Herbal Life Reviews: goals/objectives

Please read it at the new blog. Please change your links/follows to TWO YEARS TO HAPPY WEIGHT AFTER:

FACE THE TRUTH FRIDAYS: Made this Week's Goal...Surprisingly..and seeking iron resolve!

Have a beautiful weekend, you fatfighters!!

New Blog Updated: Restarting the Organic Co-Op and Planning for a New Life

Read it at TWO YEARS TO HAPPY WEIGHT AFTER

Sorry, that one goes off on something of a rumination/rant/whatever. I don't even know what the heck happened mid-post.

Please change your links/follows to the new blog. THANKS.

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Face Up To It Fridays: Met Loss Goal, Didn't Meet Activity or Intrinsic Motivation Goals, Hubby noticed shrinkage, and Thoughts after watching THINTERVENTION...

New blog has been updated: Two Years to Happy Weight After

If you haven't changed my addy/follows, please do so. THANKs.

UPDATE:
Face Up To It Fridays: Met Loss Goal, Didn't Meet Activity or Intrinsic Motivation Goals, Hubby noticed shrinkage, and Thoughts after watching THINTERVENTION...
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How to Set Goals For Weight Loss--or so they say... :)

New blog updated.

I've moved, so please change links/follows. THANKS.

How to Set Goals for Weight Loss--or so they say...

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Reminder: My Blog Has Moved...Please follow me at new site for TWO YEARS TO HAPPY WEIGHT AFTER

I updated my new blog:

Two Years to Happy Weight After

A Rocky Start to Summer Slimmin' Week 3 --Plus Belly Pic, Food Pics, Pilates Pics

Man, the weekend really threw me off. Not just the overload of cheese at the anime con, but the overload of salty-dippy crap (on tortilla chips) at my brother's house. I have yet to be at my calorie level since Saturday. Yesterday's eating was better, but still not at target.

Today, so far, so good. I'm really hungry right NOW, so I'll be having lunch after posting.

I will add that I am nonetheless not feeling that weird mired, hopelessness I've felt in the past. I'm more feeling analytical and pretty calm. I haven't had an all-out binge and I haven't felt like giving up. In fact, I have this feeling of , "My groove is coming. My groove is just around the corner." I kinda like that.

Anyway, I did start my new medication regimen, so I have fingers crossed that won't be an issue/obstacle. I continue to feel pretty chipper, like some epiphany is on its way. Hope so. :D

So, here's a pic for continuing motivation mojo--my appley body's belly that I wanna reduce to keep diabetes away from my door:

And here's the sparkly "goal dress" that now fits, but I haven't worn out yet (too fricken hot for this fabric):

I bought a goal shirt that will fit when I'm down another 7 pounds or so. I decided to get goal stuff I can wear sooner. Heh. I had that dress in the back of the closet for years.

And some meals I've had, including today's breakfast:

Above is a Spanish Omelette (potatoes, onions, eggs, olive oil), a soy sausage, tomatoes, a whole wheat roll with lowfat pimento cheese spread (I didn't eat the angel food cake and tossed it). Water, lovely Brazilian coffee.

Had the above on Monday for lunch. It's mixed greens (including my fave arugula) with gorgonzola crumbles and onions and a balsamic vinaigrette. Fresh pineapple chunks. Coconut Water. Water.

This is a Diet-To-Go breakfast option--the Egg and Broccoli pie (essentially a lowfat quiche with a whole grain crust). I sauteed mushrooms and had a baby arugula and baby spinach salad (tomatoes and a bit of EVOO). Coffee. Lime water. An orange and a nectarine.

Here are some exercises I did Monday at my Pilates session (ignore the uberdorky hair that I hastily clipped up and off my face), and I left out a bunch, but I wasn't gonna upload the one with a crotch shot. HAH! I got that new active top at Lane Bryant last week. On sale, very comfy:

Man, why is it so much of my weight has to go and just sit in my dang middle. I'm so unbalanced. Ah, well.

Okay, so now back to my regularly scheduled water consumption and lunch-making. It's lowfat eggplant parmesan with steamed veggies today. While the scale is, yes, glaring at me with an uptick (oh, salt, why do I long so after thee?) after Sunday's indulgences, I am not stressing. Our Lady of Weight Loss has told me, "All is forgiven. Move on."

Happy Wednesday to all you fatfighting folks!

