Snowangel's Weightloss and Life Change Journal

[Snowangel81598]

Well, here it is. My very first online journal. I probably should have started this earlier in my weightloss journal, but hey, better late than never, huh?

My goals for 2007 (I don't make resolutions, because they are notorious for not being kept.)

1. Get to ideal weight 130-145 lbs. (My first major goal is 145. At that point, I'll re-evaluate where I am, how I feel there, and decide if I should go lower)
2. Finish writing my novel and work on getting it published.
3. Reduce my debt
4. Move to a bigger home
5 Buy a minivan for my growing family

Obviously #1 is my primary focus in this journal, but the others are just as, if not more important that it is.

My wieght history probably will sound pretty similar to a lot of people here, but I'll tell it anyway. I was a skinny kid until I started puberty at the age of 9. Even after that I wasn't what one would call fat, but I got a nice layer of padding during those years. When I was a Freshman in high school, in a health class we had to find out body fat %. Mine was 15% and I was horrified that it was so high. (Oh what I wouldn't give for that now.) My Junior year I was 148 lbs and my bf% was 30%! Again I thought I was just hopelessly fat. I stayed between 150-160 until I went to college and then gained the obligatory Freshman 15 the first semester, but then lost it the second semester without trying. The following year I got married, started taking the pill and gained up to 193 lbs in 2 years.

That was when I started my first LC journey. I didn't really believe it would work, but parents had been doing it for a while and lost weight and my mom encouraged me to try it. I was feeling desperate, so I did. I was actually shocked when the scale started to move. I lost 35 lbs in about 6 months. I probably would have continued losing, but life kind of fell apart then, and eating was the least of my worries. Both DH and I lost our jobs and couldn't find new ones. We had to go live with family who have no understanding of LC. I maintained for a while, but it wasn't too long before it just became easier to eat what was available rather than make my own meals separate from what everyone else was eating. I gained back to about 175.

Then I got pregnant for the first time. I gained 45 lbs and in spite of breastfeeding for 10 months, only about 20 of that came off. I had just started getting serious about losing again when I found out that I was pg again. This time I started at 193 lbs. I only gained 25 lbs with DS, but I breastfed him for 9 mos., so LC wasn't possible until I weaned him. That was in Aug. 06.

I half heartedly tried to reduce carbs, but my wake-up call came when friends sent over some pictures of my B-day party. I was shocked that the puffy, overstuffed-looking person in the pics was me! I got on the scale and saw 205! I had never been in the 200's when I wasn't pregnant. It was definately time to get serious.

That was 3 months ago. My current weight is 180.4 So, thus far, I have lost 25 lbs.

Working on my novel is one I really need to be better about. I was doing really well a few months ago, but lately I just have a hard time finding the time to sit down and write. I need to do it though. I don't want to go through the rest of my life wondering what would have happened, how things would have different if I had followed through and finished it.

So, somehow, I have to find time, even if it is only 15 min. a day, to write. Just like losing weight, I have to "Just Do It!"

Feel free to bug me about it. It will be just that much more motivation if I have to stay accountable for reaching my goals to those who are here supporting me.

[pri17cess72]

Hi Angel,

Glad you started your journal. Since you enjoy writing, you will really like journaling. I hope *crosses fingers*

I like to journal but sometimes I feel repetitive when I post on my journal and then on the challenge thread but that is the only thing that I think is a slight downfall. Dont worry you wont spend any extra time on here because of your journal. When you get bored of reading posts you can write in your journal. I try to journal my menu and my exercise.

Have a good day and I will be checking on you!

[Snowangel81598]

Thanks Liz. I tend to journal when I'm upset or depressed, anyway. This will probably be a good way for me to avoid getting to that point.

My menu plan for today went out the window when I tried to leave work for lunch and my car wouldn't start. It turned out to only be the battery, but it threw a wrench in my whole day. I ended up eating an Atkins bar and 1/2 a bowl of soup for lunch, because that was all I had available. After we got the battery changed, DH wanted to stop for food because he hadn't eaten yet. We went to Arby's. I thought about getting a salad, but I wasn't hungry enough for that, I ordered a beef and cheddar sandwich and took off the bun. Soooo not worth the $4 I spent on it. The sauce probably had sugar in it, too.

