Walking Milestone

Today I planned to go for an hour long walk from my house to the highway and back again.  But it only took me 43 minutes!  I looked back at the last time I made the same exact path walking... it took me 54 minutes.  That was on July 29th and I didn't have a stroller that day, but I did today.

I'm pretty happy about this 11 minute improvement and I went 3.0 mph without jogging or running at all.

I also was feeling like I ate a bit too much today but in the end after checking my calories I did really well and hit all of my goals, the only one I missed was fat, I was UNDER by 16 grams!

Very good day, looking forward to keeping on this roll,

-Kate

Week 8 Weigh In

298.8!!  Was so elated when I saw it on the scale this morning. My expectations were not even that high, I was thinking maybe 300 but nope, christmas came early this year. Goodbye 300's I will never, ever see you again.  It was NOT fun while it lasted, NO thank you for the memories.

-Kate

Week 8 : 26.2 lbs down, 153.8 lbs to go
Current Weight : 298.8 lbs
Start Weight : 327 lbs
Goal Weight : 145 lbs

Zucchinipalooza

Due largely in part to the generosity of neighbors I have a lot of zucchini and by a lot I mean 10 or so zucchinis, some of which rival my 1 year old in size.  Up until this new shipment I have been eating them roasted in the oven kind of like potato chips or cut up and fried in my morning omelets.  However things have hit critical mass. I could eat zucchini morning, noon and night and not finish these things before they go south so I had to get creative.  I googled zucchini recipes and came back with zucchini bread.  My aunt made zucchini bread a lot as a child and yet somehow it had completely slipped my mind.  So I set to work, 5 hours later 4 batches of zucchini bread later (and I only burned one!) I've made it through a whopping... three zucchini's and they weren't even the big ones.

So tomorrow I will continue on with project 'Cook the Zucchini' and hopefully get through most of them.

My Recipe :

3 cups of flour
2 cups of grated zucchini
2 eggs
1 cup of grated carrots
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of apple sauce
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 tbsp of vanilla
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of  baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Mix it all together (I'm not fancy enough to separate dry's and wets and so on) with a wooden or plastic spoon.  Pour or spoon into greased pans.  Makes 16 serving's.  Muffin tins makes 16-18, pie plates makes 2, 13 X 9 cake pan makes 1.  The muffins cook for about 35 - 45, the cake pan took 1 hour 20 minutes and the pie plates took 50 - 60.  They're done when the toothpick comes out clean.

I also made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and did 1 pound of beef and about a cup of grated zucchini.  I could barely tell the difference, they were maybe a little sweeter if anything, so it makes for good filler.

I'm switching my weigh in days to Wednesday's so tomorrow will be my next weigh in, wish me luck!

- Kate

Week 7 : 23 lbs down, 157 lbs to go
Current Weight : 302 lbs
Start Weight : 327 lbs
Goal Weight : 145 lbs

Week 7 Weigh In

302!  I'll take it, gladly even.  But I am still going to cross my fingers to get into the 200's next week.

On the diet coke front, so far so good.  Haven't drank any and also haven't gotten a headache.  I'm quite pleased.

Week 7 : 23 lbs down, 157 lbs to go
Current Weight : 302 lbs
Start Weight : 327 lbs
Goal Weight : 145 lbs

Diet Coke, The Final Frontier!

Tomorrow is weigh in day, Yay!  I really am very excited, I know there's going to be a loss, I just know it.

The Meloxicam I was taking for my shoulder ended up giving me a migraine and turned me into an insomniac. I've quit taking it and am going to get a cortisone shot on the 3rd.  I need to sleep and for the first time this week I am legitimately tired.  I've been getting 3-5 hours of dozing for the last few days.  I pray tonight will be at least 8 of uninterrupted sleep.

My brother is coming down from Canada and will be staying for only 2 days but I'm planning on showing him around, maybe take him geocaching or hiking in the mountains.

Today was the county fair, we had a blast it was hot and I was basically on my feet for 4 hours.  When I wasn't walking I would carry the baby and sway side to side, or lift her. I can't wait to tell her that when she was a baby mommy used her as a piece of exercise equipment.