185 --The Magic Number Where I'd Stop Being Obese

I was fiddling with the NIH's BMI Calculator. I know I'd done this before--trying to figure out where I stopped being obese, etc, but I'd forgotten.

So, I did it again.

The WHO's classification for obesity is this:

BMI	Classification
< 18.5	underweight
18.5–24.9	normal weight
25.0–29.9	overweight
30.0–34.9	class I obesity
35.0–39.9	class II obesity
≥ 40.0	class III obesity

Well, at my highest, my BMI--as approximated using the NIH calculator-- was 48.3. That means that at 299, I was in a subset of Class III obesity called super obese.

When I started this blog at 289 lbs in 2007, my BMI was 46.6. Still super obese. Today, I was a scosh over 263, which has my BMI at 42.4. No longer in the worst category, but still in Class III. This is morbidly obese.

To leave Class III, I'd have to get down to 246, at which weight my BMI would be 39.9 and Class II Obesity, and I'd be considered severely obese. At 216, I'd have a BMI of 24.9 and be in Class I--plain old obese. No scary modifiers.

But 186 lbs is THE magic number: No longer obese at all. Merely categorized as overweight. BMI of 29.9.

The SUPER MAGIC NUMBER: 154. This was my weight on my wedding day. My weight at my first gynecological exam. My weight when I was 23. It was all UPscale from then... This was normal weight for my height, right on the border.

Which is funny, cause in the back of my mind, I've always wanted to be that poundage again. Not cause of the weight charts. Not cause I looked slim. That was the upper end of my doctor's weight chart numbers for me, for my height. I clearly felt a bit chubby. I couldn't shop at "normal" stores, cause they didn't have my size. I still was not slender. I even had hubby take pics of me in a bathing suit and hated the sight of my pudge. (I wish I was that pudgy now, dangit.) BUT...I was "normal weight."

154. Wedding Day Weight. Normal Weight. Youth weight.

Yeah. It's a very significant number.

I don't expect to get there. I'd love to, but I think the caloric sacrifice would be too much to even KEEP me there, if I got there. Big if. I choose to be realistic these days, and I don't know if I could be happy with that sort of caloric restriction. Shoot, just staying under 2000 is hard.

But 185. I can dream that without an immense twinge of disbelief at impossibilities. I can be "just overweight."

After two decades plus of obesity, merely overweight sounds really, really good. I can aim for that. I can dream of that.

It's not a bad dream.

If you want to fiddle with your numbers, HERE.

Funky 5 MeMe, Princess Dieter Style

Felipa of I'M GETTING FIT blog tagged me. Normally, I avoid memes like zee big bad plagues. But I like the name Felipa, so here goes:

Where were you 5 years ago?

Ever since my thyroid died, my memory went with it. Lemme see...2005, June...2005... Hmm..okay, I was getting back into writing, as it was a year after my mother died, and I suffered a 3.5 year long depression over it. I was still very depressed, but struggling to overcome by keeping busy.. I had joined some writing associations and I was working hard to learn the art of novel writing. Later that year, I won a contest--which began a string of some good writing and some nice acknowledgments, contest wins, etc. In fact, I want to get back to writing. That's part of what getting healthy is for. I was also freaking out, I'm sure, as that was a bad summer full of storms.

Where would you like to be 5 years from now?

A published novelist who is at goal weight and has won an outrageous lotto jackpot. :D

5 things on your to do list today

Pilates

Wild monkey whoopsies with hubby

Pedicure and manicure (preferably before item 2)

Prepping clothes for the weekend events (anime convention, Father's Day)

Shopping and menu list for what I'm gonna do for Father's Day.

5 snacks you enjoy

mangoes

cheddar cheese with Fiber Gourmet cheese crackers

D'Lites frozen dessert in German Chocolate Cake

Kashi Cocoa Beach granola with milk

cherries

(Basically, if it's got cheese, fruit, or chocolate, or a combo thereof, I like it.)

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?

~Have the world's most kick-butt library EVER!

~Have the world's most kick-butt music room EVER!

~Be a patroness of struggling female fantasy artists

~Start a mentorship and scholarship foundation in my parents' names that helps the children of impoverished legal immigrants reach their educational and career goals

~Open a comprehensive, residential, non-profit weight loss and fitness re-educational center that offers a holistic (body, mind, spirit) approach to getting healthy, situated in the most beautiful locale I can find, and offer scholarships for selected needy residents or families to stay as long as needed to get healthy--with the program paying their bills for the months of stay. In turn, they will be expected to pay it forward in their own communities by becoming volunteers in their communities' health outreaches upon return to normal life.