I still had some errands to run, so by the time I got home it was after 6. Got the kids fed and ready for bed and before I knew it, it was 8 and I hadn't really had dinner. I just finished munching some celery and ranch dressing and a ham, cream cheese, pickle roll-up. I have no idea what my carbs are today. I don't think I did too much damage.

I still plan on getting my exercise in this evening.

Tomorrow will be better.

[pri17cess72]

What a crappy day but at least you handled it well. It sounds like you didnt do too much damage. I worry so much about BBQ sauce. I dont eat it anymore at restaurants or ask for it on the side.

Glad you are working on your exercise. Tomorrow I am going to try on some pants I havent worn in a few weeks to see if they are looser.
*Keeping fingers crossed*

Enjoy the rest of your night!

[Snowangel81598]

Today went pretty well. I worked half day, came home for lunch, then took the kids to the mall. We had a good time. I don't know that it qualifies as exercise, but we walked aroung the mall for a while, and I did quite a bit of chasing DS whenever he decided he wanted to try to make his escape from the play area.

Breakfast today was eggs scrambled with cream cheese
Lunch was albacore tuna salad with mayo, sugar free sweet relish and 1/2 a tomato
Dinner was a salad and 3 pieces of KFC chicked with breading removed.
Snack was strawberry sorbet (frozen strawberries blended in the magic bullet with 1/2 cup cream and a little water)

Exercise is still pending. I'll work it in a little later this evening.

[Snowangel81598]

So far so good today.
B: 3 eggs over easy and 1 piece LC toast
L: Taco soup w/ sour cream
D: ??

I've been doing better with my water today than I usually do on the weekends.

I got a few minutes of writing in today, plan on doing more when I'm done here, since both kiddos are down for a nap right now.

I think I'm ready to start up the carb ladder. I'm a bit confused about it, though. Am I supposed to find my CCL, then add foods from the first rung up to that amount before I move up to the next rung? Or do I find my CCL and add foods at the same time? I'll have to do some research on this.

I tried on a pair of size 12 pants yesterday. I'm not even close to being able to button them, but they're a lot better than I thought they would be. I'm still mostly wearing my 16's because I haven't had a chance to go through my stuff to pull out 14's. I don't even really know what I have in that size. I hope not to have to go shopping until I get to a size 10.

My neighbor had her baby a couple of days ago. I went by to see them today, and while we were talking she mentioned that her top weight during her pregnancy was 144! Sometimes I think I hate her. She eats junk all the time and stays sooooo skinny. I probably need to remind myself that she may be skinnier (and younger), but I am probably quite a bit healthier.

I'm so glad there are people here who are in the same boat as me. It makes this journey so much easier.

[pri17cess72]

Hi Angel

To answer your question...the yogurt I eat is Dannon Carb and Sugar control blueberry yogurt. I get it at Safeway. I think it has 3 carbs per serving. It is pretty good. In the carb control yogurt they only have 2 flavors (blueberry and french vanilla) at least I think it is called French vanilla. I like the blueberry the best of the two.

Hope you are well. I know it hard to exercise with work, husband and kids. You just have to schedule a time and do it. Like going to a doc appt or something. Hope that bit of advice helps.

Have a good day!

[Snowangel81598]

Liz, thanks for the info. I'll look into the yogurt.

Today's going fairly well. I didn't go to church today because the kids have been sick, and I don't want them spreading their germs to the other little ones in their classes. I had to run some errands, though, so I had breakfast at MiMi's. I ordered a crab and avacado omelet. I have a feeling there were probably hidden carbs in it, but I'll keep the rest of my day low and it should be fine.

I got a good amount of time of writing in today, too. That's the main reason I went there. It's hard to do when there are little kids climbing on you and wanting your attention.

