Weight Loss Wednesday

Stepping the scale daily is not healthy for me. Weight naturally fluctuates and I don't need to drive myself nuts trying to micromanage my weight. My friend only weighs in once a month and as I sit here writing this post, that may be the way for me to go as well. I have been doing weekly weighins and I am still noticing a regular fluctuation by about two pounds. Possibly that's not a big deal, especially if my clothes still fit.

For now, I will keep the weekly weighins since I need to monitor my progress. As I have worked towards my goal, I have learned that that maintenance is particularly difficult. My brain is chemically sabotaging me to gain the weight back. I have been at or above 150 twice and over 140 once. I will always need a lazer focus to make sure I don't go back to 150.

For a bonus holiday eating tip, you must continue to count calories the entire holiday season. Counting calories keeps you accountable to what goes in and what you expend with exercise. If you keep a good diary through myfitnesspal.com, you will likely not gain weight. I usually put in breakfast, lunch, snacks, and exercise. My goal is to leave about 400 calories for dinner at the end of the day. I don't usually enter dinner because it is homemade and that's tough to count.

Don't you love all the food photos? I do that to show you how I constantly struggle too. Do you need someone to coach you torwards your weight loss goal? I'd love to help you. I can help you with nutrition and recommendations in the gym. I can constantly encourage you to meet your goals and stick to your plan. 

Tip Tuesday

The holidays are just around the corner and it is time to be thinking of healthy eating strategies. I will be sharing tips to help you avoid the usual ten pound gain each year. I have typically gained ten pounds and had to lose it in January and that takes months to accomplish! Please tell me, I am not the only one to experience this problem.

In honor of Thanksgiving, just around the corner, today's tip is to help you avoid eating too many calories at the dinner table (or the snack table). Select the smallest plate or cup available. This is more of a mind trick, which tricks your mind into thinking you have loaded your plate, which you can do when the plate is smaller. When there's not enough space to fill it past your usual daily caloric intake, you won't have over eaten. You can enjoy everything that is offered but enjoy it in smaller portions.

Truthfully, I am horrible at portion control. I never stop when I know I should or sometimes I just don't know when to stop. Having a smaller plate in hand will help me and you keep away the calories we don't need. It will essentially force us to use better portion control.

Go ahead and give it a try. Tell me how it worked or didn't work for you. If you are looking for a coach to help you meet your weight loss goals, email me or leave a comment below. I would love to encourage you to stay healthy this holiday season.

I had wanted this post to be filled with random photos but got rather impatient with my computer. Hence the lack of pictures.

Weight Loss Wednesday: Guest Post Edition

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Weight Loss Wednesday! I am excited for Jamie to guest post, please be sure to check her blog out. In other weight loss news, I have not weighed in but will on Saturday. If its decent, I'll be sure to tweet about it. Finally, I will be participating in the Eat Your Heart out cleanse found here and here. Fingers crossed for a heap of pounds to melt away from those 7 days! Take it away Jamie!

Blog/Twitter/Facebook

Hi everyone...I'm Jamie and I blog over at Things in YOU. I want to thank Esther for allowing me to come over and share my 21 Day Portion Control Challenge.  I'm only on Day 9 of my challenge, but I would love for you all to join in, especially if anything I'm about to say sounds familiar.

I was getting to the point where every day I was feeling guilty for everything I was putting in my mouth. I had no clue on how to lose weight. Every Monday I kept telling myself "this is the day," but Monday would come and go and I still wasn't paying any attention to what I was eating. My biggest addiction I think would be fast food, eating out, and carbs. I would hardly ever eat fruits and veggies. 

I am 5'9". At the beginning of this challenge I weighed 176 pounds. My BMI was 26% and I was 30 pounds over weight. Now let me make this clear, I just started my challenge 9 days ago. Before I tell you my results thus far,  I would like to tell you a little about my strategy and tips that have helped me and will hopefully help you!

The reason this challenge is 21 days is because professionals say it takes 21 days to form a habit. So the habit I needed to form was Portion Control. In my mind, I needed extra support so I decided to post my meals, everyday on my blog, for everyone to see. Some of my "bloggy buddies" encouraged me to use My Fitness Pal. I'm so glad I did! This helpful tool keeps track of everything that's going in my mouth. I thought to myself,  "I'm not that type of person who can write everything down," then I came to the realization, I HAVE TO!! In order for me to get an idea of how many calories something was...I had to keep track of it. That's where My Fitness Pal came in. Just put in the food and amount and it tracks it for you! It couldn't be any easier!