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So here's the 5 I'm tagging:

I'm not tagging 5 of you. I'm tagging ANY and ALL of you reading post who wanna play along. Personally, if you're totally wild and crazy and promise to give wacky and unexpected answers, kindly comment with a link so I can go read it. And yeah, link me up to your MeMe if you saw it here first and are gonna do it. Yes, this means YOU. Link me.

Starting Weigh-In for SUMMER SLIMMIN' Challenge, Goals, and Preparatory Actions...

Got on the scale to document my starting weight for the Summer Slimmin' Challenge. (You still can join, so click on that badge to the left at the top of my sidebar.)

And here is the kick-off poundage:

267.6

I can see the crap I had Saturday--chorizo tapas, rolls with cheese butter, fried chicken, fried green plantains--took its toll. It was a lollapalooza of bad choices at a mediocre restaurant. That's 1.6 lbs up from last time I weighed.

My goal for how many pounds I wanna lose by August 6: 17.6

That should take me to 250, a weight I haven't been at since, like 2001--I'd have to check old records, but I know I was 254 after my appendectomy, and I had lost some weight, so I'm assuming I was 250 the year before (as I tended to gain about 10 pounds a year, give or take, and by 2003 I was 266.)

Well okay, so I started off fine this AM with a breakfast nearly half my usual breakfasty caloric level: 437

I'm aiming for 1800 a day the first week, 1700 the second, and then 1600 for the remainer of the challenge.

If I feel too hungry at the lower level of 1600, I'll let myself move up again to 1700 and then 1800, the latter being where I want to set the upper bar. I haven't been able to eat that few calories consistently for two months at a time in years and years, and I could NEVER keep it up, so let's see what the challenge can do to my mindset. If I am to sustain a lower weight--and my goal is to get to 175 one day--then I have to learn to eat less. I am hopeful. Ever hopeful.

One of the things I learned in the last couple weeks is that 2300 calories more or less is maintenance for me. I had weigh-ins that never moved more than a pound up or down on days I tracked my calories at around 2300.

So, if I eat more I will gain (and when I don't restrain myself, I naturally gravitate to eating about 4000 to 4500 calories, and yes, that's how you get to 300 lbs, peops!) So, if I eat 1800, that's 500 less than maintenance. Times 7 days means I will lose at least a pound week--add in the water losses that come with dieting and I might make 2 lbs a week. Add in more exercise and I might make it to 3 lbs a week. Hence, I aim for the middlish ground, 2 lbs per week.

So, here's to getting to a size 22 by August 6 (or at least that's my estimate. I'm a bit snug in 24, and sometimes loose in 26 and sometimes perfect, so it seems to me that 17.6 lbs off should take me down to a 22 with some comfort in the fit, yes? At my highest I wore a 30/32, so this will be a nice change.

Other goals:

~~to blog daily and be accountable to my challenge-mates and readers

~~to post encouragement to other challenge participants (at least two a day)

~~to drink 8+ glasses of water (fruit essenced or plain)

~~to add 20 mins of exercise on non-Pilates days (I normally do an hour of trainer-supervised Pilates 2x a week), meaning pop in a DVD and do it or dance around the living room or march in place or whatever. Just move my butt for 20 mins on 3 other non-Pilates days for a total of 5 days with exercise.

~~to eat at least 6 fruits /veggies a day (the challenge only asks for a minimum of 5, but I want to set a wee bit higher bar for myself)

~~to eat/cook/prepare most of my meals at home (not to be tempted in restaurants, with the exceptions being, certainly, my anniversary on the 11th and my husband's birthday on the 26th)

~~to be more scrupulous with my food tracking/journaling. I am going to do it at Sparkpeople (where I have only been sporadic and non-comprehensive). My aim is to document EVERY SPECK of food or beverage that goes into my mouth and down to my tummy.

~~to blog my weigh-in on Sundays (although I may weigh-in for my own purposes more often.

I already requested delivery of vegetarian meals (I'll receive it sometime next Thursday) in order to simplify the caloric-watch for a few weeks, then I'll begin making my meals myself. I want someone else to portion it for me, as I really tend to just go nuts with portions. 3 to 4 weeks of pre-portioned meals should help get me in the mindset of "this much is the correct amount".

After that, I will weigh/measure at home to keep things calorically tidy.

