Post 9. Sunday Marks Week 2.

So this is the second week of this program, gone, done.... history forever. And I feel like I've done nothing but deviate from it horribly. But how I look at it is: It's the past, it's done, and I won't ever be able to change what WAS, I can only go forward and make it better. And this is true in other aspects of my life.... especially work -- which has me ever so anxious. I know that I am in control of these emotions, but I have the horrible tendency to think and believe the worst... and then attract that negative energy to myself. 

But sitting here writing this blog on a Sunday evening as my love is happily playing his Dark Souls game on the Xbox 360 a short distance away has me thinking that, damn it, I've got so much to be thankful for and grateful for and to be happy about. He (my husband) is wonderful, loving, kind, generous, doting, appreciative, affectionate... dare I go on and risk making everyone jealous? ;) He's just the bee's knees. I'm not sure what's so special about bee's knees, but that's him. Bee's knees, cat's meow, he's the damn bestest. 

So anyway. These past two weeks haven't been as wonderful with progress as I hoped they'd be, but as I previously said, I can't change a damn thing about them now. So on we march.

I have to admit that I've been out of whack with eating correctly (i.e. listening to my body's signals) because I've been so stressed with work that I've just kind of been in all directions, and eat whenever, wherever (I'm not an emotional eater, so it's not that I'm eating my feelings, it's just that I'm much more emotional in other ways so I don't take the time to care for myself enough. And that's the issue that I'm dealing with. But, that having been said, it seems to not have been too much of an impediment to my progress.

Also, I haven't been working out. I'm going to HOPEFULLY start this Couch 2 5K app that I got... Unless someone else has a better app that is free. I figure that if I can get into running by easing into it, maybe I'll have some success. I honestly was hoping to find a fitness center that is cheap that has a pool, but after searching, I don't have enough to spend on it, so I'm going to have to think of ways around it. Swimming would be awesome, though. *sigh*

So, this week... I have stuff for smoothies in the morning which will get rid of the "WTF do I have for breakfast?!" problem, because I feel that everything that would be within reach would be highly caloric or just not good. I know that it's going to have a lot of fructose, as it will be fruit-based, but I think that if I don't make it EVERY meal that I have, then it won't be terrible. I have some flax seed that I'm going to add to it, and I'm going to try to train myself to get up in the morning early again like I did when I had the crappy jobs that I used to have. I love to sleep, yes, but I think that I need to get an earlier jump on the day because I think that one of the reasons why I keep crapping out about working out is that I wake up so late that I feel like I don't have TIME, and then I rush off to work and then I don't get ANY time in later in the day -- because I have to face it that I'm definitely that person who gets shit done better earlier in the morning rather than waiting until later in the day. It just doesn't fit into the latter half of my day, so it HAS to fit into the earlier part of my day. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get my hubby to help me wake up by being sweet and nice and stuff... but I realize he's kind of a grump in the morning (love you!). 

I think if I start waking myself up earlier, that it'll help me ever-so-gradually. 

As much as I don't miss the job that I used to have, I have to admit that I felt more productive when things started earlier in the day. Even if I hated what I was doing, it felt kind of good to be awake so early and to get things done before the time of day hit double digits... and I even wonder if that has something to do with the fact that my progress has been so slow in other areas (namely, like I feel my career has been) because I feel like I waste the day by waking up so late. I know, it seems goofy, but I honestly think it's a valid point that if I can get a lot of stuff done in the morning before other people are even awake, then I'll feel better about the day. I think it's a compounding feeling. I'm weird, I know it, but hey.... I don't think that I know one "normal" person in my life, so they're not as common as you'd think. :P 

At the risk of this being a whole lot of "blah blah blah" I think that I'll just end this saying: This next week is a whole new week, with new possibilities, new opportunities, and I'm going to gradually make the changes that I need to to get where I want to go. 


But for the time being, I have a husband who would greatly appreciate some time with me. :)


xo

Mrs. Scurtu

Post 8. Hump day.