 Important TIPS I've learned:

Portion Control Tip #1: Don't Leave Food in Sight

Portion Control Tip #2: Use Meat as a Side Dish

Portion Control Tip #3: Split a Serving(Restaurants)

Portion Control Tip #4: Learn Serving Sizes(My Fitness Pal helps with this)

Portion Control Tip #5: Eat Small Meals

These tips I have learned in just 9 short days, and I'm sure I'll learn more as time goes on. 

Now onto my results for my first 9 Days. I lost a total of 5 pounds, so that takes my weight down to 171. My BMI is down a little to 25.2%. 

I am very happy with my results thus far. Because I am MORE conscience of what I am putting in my mouth and keeping track of it, I do not feel guilty anymore. If I want a cookie and I know I can have it because I ate proper proportions for the day, then I'll have a cookie. Oh, and by the way, I am the type of person if I completely eliminate something like sweets from my diet, the next time it's in front of me I devour it. Are you like that? I am not a professional in weight loss, nor do I claim this is the best diet out there. All I know is this is working for me and I feel it is balanced and I feel great and not deprived in anyway.

I hope these tips help and are as useful to you as they were for me! 

Thanks again Jamie! These are some great tips to find balance with a healthy diet. I am not great at control when sweets are in front of me and I lose all sense of control when the food is free. (These are big reasons why I don't go to certain restaurants with all you can eat items such as chips, bread or buffets.) If you would like to guest post, please let me know! I am always encouraged by your stories. Please stay tuned for Thankful Thursday!

High Five for Friday!

Dear new friends and old friends,
We made it to Friday! Woohoo! I've been in training and traveling all week which has been fun but made decisions tough. Eating healthy, not super great. Blogging has been hard too. Tonight, I'm relaxing and chillin with my new coworkers. It should be great! Fortunately/unfortunately, life doesn't return to normal until next Friday night. I'll be working hard at learning and fun. Ha! What's your top five for the week?

Weight loss Wednesday:Guest post

I am super excited to have Katie visiting from KTJWeighing In! Thanks for guest posting Katie!

The Power of the Scale

Hi everyone! I'm Katie from ktjweighingin.com and I was asked to guest post this week for Weight Loss Wednesday. Today I thought I'd write a little bit about the power the scale has over us.

A commercial, that I actually posted on my blog yesterday, had me thinking - why do we allow a number to define so much of our lives?

(The Special K commercial can be found here: here)

It is true. The scale has too much power over us. Too many of us measure our success based on the number the scale says. We look back at pictures and cringe. We remember stages of our life based on our weight at the time. We tell ourselves that we will do this or that activity, but only once we hit our goal weight.

I am guilty of this thinking also. It seems like I am still at the beginning of my weight loss journey, but really my journey started at least 15 years ago. I've always been overweight. I've tried tons of diets and my story is probably very similar to so many others. Things have been different this time. I've learned that to really do this that it has to be the right time in your life. You have to really want it and you have to be willing to change.

I've been changing my life for about 5 months now and I have lost 30 pounds. But really the number isn't what is important. I can't let the speed of my weight loss define my success, and neither should you!

Here is a quote I love:

"The scale can't measure your will, your drive, how much time you put into your food plan, or how many temptations you said no to. It can't tell how many old habits you broke or new, healthier habits you started. It doesn't know the effort you put in at the gym , and it doesn't care. It won't heap praise on you because you chose the stairs over the elevator or know that you passed on a slice of a colleague's birthday cake even though you wanted it with all your heart.
Most of all, the scale doesn't have any idea how hard you're trying, or how many times you overcame a slip and got back on track when you felt like giving it all up together. Only you know that."
- Kim Bensen, "Finally Thin"

So together let's stop giving the scale power and focus not on the amount of weight lost, but on the number of healthier choices we make. Enjoy life and don't sit on the sidelines waiting to reach your goal weight.

If you are currently working on making a healthier you or are thinking about starting, you can receive an awesome prize pack from my first giveaway ever!