Since the meal delivery won't start for several days, I will be shopping today to restock on fresh produce, skim milk, lowfat cheese, and whatever I need to make healthful meals for me and hubby until I get my pre-portioned vegetarian lowfat meals. I am going to make my shopping list as soon as I get off blogging this.

Z of Bottomless blog, who is hosting the challenge and created our cool badges, has already done her challenge-friendly shopping. Go see.

I will happily accept any encouraging remarks and rah-rahs to keep me on target. And I hope I can encourage you, too. It's a long haul and a tough fight, so let's be pillars for each other.

Let's do it! Onward and DOWNward!

Other measures to track for the challenge:
starting waist: 44.5
starting hips: 54.5

How Committed Am I...Are You?

The clock in my soul is ticking furiously, inexorably...and it sounds like it's saying. HURRY, HURRY. Are you gonna commit?

Am I committed enough to my goals? My weight goal in particular, I'm asked, which, if I don't meet will shorten my life and impede my other goals...

I can't help but be honest. Not much. Some. Some, that's all. I am watchful for parts of the day, but not all. I focus on other things easily. I don't keep up the strategies.

Some. A bit.

Some days, utterly minimally.

It's bothersome to me to be that uncommitted. It's a lack of a certain virtue I desire: perseverance.

Perseverance is such a lovely word, such a beautiful character attribute. But I really lack it. In more areas than just diet. It goes hand in hand with its virtuous sibling: commitment.

I have several goals that have sat curbside while I dither, while I sink into blues, rise up a bit, sink down, while I fritter, while I dream, while I don't fully commit, while I don't work hourly, by the minute, on persevering in that commitment.. Dreaming is of no use if the action necessary to realize the dream is missing.

I'm missing in ACTION, so literally it's not at all funny. It's tragic.

My "I'm 50" midlife crisis has me really having alternating attacks of regret, nostalgia, anxiety, futurefear, wishing, more nostalgia, frenzied pep talks, depressed naps, more anxiety, self-berating, etc. I'm ridiculous, frankly. It's embarrassing to be so out of it and unfocused and unproductive and NOT MEET GOALS.

Geesh.

So, why is this question of commitment suddenly on my mind. I got a mail message from Sparkpeople with it's "Healthy Reflections." Here's it is in case it helps you, makes you think:

Are You Giving Your Goals Your Best Effort?

Your dreams deserve better than a half-hearted effort. Meet your goals with a weak handshake and they'll soon be waving you goodbye. Since you probably don't want to look back on a life full of "almost made it" memories, it's time for total commitment. Leave it all on the field, don't hold anything back. Is there anything more satisfying than pouring out your entire being, straddling the cliff, reaching your total limit, then looking up and realizing that oh-my-gosh-I-can't-believe-I-really-did-it? And is there anything more tragic than failing and realizing you could have done more? If you feel "tuned out" of your current life, that's okay. Make your first goal to build a life that you can get "in"-to. Then don't look back. Make every day count and live purposefully, live energetically, live completely.

I don't have enough time left to keep wasting it, ya know. I don't wanna die FAT.

I. Do. Not. Want. To. Die. FAT!

I do not want to die having unrealized four other dreams of mine besides the weight thing.

And the clock keeps ticking....

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New Blog Updated: Allan's "Math" Challenge: Eating at "160 x 11" Calories for 2 Weeks

Allan's "Math" Challenge: Eating at "160 x 11" Calories for 2 Weeks

If you want to join the challenge, please go to Allan's blog to do so (see link at entry on other blog).

New Blog Updated: Face the Truth Fridays: Met Goal at Week 7 (weekly and overall) and Learned I Can Overcome Urges for "Comfort Food" Self-Medication When Sick

Face the Truth Fridays: Met Goal at Week 7 (weekly and overall) and Learned I Can Overcome Urges for "Comfort Food" Self-Medication When Sick

Have a fit Friday!

New Blog Updated: "Just Ten" Challenge: Where Would A "Just Ten" Pound Loss Take You?

"Just Ten" Challenge: Where Would A "Just Ten" Pound Loss Take You?

And please update your links/follows. THANKS.

New Blog Updated: Face the Truth Friday: Met Goal, Back on Track, & the Portion Thing

Face The Truth Fridays: Met Goal, Back on Track, and The Portion Thing...

New Blog Updated: Nice extra downtick today...Some Food From Yesterday...Pics from After Workout (front, side)

New Blog Updated: FACE THE TRUTH FRIDAYS: Made This Week's Goal...surprisingly..and seeking iron resolve!