So I am really having a difficult time with this weight loss. I really don't know what's wrong with me. I wish I could figure it out. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm deviating slightly from it. I also haven't been exercising like I should. For whatever reason I haven't been able to be as motivated as I was in the past. When I was losing weight in the past I was doing a lot of exercising and I was very much sticking to a diet that was conducive to losing weight. But for some reason in the past, I'd say, 10 months I have had a hell of a time trying to get back on track from where I fell off. That's not to say that I don't have the same motivation I had before. I mean, I'm staring at the same size 10 jeans I've been trying to fit into for the past 2 years now. I just haven't had the motivation within myself to keep going with it. I think it might be that I haven't had a lot of success past a certain point. It could also be, that I have had this job, and this job takes up a lot more time than my old job used to. Then I could also attribute it to the fact that it's getting near to the "time," and so I am definitely bloating. Maybe if I give myself a little more time and not expect it to be insane results from the get go... Even though the video that I watched the other day for the Naturally Slim Program did say that I should have lost somewhere around four pounds and I definitely did not lose four pounds. I guess I can't completely give up. I mean I've been training myself to eat healthier so that's good... all that I really need to do is get out there and exercise -- that's a huge part of it.  But trust me, it's a lot easier to just give up because you're definitely not seeing results. And I am NOT seeing results. Hopefully within the next week I will be able to have a better outlook on this, but for right now I really feel kinda crummy because I haven't done as well as I hoped I would.

xo

Mrs. Scurtu

Post 7. Another Sunday.

So this past week has shown me that restricting diet in any way is hard because it's so common to disregard someone's want to be healthier like "Oh, why can't you just accept yourself the way you are?" or "sucks to be you!" instead of being encouraging and supportive. "Good for you!" would be an appropriate response. But to each their own. I haven't done amazingly well this week and also with other approaching things affecting my weight loss (aka bloating, ahem) I will weigh tomorrow but not be too hard on myself if I'm up and not down. But today will be a very focused day of drinking my H2Orange and listening to my body. Maybe hydration will help beat the bloat. Well, that and no more fast food, period. I want bad with it last week, but I could have been better.

Here's to week 2 and being more diligent and focused. To hydrate (and determine then if the growl in my stomach is hunger or dehydration) and nom accordingly.

xo

Mrs. Scurtu

Post 6. Tuesday Bluesday

So, right next to my driver-side rear door, there was a face-up penny. An omen of good luck, right? I think that today hasn't been a bad day, anyway. But I've been battling the ever-present MUNCHIES!! Okay, so I went ahead and brought the little Pringles container (with the peanuts dumped inside there) as a kind of... "well, I need to go grocery shopping, this'll hold me over as a hunger saver until I can get other hunger savers" type of thing. But then I was snacking... pushed it away... reached in for another peanut... sure, I was eating slowly, but I was still EATING WHEN I'M NOT NECESSARILY HUNGRY... 

I think sometimes when you adopt a new way of doing things, it makes you REALLY assess what you were doing before... and almost long for what you were doing before, even if you didn't necessarily like it then, and didn't necessarily think that it was a good thing to be doing. I've been drinking my H2Orange... my coffee with milk and Truvia... and I sat down and ate my leftover roast with potatoes... and didn't even get to the carrots, because I presumed myself "full" after the meat and a few of the potatoes.... 

But I can't get it out of my mind all the things I CAN'T have... why does it have to be that way?? I'll make it through, but it's like any addiction... you have to go through points where you want to be weak. It is my life. I'm able to make the decisions that I want to, whether those decisions are to stick to the plan, or to deviate. 

I think I need to breathe, drink some H2Orange, and occupy my mind with other things. 


And get these munchies away from me!


xo


Mrs. Scurtu

Post 5. But Whenever Monday Comes....

Day 1 of the Naturally Slim Program!!! So I generally had the right idea when I was trying to eat tediously slow, but it's more than that. It's actually being all weird and making out with your food that  makes the most difference. (Okay, that's a weird way to put it, but it's a lot of making sure you take the TIME to taste your food.) 

