronic Tiredness, Caused by Diet?

Well so much for plans... my exercise goals for February just went by the wayside it seems. That's one of the reasons I've been hesitant to post, although I guess, in a blog, you need to post when you've done badly as well as when you've done well.

I'm not completely sure why I did so badly with the exercise except to say that when that alarm goes off at 5am, sometimes it's impossible to drag myself out of bed.

However, a couple of interesting things to share with you -- first, I think I may have discovered a possible reason for my being so tired. I was thinking about it and suddenly remembered an article I had read in a magazine a couple of years ago. It was one of those "case history" types of article where a woman was describing her health issues. Specifically, she was experiencing chronic tiredness (and while I wouldn't categorize mine as chronic, I could certainly relate) She made a point of stating that she considered she was eating healthy and one of the things she would eat would be tuna sandwiches at lunch time. If I remember the article correctly, it turned out to be the tuna that was at the root of her problem. Then I realized that I had recently been eating a lot more tuna, adding it to my lunchtime salads.

Could it be, I wondered, the reason I was feeling so run down all the time?

I decided to experiment and for a week now, I haven't had any tuna, but have been having alternating soups with my lunch time salad.

I have to say it seems to be making a difference. I've been able to get out of bed on time eveery day this week (ok, so it's only Wednesday) and I don't find myself nodding off to sleep at every available moment!

So now, I want to research this some more and see if it's a known fact. If it is, I'll just cut tuna out of my diet -- even though I ate a lot of it last year while I was losing weight.

Exercise Goals

I've mentioned before that my daily workouts consist mostly of working out to Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds series of exercise dvd's. I love them, I've got several now and like to alternate them to give me some variety in my workouts.

I also like to check in to Leslie Sansone's In Home Walking website which, of course, offers her video and dvd workouts for sale, as well as the various "walk boosters" such as the weights and ab belts and also has articles etc.

The thing I like best is the Walk Club. As a Walk Club member (which isn't expensive, by the way) you are able to download the "Walk Diet" which changes each month. It's a way to challenge yourself and get fit and healthy at the same time. You can also keep track of your mileage in your own personal Walk Log.

The thing I like best of all is the Bulletin Board. The ladies on the Bulletin board (and they do seem to be mostly women, not men) are a great source of inspiration and also help me stay accountable. Some of them make me feel like a bit of a slug when I do my daily "check-in" with two miles logged for the day, and they have 5 or 10 miles logged for the day!

I did really lousy in January. As I mentioned in my last post, I was feeling puny for the first half of the month and only really felt up to walking on a regular basis for the latter half of the month. So now, as we get into February, I set myself a goal of 40 miles for the month, which works out an easy 2 miles per week day.

Some of the ladies in the Walk Club have set themselves goals of 100 miles for the month! Just a little out of my reach at the moment!

Anyway, I'm on track for now. I even did a little extra at the weekend, when I tried a Pilates workout dvd I got at a garage sale. I had thought, as I was doing it, that perhaps I wasn't doing it right because it seemed easy to me. But let me tell you, I could REALLY feel it the next day (and today too, come to think of it!) So perhaps it was working better than I thought it was!

Have a wonderful day!