Tag: diet

#50lbsByDec July update

Well I’m a little more than one month in to my #50lbsByDec challenge.

I officially started the challenge June 24 and as of today, Aug. 1, I’m down 13.4 lbs.

My big changes have been doing DDP Yoga 2-3 times a week along with counting calories again via MyFitnessPal — which essentially comes down to being aware of what I’m eating.

I find it’s super easy to mindlessly open the pantry and grab a handful of the first thing you see (which is typically some sort of chip or cracker in our house). Before you know it you’ve eaten two or three handfuls – or 3 or 4 servings at 120+ calories a pop.

But the more mindful I am at tracking my intake (especially before I actually eat it) the more likely I am to reduce the crap.

The more I focus on eating the good stuff – veggies, complex carbs, low-fat meat (if any) – the less desirable the crap food becomes.

I’m working towards eating even less meat when possible, eliminating simple carbs and cutting back on dairy as well (I’ve found Silk soy milk to be an awesome substitute).

I’m trying not be legalistic about it – but remain flexible when needed and more importantly – more aware of what I’m eating.

It’s a work in progress, but it’s definitely doable.

Here are a few photos showing my progress so far:

June 24 – Aug 1
June 24 – Aug 1
June 24 – Aug 1 – improved flexibility thanks to @ddpyoga

New goal… Lets do this…

20130624-223518.jpg

Last month I decided to start a mini-year resolution – no more (flavored) sodas for the rest of the year.

So far so good. Only tea, water, coffee and carbonated water for me… And maybe an occasional fruit drink.

Today I decided I’m upping the resolution. 50 pound weight loss by Dec 31.

Sounds daunting but when you break it down I’m gonna be upset if I don’t hit the goal.

8 lbs a month – 2 lbs a week – now till Dec 31?

We got this.

The calorie counter

Been trying to get a lot better at tracking my calories. I feel like I do pretty good during the week and stay below my recommended 1900ish calories. However, the weekends tend to do me in.

We often end up eating with friends or family and I find it hard (and someone intrusive) to sit and try and figure out everything that’s going into the food I’m eating. Even harder when we do potluck for our community group each Saturday. Suffice to say, I usually track all I can on the weekend and then tag an extra 2-3k calories on top of that.

livestrong calories 04/21/09

It’s really amazing to see how many calories you ingest day to day. For example, my huge salad from Chili’s last night was 850 calories where as the roast beef sandwich I was given for lunch from Corner Bakery weighed in at 1000 calories. I did however check the Corner Bakery and saw that it reported the calories at 790. So of course I submitted the changes to Livestrong.com.

Either way – I would have to say I’m eating less as well as smarter now that I realize how quickly those calories add up (of course I guess the real judge is the scale and Laurie :-)).

Livestrong.com

Found Livestrong.com today thanks to the brand new BlackBerry App Store.

Very cool!

The site has lots of great hints/pointers for living healthier and tracks your food/caloric intake throughout the day as well as what you burn with exercising. I was surprised at just how many nutritional facts could be found for various foods on the site. Things like Costco’s brand foods, a random can of green beans, various food from restaurants etc., etc. In addition to the basic tracking, the site itself has loads of free tools and offers additional tools with a paid subscription.

Add to that the BlackBerry or (iPhone) app and you’ve got one amazingly powerful tool.

Speaking of, here’s a chart of my day one intake…

livestrong

That yellow slice of the pie, 45% of my caloric intake for the day, is literally a slice of pie! One slice of pizza pie that is – 776 calories!

Good thing I avoided the Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuit from Whataburger this morning. Saw that it was 663 calories before I left home this morning. Add 200 calories from the hash browns that come in a combo meal and you’ve got half your day’s recommended calories. I opted for the Bacon and Egg Taquito (387 calories) instead.

But looking at what you’re eating in a visual manner like this is sure to be handy.

What have you found to help you?

14/365 cardio

14/365

15/365 jdblundell


cardio

So I usually feel decent about my cardio abilities — at least when it comes to walking or riding my bike. Last night I decided I’d try 5 to 10 minutes of jumping rope to get some exercise going.

Let me just say — I am out of shape — and I have no rhythm.

I was super winded when I finished and I was unable to jump rope more than 24 times in a row. There was a lot of restarting and getting to 10-15 before the rope hit my head or one of my feet. Geeze.

But I’ll keep pushing on. Maybe I’ll get up to 26 jumps in a row before all this is over!