So I was so anxious to get started with the program that the second that the materials arrived at my apartment, I ripped open the box like a kid on Christmas morning. OOOOOOOO, a pedometer!! A TAPE MEASURE!! THANKS, IT'S WHAT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED!! A FOOD JOURNAL?! Oh boy! All my most private (foods?) will go in here! Peanuts and Pringles?? They even feed us! Oh boy! 

So then, of course, I made sure to record my weight and measurements (not the EXACT same day, but within a few days) because I wanted to see progress. Awesome! 

I just made a table in Excel to make this a bit more plug-and-play than writing it (though I'm going to write it anyway, but for the purposes of this blog, I'll have an electronic copy to copy-pasta here. 

 So currently, it's not monumental. But I've only just begun, so it's alright to not have 20 pounds gone! Plus it's only been 6 days (though it feels like it's been foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). I missed another day of working out, but as it said in the video, working out doesn't have to be rigorous, especially since it causes your body to want to hold onto fat/calories/yadayadayada.

I've never licked a chip quite like I did in the exercise within the video. It kind of made me analyze my chicken parm/mexican-dish-like-thingie a little differently.... I cut a small piece of chicken with each bite, and when I put it in my mouth, I let it linger on my tongue. It's crazy how things taste when you just allow yourself to taste them. Like... tasting the richness of the tomato sauce that I choose for the chicken dish was great... the little bit of tang that comes with tomato products... mmm. And I also started this clean-eating challenge today, too... so hopefully, I can couple the two into an effective lifestyle change. 

One of the (many) things that I learned about the method with the Naturally Slim program is that the "hunger savers" are not synonymous with "snacks" and... wait for it... "snacks" don't exist in the plan. Essentially, if you eat when you're not hungry, you create fat. So then... I guess "hunger savers" replace "snacks." They're for when you're at the appropriate level of hunger that you should eat a meal, but you can't because of something that prevents you from eating a meal... that might be that you've got dinner plans that don't coincide well with your natural hunger patterns. You eat either a smaller meal or a "hunger saver" when you would NORMALLY eat a meal to allow yourself to be hungry earlier. 

I think that this program has the right ideas. It's also key to drink this solution that is called "H2Orange" which is 1 part OJ to 7 parts water. Essentially, extremely watered-down OJ. Or, water with a splash of OJ (since watered-down has such a negative connotation.) It's supposed to work on blood sugar AND hydration, two of the reasons people feel falsely hungry. 

I talk like I'm an expert or something. But I'm not. I'm just trying to get this blog down so that I can look back on it and be reminded of the principles of each week. 

Meals for the day?
Breakfast: I drank a little bit of milk (which I learned this evening is a no-no of the program because of its natural sugars) and I had some coffee (with aforementioned milk, which is okay as an additive to coffee, but not as a standalone drink) and sugar (which I learned is another no-no for the first three weeks of the program, so I'll be switching to Stevia from here on out) but I didn't have anything really... food-like for breakfast. 

Lunch: I brought some leftover pot roast with carrots and potatoes from dinner last night. mmmmm... I ate it before I really watched the video for the NS program, so I tried to savor it, but now that I've watched the video, I know HOW to savor it. I finished it off with a yogurt (which I found out, due to its sugars, is another no-no of the program... as well as no DIET foods, which it was a diet food.... way to go Patricia!! All the no-nos today!)

Dinner: So I watched the video as I ate dinner. My dinner consisted of the peanuts I ate with the video exercise (as well as the Pringles) and then a lovely chicken breast smothered in Italian Sausage pasta sauce and some Mexican blend Taco-flavoured shredded cheese... only a little breast, it wasn't a lot of food. Tasty and tiny. Currently, I think that I need to get this tiny container of Pringles out of my face, or I'll snack (A-HA!) on them all! 

I think I'll finish watching this episode of Cops (guilty pleasure of my father's, and now of mine!! haha!!) and then attempt to crawl into bed with my love. Maybe with this program, I'll be able to commit to go to sleep when he does. 


xo


Mrs. Scurtu

Post 4. Sunday Funday!