I think that lunch will be tuna salad. Dinner will be Taco Soup.

I discovered yesterday that my pants that I've been thinking were 16's are actually 14's. So, while I'm still wearing some 16's I think I am actually a 14!

Have a good day, all!

[Snowangel81598]

In the Challenge group that I joined, the Bay Area Babes, we decided that Monday would be weigh-in day. So.....drum roll please....my weight today is . . . . . 177.4. So that means that I have lost a total of 28 lbs since Oct. 15.

I'm really excited about this. I actually didn't expect to see a change on the scale, because TOM has been visiting me and that can cause excess water retention. I haven't been this weight since before I got pg with DD 4 years ago.

My proposed menu for today is:
B: Peanut Butter Flax Cereal
L: Tuna salad w/ 1 slice LC flax bread
D: Taco Soup and salad (I've been saying I was going to have this for a few days now, but plans changed. I really do need to eat this soup, or it is going to go bad. )

That's it for now. Have a great day!

[pri17cess72]

Congrats on being in the 170 club. I hope I can join you soon!

I had the flax cereal this morning. I enjoyed it. I didnt add anything. Maybe I will put in pb but in few weeks. For now it is just splenda. I also like you strawberry smoothie idea. Just need to wait a few weeks or so.

I cant wait to try the taco soup recipe.

Just checking in and hope you have a good day. So far,day 1 for me back in the saddle and all is well!

[Snowangel81598]

Thanks so much, Liz. You'll be there in no time. I'm glad you are enjoying the flax cereal. For me, it's a nice change from eggs all the time. (Although I do like eggs.) I need to remember next time I go to the store to get more pumpkin. The pumpkin omelet is sounding really good to me right now.

I'm still feeling good from yesterday's weigh-in. I hope that the weight continues to drop like that. I'm really starting to see a difference when I look in the mirror. No one at work has noticed yet, but I seem to remember hearing last time I did LC that most people don't notice until you lose about 30 lbs. Or maybe they do, but are afraid to say anything for fear of offending you. I think people are sometimes afraid that if they say "Wow, you've really lost some weight!" what you will hear is "Wow, you really used to be fat!" Which isn't the case, most of the time. Hmm. Maybe I'll post about it on the main board and see what others have to say.

Today's menu
B: 1 egg, 1 sausage patty, 2 strips of bacon
L: Chicken Caesar Salad
D: ??

*Raises a glass of crystal clear water* Here's to a great, cheat-free day. Cheers!

[Snowangel81598]

I'm feeling kind of strange this evening. I left work and suddenly felt really tired. I don't have much energy or patience right now. Don't really know what is going on. I wonder if my blood sugar dropped. I didn't eat anything sugary or carby today, so I don't know why that would have happened, but who knows. I was really wanting something to eat at about 4, so I ate an Atkins bar. I don't think that would have done it, though.

I'm hungry, but nothing sounds good. It doesn't help that MIL made pancakes for dinner. They smell really good, but of course are off limits for a LC diet. Still trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

American Idol is on tonight. Let's hope it's not too torturous.

Have a good evening!

[Snowangel81598]

I'm feeling quite a bit better today. I ended up eating some salami and cream cheese rollups last night for dinner (at about 8:30). That seemed to help.

I seem be be having a hard time upping my carbs. I've been trying to get 35-40 per day, but it seems like I always end up at or under 30. I probably just need to plan better, and start adding some higher carb veggie to my dinner. It's just really easy to fall back on my induction foods rather than branch out to foods that I'm not sure how my weight will react to. Oh well. Time to get brave.

B: scrambled eggs with a little cream cheese, salsa and sour cream.
L: bunless burger and side salad
D: ? haven't figured it out yet.

I'll post later when I decide what to do about dinner.

[pri17cess72]

Hi Angel,

Just saying Hi. Glad you are feeling better. I did well on my trip. No cheats so far and this is day 3!!!

Good night! Watching Idol tonight if I can keep my eyes open.