You can win:

A copy of the book "Finally Thin" by Kim Bensen, it is full of inspiration and recipes,
A tumbler with a straw for ease in drinking more water, and
A $15 iTunes gift card to create a new work out play list.
Head on over to my blog at ktjweighingin.com to enter! Good luck!

If you would like to share your story or success tips, please send me an email: estherdavison@gmail.com. Please stay tuned for thankful Thursday!

Weight Loss Wednesday

I'd like to thank everyone who has encouraged me as I share my struggle to lose weight. This is the wrong time of year but every bit as important. I am down 2 pounds and looking to shed 7 more over the next two months or so. Having mouth surgery has led me to and kept me from healthy choices. I'm eating all carbs since that's soft and staying away from chewy candies for fear of ripping out the temporary crown.

On a separate note, I baked four items yesterday: chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, peanut butter fudge, and banana bread. Wheat flour was used every where but the fudge. I didn't eat any of it! Yay! I have them in individual baggies to give as gifts to coworkers, neighbors, and staff where I live. Sadly, the chocolate chip cookies were in the oven too long and are very crunchy (something I am not eating right now.)

I am accepting guest posters for weight loss Wednesday's. Do you have a good tip or encouraging story? I'd love to hear it and feature it on my blog. Please contact me by leaving a comment or emailing me at estherdavison@gmail.com. Thanks and please stay tuned for thankful Thursday.

Serious Sunday - a bit about me.

Welcome to Serious Sunday. Since I have new readers, I thought it would be great to introduce myself. I like to write, take photos, play piano, read, and stay generally active/healthy. My hubby and I have been married for 13 years (basically since we were kids). We don't have kids but we do take care of kitty cats: Chomps (gray kitty) and Kirby (brown kitty). We love to travel and you can check out where we've been on my Travels page. We have lived in Denver Colorado twice, Hawaii twice, Anchorage Alaska, and now we live in Oklahoma City. Originally, I am from Portland Oregon and that's where all my family lives. I miss the liquid sunshine, the ocean within a short drive, and my family. I plan on staying 29 for as long as possible and maybe longer than I can get away with it. It sounds like a good age to me. Final little random tid bit: I am allergic to chocolate and I don't care. (Its a quick sneeze and back to indulging in chocolate goodness.) If you have any questions or comments please post them below and I'll cheerfully email you back. Please stay tuned for Make a Difference Monday.  

Silly Saturday

Welcome to Silly Saturday. It's silly that I'm trying to lose weight during the holidays. It's silly that I'm trying to lose weight, yet I'm still baking treats and freezing them. I made banana bread with whole wheat flour and chocolate chips. I also made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with some whole wheat flour. It still sounds a little healthy, right? Stay tuned to Serious Sunday. I'm linking up with Jilly at Hi It's Jilly. Update at 8:30 am: De Ja Vu, I gained last week's pound back. I'm shaking my head in unhappiness.

Musings

I am not one of those people who eats perfectly healthy 100 % of the time. I am sure there are people who do crazy stuff like that. There is a possibility that I eat healthy 75% of the time.  The diet is thrown out the window Friday night and Saturday night most every weekend.  Then there's the baby cheats.

Baby cheats? you ask.

For example today at lunch I ordered a side salad from Chick-Fil-A. There was a little bit of cheese and I ate it even though I said I was swearing off dairy for now. Earlier in the day, there was a bag of fun size peanut MMs. I ate that too. In the scheme of a day, I would not say the diet was ruined because that was baby cheats.  Baby cheats happen nearly every day. That's where the 75% comes in.

I pondered this while taking Sally Hansen's Salon Effects off my nails. The packaging said regular nail polish but that took an obscene amount of time to remove. I would definitely use it again but next time pay full price and get a color I actually like.

These are my random thoughts for today and nothing was sponsored. Have a good night and day.

Snacks

These are my snacks for today. It's all healthy but not fresh. Sometimes fresh is too hard because it goes bad quickly. I'll try to get fresh food at dinner. Tonight we are going to the thunder game! I'll post pics later. Thunder up!

Breakfast

Today I went to Starbucks for a large unsweetened black iced tea and a turkey bacon sandwich. I always put one packet of Splenda in my tea to sweeten it a little. Usually the sandwich is super hot but today it was cold. Still tasty and it's made with egg whites and a whole grain muffin. I'm very healthy this morning.