It's Sunday! Of course, last night I went to a party and that's generally filled with dietary regrets... Sure, I had a corner piece of birthday cake (thinking about it right now makes me want another one!) I also didn't work out yesterday, so I'm going to have to work that in at some point of the day.
In the oven right now, I threw in a pot roast with carrots, onions, and potatoes. The smell is wafting through the apartment and I'm famished!
Tomorrow starts the Naturally Slim Program... here's to hoping I learn a lot with this program and can apply the principles for the rest of my life! (and what's the best about it is that I don't have to say "diet" because I can eat pretty much the same thing as always, but just portion control. I read that they get you to reduce sugar drastically, but I need to do that anyway.) I need to get back into eating cleaner, though, too.  I need to really limit fried food and yada yada yada.

Here's to losing weight!

xo

Mrs. Scurtu

Post 3. It's Friday, I'm in Love!

So, yesterday, I took an off day from working out because I read that working out too much can be negative. But when I woke up this morning, I KNEW I had to get back on it or I would fall into the same trap I was in previously: I would stop working out altogether.
I weighed myself this morning, and delightfully, I'm down to 182.6! Awesome! That's 23.4 cumulative pounds lost since my highest weight, and about two lost in the most current struggle. Woot!
Here's to hoping I can make today a good day!

xo

Mrs. Scurtu

Post 2. Thursday, Thursday.

I have been trying to chew slowly when I eat, and I'm realizing how very very hard it actually is. Fighting the urge to chew, chew, swallow is really hard. Who knew that it would be so difficult? Maybe there's something that I won't know about this until I actually start the Naturally Slim program... such as "count to this many seconds before swallowing" or something of that sort. I also went ahead and watered down the fruit punch that I got... less sugar.

Breakfast:

• Egg White Delight Egg McMuffin -- 380 calories
• Coffee with 4 creams, 4 Splenda -- 78 calories

Lunch: 

• Italian Beef Sandwich, without the bun -- 120 calories
• French fries, 20 pieces -- 267 calories
• watered down fruit punch -- 45 calories

Dinner: TBD

Current Caloric intake: 895 calories as of 17:05 on 5 September 2013.

(I didn't work out today because I took a rest day.)

xo

Mrs. Scurtu

Post 1. Five days before the (official) start of the Naturally Slim Program

So here I am. I'm 25 (creeping in on 26 in a couple short months!) and I've actually signed up for something that would have cost me money if I hadn't done it through my job. It's called the Naturally Slim Program. I've read things on it online, but not before I had already committed myself to the program. Today (September 4th) is day 4 of me restarting the 30 Day Shred. I loved that DVD the first time I did it, and I must say that it's just as wonderful the second time around (except I didn't anticipate that it would be easier this time around, though. I presume I haven't lost much of my endurance even though I fell off of the workout wagon way back in November of last year (around Thanksgiving.))  

I tried a principle that I read today about savouring food... taking a bite, putting the fork down, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew infinitely, then swallow. I just need to cut back on sugars, and I need to drink more water. 

Current Stats:  -- Weight: 184.6 pounds
                           -- Chest: 38.5"
                           -- Arm: 11"
                           -- Waist: 32"
                           -- Abdomen: 37"
                           -- Hips: 45"
                           -- Thigh: 24"
                           -- Calf: 15"
                           -- TOTAL INCHES: 202.5"

So this is according to my Naturally Slim Program Interactive Workbook that I just got in the mail yesterday. I know that there are a lot of people who are going to get tired of me and my constant posting on Facebook (kind of like they did before) but it's well known that support (and having other people hold you accountable) does wonders for the progress that people achieve. I did well before, I went from 206 to 169 (as of January of this year) and then I got another job and went from two jobs where I was more active to one job where I'm at a desk... and of course, I also stopped working out as much as I was before. Of course, then there's the fact that through all of that inactivity, I only gained enough to get back to 184.6... which is a victory in itself, judging from the fact that I didn't gain every pound back. I didn't really just go crazy with the eating thing... I just became more inactive. 

Anyhow. I hope to be able to keep up with this at least once a week while I'm doing the NS program, and hopefully at the end of it, I'll have lost somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds. Maybe more, if I'm really good at it and stick with the working out thing. 

Fingers crossed!!


xo

Mrs. Scurtu