[Snowangel81598]

Doing ok today. I might have blown it a bit with lunch. I had planned on a salad with grilled chicken, but it just didn't appeal to me. I had a bit of a craving for mexican, so I went to the local taqueria and ordered a No Beans Burrito with pollo. Basically shredded chicken in some kind of spicy broth (at least I think it was broth) with cheese, avacado and sour cream. I took it back to work, opened it up and ate only the filling. The only thing I'm concerned about is the "broth". I don't know what was in it. It didn't taste sweet at all, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Oh well. It's done. I'll keep my carbs low for the rest of the day and hope for the best. It is at times like this that I wish I had ketosticks so that I could test and see if there was something in it that affected me.

My menu for today:
B: Flax breakfast pudding with cream cheese
L: Chicken burrito (mexican shredded chicken, cheese, avacado and sour cream) sans tortilla, of course
D: Tuna Salad or Eggs and green salad

As for my writing, I had a couple of good days, then I forgot to bring my notebook to work and didn't write for another couple of days. I'll take some time this afternoon to write, and will probably get some more in this evening when I have to go pick up DH from work.

I'll probably check in tonight some time with an update.

[Snowangel81598]

I survived a church social event tonight. After choir practice there was a suprise party for the pastor's 25th anniversary. Of course there was chocolate cake. A few people asked, "You're not having any cake?" or "Don't you want cake?" It's kind of funny that people look so suprised when someone passes on desert. Oh well. I didn't actually want the cake, but now I'm getting hungry again and wanting something sweet. Not quite sure what to do about it.

On the up side, I got some good writing time in this evening. I had about 45 minutes to wait while DH got off work, so I wrote about 3 pages in my notebook. I'm starting to get back into my groove of writing. Definately a good thing.

I'm not doing so well with my exercise. I'll try to do better tomorrow since I'm only working half day.

Well, I'm tired. Good night. I'm off to bed in a few minutes.

[Snowangel81598]

I have to fess up that yesterday my entire menu (except for breakfast) changed. There were Togo's sandwiches leftover from a meeting at work, so I took a couple of those and ate the filling only - lunchmeat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles. For dinner, DH decided he wanted to go out, so we ate at Applebees. I had steak and shrimp parmesan and veggies. It came with spinach cheese dip that I ate (even though I didn't really know what was in it). I'm up a pound today, so I'm wondering if there was something funny in it, or maybe I just had too much sodium in all the cheese and lunchmeat yesterday and am retaining water. Oh well. I'll do better next time.

For today:
B: scrambled eggs
L: Tuna salad
D: chicken and veggies

I'm gonna try to get some exercise in today as well as some writing time. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Snowangel81598]

My plans for the changed quite a bit. We ended up rearranging out bedroom, so that took up my exercise and writing time. Fixing the room took most of the day, but it looks quite a bit better today.

Since we spent so much time doing that, I ended up ordering pizza instead of cooking chicken, like I had planned. I had some salad and the toppings off of 3 slices. It was even pan crust, and I LOVE pan crust pizza. I was good and didn't even have 1 bite of the bread. I'm not sure how many carbs I ate today, but I think I didn't go over 25 since breakfast and lunch were only about 10 carbs total.

We are going to a Super Bowl Party tomorrow. Usually there is food there that I can eat without too much alteration, but we shall see. I'm going to make something to take, just not sure yet what that will be. Maybe devilled eggs or perhaps artichoke cheese dip.

I'll pop in tomorrow with more info.

[Snowangel81598]

Today was a bit of a challenging day for me. We went to a small Super Bowl party, so there were a lot of munchies (chips, crackers, candy) available.I brought an artichoke cheese dip with celery sticks, so there was at least one thing I could eat, but the other stuff was tempting. They also served burgers and hot dogs, which are really easy to adapt to LC. My menu today was a bit random, so I'll do my best.