I don't feel too bad about the food.  I ate half a small hamburger and a few fries as well as a ball of cotton candy and the whipped cream and strawberries off of a piece of strawberry short cake.  I drank a ton of water.  I love those trailer coolers of water that you see at events these days it's so much nicer than having to buy a bottle.  I refilled my 24 oz water bottle about 4 times, but I was also sharing.

My oldest always ends up throwing up or getting a headache and being ill when we go to events or do "fun" things.  So today I stayed on her and made her drink 4 oz of water every hour and didn't let her have any soda or fried sweets.  Sorry funnel cake man, it was great while it lasted! Low and behold she made it through the day with her lunch in her stomach and a smile on her face, even considering all the rides she went on.

I stuck to my goals this week, except for one.... I continued to drink at least 10 cans of diet coke a day.  So this evening I drank my official last Diet Coke ever.  The fridge has no Diet Coke in it, I will not be going and buying any either.  I have caffeine pills for alertness that I bought on a road trip a few years ago and I will take one if I find myself getting a caffeine headache, which is likely.  I will officially be viceless, wish me luck!!

Week 6 : 21 lbs down, 159 lbs to go
Current Weight : 304 lbs
Start Weight : 325 lbs
Goal Weight : 145 lbs

Procrastinating and Ice Cream

It's 11:30 at night and aside from many hours spent back to school shopping at Walmart, I have not exercised yet... and I'm sitting here blogging instead of doing it now...

I had a nap this afternoon so I'm probably going to be up for a few hours yet.  Here's the plan 10 minutes of ab's and then 50 minutes of cardio...  starting as soon as I'm done here.

On the way home from shopping I stopped at McDonalds -- yes I know very, very evil.  I got a dipped cone not knowing for sure how many calories there was going to be.  When she handed it to me I knew I was in trouble. The thing was huge!! It was at least 6 inches tall and 3-4 inches wide but the chocolate was oh so yummy.  So I got about halfway through the chocolate/ice cream and decided to throw the rest away because I'm doing everything in my power to have a totally awesome weigh in this week.  When I looked it up just now I found that the entire concoction is supposedly 270 calories.... ummmm... right and I'm a monkey's uncle.  

In comparing my ice cream cone to the stock image on the website I'm going to say I was served 2-3 times as much as was intended by the calorie information.  Not that I'm complaining, there was a time when that would have made my day.  If at some point in the future I decide to get another one I will definitely make it clear that I want a small portion because wasting really bothers me, throwing it out was hard.

Okay no more procrastinating.  T - 3 days to weigh in, can't wait!

Edit : 51 Minutes, 854 calories burned! Max HR 184, averaged 154.

Week 6 : 21 lbs down, 159 lbs to go
Current Weight : 304 lbs
Start Weight : 327 lbs
Goal Weight : 145 lbs

Metabolism Killer

I've been doing some reading about smoking and metabolism.  Two weeks ago I quit smoking, since then my weight loss has been negligible and frankly it's way too early in this process for me to be having plateau issues.  So I started looking at other culprits and it turns out that smokers actually burn 100-200 extra calories a day over non-smokers, which is roughly a 15% metabolism boost.  It has to do with the way a cigarette causes your veins to constrict driving up your blood pressure, making your heart work harder and thereby increasing metabolic rate.  This is also why contrary to what I thought heart disease is the number one leading cause of smoking related death, not cancer.

So knowing this the question is : Am I going to go out and buy a pack so I can re-boost my metabolism? No, I'm not.  I'm going to keep plugging away. Although if I'm being completely honest had I known this beforehand I might have waited to quit smoking until I had lost a bit more weight.  On the other hand I'm doing things right now that were difficult for me when I was 220 lbs and exercising daily.  Doing Just Dance 4 this morning my HR was between 160 and 175 the whole time and I still have enough air left to sing along, which I know I would not be capable of, had I not quit smoking.  It kind of surprised me when it popped that I had a unlocked an achievement for singing, I didn't realize the Kinect was listening... spooky!

I have kept my promise to myself and not weighed although I really, really want to because I have a sneaking suspicion there's going to be good news.  But I will wait!

Week 6 : 21 lbs down, 159 lbs to go
Current Weight : 304 lbs
Start Weight : 327 lbs
Goal Weight : 145 lbs