Fuzzy Tacos

Tonight, we ate at Fuzzy Tacos. I had the best salad ever, because it was loaded with shredded beef. I customized it by removing onions (yuck), and the two kinds of cheeses.  I had my salad dressing on the side but I didn't need much.  The meat was so tender and juicy.  The only thing I would change is probably taking off the chips too.  This was a healthy dinner that was incredibly flavorful. We also enjoyed a lovely walk there and back in the warm humidity of Oklahoma City. We passed by the Chesapeake Arena where the news crews are already abuzz for tomorrows game. Its going to be exciting! Thunder up!

Welcome to a new blog post

Hello. I've been absent minded and not blogging. Its time to start again because its so therapeutic for my soul. Writing helps me to get the heavy thoughts off of my mind and onto the blog.

The challenges that I am wrestling with are two-fold. I am working on getting a new job and I am working on getting a healthy and more fit body. It seems that each day presents a different obstacle and I do my best to work through it. Today's nutrition was good except for the hot chocolate with whip. I ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes and got through 2 miles. I need to be faster! I focused my thoughts on staying positive except I still complained about my current job.

Oh how I struggle!

Dear Lord, Thank you for my successes and help me to stay positive in the face of my short comings.
Dear Friend, Thanks for reading and any comments are welcome.

Cooking

Cooking is one of my struggles. I work very hard to stay healthy and part of that is cooking my own food. There is a lot of planning and preparing. I am able to put together decent meals but not out of love. Rather cooking is a necessity.

I am proud to say that I have seen improvement in preparing a meal plan and buying the food for it. I will get better as time goes on but its doubtful that I will actually enjoy all this work.

Biggest Loser

My favorite show is on tonight: Biggest Loser. The show inspires me to keep up my weight loss journey. I appreciate all the tips and find that I am encouraged to stay healthy. I have learned there is an important balance between perfect healthy eating and splurges. That's why I've included a photo of ice cream. I have lost over 20 pounds and thankfully have kept it off. The biggest reminder is my wedding ring, which needs to be resized. Yes, my fingers got skinnier.

What inspires you to stay healthy?

Healthy living

Here are my strategies for healthy living.

NUMBER TEN Helping others. It always feels good when I helped someone who needed it.

NUMBER NINE Getting stuff done. It feels invigorating to finish something and scratch it off my to do list.

NUMBER EIGHT Petting the cats. Chomps and Kirby give so much love and its great to give it back.

NUMBER SEVEN Talking to friends. Friends are the best and so supportive. Friends are the family that God gives you. Sometimes emails and texts work just as well as the phone or in person.

NUMBER SIX Talking to family. My family is a very loving family and we stick together across many many miles.

NUMBER FIVE Doing fun activities. I like to do fun things by myself and with my husband. Either way, fun is always good in my book.

NUMBER FOUR Hobbies. I play the piano and I read books. These activities keep me fresh and relaxed.

NUMBER THREE The gym. Its a three letter word that has been good to me even when its hard to be motivated.

NUMBER TWO Eating healthy. It takes discipline to eat healthy but at the end of the day it feels good too.

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON IS SLEEP. Sleep is very good to stay healthy, sane, and happy. When we don’t get enough sleep, we can’t think clearly.

Healthy Choices

Today’s rating is Positive.

I made some healthy choices today. First I spent some time planning with a health coach. I got this service for free from work. I always take whatever is free especially when I need it. After that, I went to the gym and met with a personal trainer. I am excited to see the progress I will get from the extra help.

One of the important issues to watch out for is stress. I read in The 24 Hour Customer that a stressed individual will have a more difficult time making decisions and rely more on the routine function side of the brain. How can we be expected to make healthy choices when we are living with bad habits?

Today, I made some goals. I plan on finding some new friends, find a new job, and get more fit. These are some big goals but I know if I can keep my focus, I will be successful.

Wonderful Wednesday

Today’s rating is Positive.

Not only is the week half over, nachos for lunch tomorrow, and friends coming over on Friday but my counselor said that I am making healthy choices. I am a success and it feels good. I know that I will find a good job and be successful there too. I have successfully lost weight and maintained it with the help of www.myfitnesspal.com. Its important to stop and celebrate the successes in life and that’s what I’m doing today.