B: Flax Breakfast Pudding
L, Snack, D: Bunless cheeseburger with tomato and pickle, artichoke cheese dip with celery, a few bites of cantalope and honeydew, and 4 slices of mango.
2 diet cokes.
Not enough water. I'll do better tomorrow.
I have no idea what my carb count was today, but I think everything was legal. The fruit was iffy, but I don't think a little bit if melon and mango is going to make me gain.

I might make a desert of some kind. We'll see.

No official exercise today, but DS gave me a good workout though. Lots of ab work from him today.

Tomorrow is weigh-in day. Let's hope the scale shows a loss.

[Snowangel81598]

So today is weigh-in day. Not great news for me today. I'm up 1 lb to 178.4. (Not too sure why it is always .4, but I suppose it's better than .6 or .8) I think I probably overdid it on the cheese and processed meats during the last few days, so I'll be upping my water and trying to keep those things to a minimum for a few to see if that helps.

Menu for today
B: 3 eggs scrambled with salsa and sour cream on top. 2 sausage patties.
L: Tuna salad
S: 1 oz. almonds
D: chicken and salad or veggies

I'm going to try to spend my lunch break writing, but we'll see because I have to go to the bank, and I don't usually like to go after work.

Have a great day!

[Snowangel81598]

Last night I ended up with bunless cheeseburger with mayo, mustard and tomato because MIL boiled the chicken I was going to grill. I was rather disappointed about that. I was really looking forward to breading it in parm cheese and frying it. Oh well. Had some s/f choc. mousse for dessert.

My sister had her baby early this a.m. I'm an auntie! (Again, lol)
Christopher Michael!
I'll probably be going to help her either this weekend or next. I'm gonna wait to see when she feels like she needs me. She has a low fat friendly kitchen rather than a LC friendly kitchen, but I'll just go to the store and get stuff for myself.


Doin' good so far today.
My Tuesday menu:
B: Flax Breakfast Pudding w/ cream cheese
S: 1 oz. almonds
L: probably chicken and salad
D:??

American Idol's on tonight. Hopefully tonight will be less torturous the the last few shows have been. I'm more looking forward to the semi-finals and the top 12. That's when it really gets good, IMNSHO.

Have a good day!

[Snowangel81598]

My menu for last night changed, again. After work, DH and I went to visit my neighbor who was at the hospital with her newborn son. He will probably have to have surgery in the next few days to correct a problem with his digestive system. We didn't get out of there until about 7, so we stopped at Boston Market to pick up dinner.

The chicken tasted sweet, so I'm kind of afraid that it had sugar in it. I just checked the website, and it does have sugar. 2 grams for 1/4 chicken, dark meat, which is what I had. Not great, but not as bad as I was afraid it might be.

Today is I'm doing well, so far.
B: 2 eggs scrambled with cream cheese
S: I should have brought almonds today, but I have peanuts here if I really need them.
L: Chicken Salad
D: Probably Bunless cheeseburger

I've not been doing well with exercising lately. I was able to get in some squats and pushups the last few days, but I don't know if that's enough to do anything. I really need to get back on my Pilates. My belly is my area that needs the most work right now, and that would really help.

I wrote some a couple days ago, but slacked with that yesterday, too. I definately need to organize my time better so that I can get that in. The book will not get finished if I don't write it!

Maybe I should pray about that. Hmm. Novel idea, huh?

God, help me to find the time in each day to exercise and write (as well as get everything else done that needs doing). Help me to prioritize better and not fall into the easy trap of sitting down at the computer or to watch tv and not getting anything done.
Amen.

[Snowangel81598]

I gave my self a pretty good shock this morning. I tried on a pair of my size 12's and actually was able to button them without a problem! I was amazed! I've only been wearing my 14's for a couple of weeks now. The 12's were to tight for me to wear to work and be comfortable, but I didn't even have to lay down to zip them! I can't believe it. Really, I'm just in shock about it. Hopefully the scale will show a loss next Monday. I should measure and see if I've lost inches while the scale wasn't moving.

My menu for today:
B: 3 scrambled eggs with salsa and sour cream
L: either a chicken salad or bunless burger
D: ?? something quick, since I have to go to choir practice tonight.