Checking In...

It's been over a month since I've blogged about anything. I've been busy with Dana's wedding plans. Now Lisa's move is coming up and I'm helping her plan & pack. I was supposed to go there today, but she needed the day to rest. I've played it very low key. I go meet Cheryl for dinner tonight and will also do some reunion planning with her too.

My weight has gone back up. I am focusing on reminding myself I am worth it. That I am worth taking good care of. It feels more empowering. I have lowered my weight goal to 117. I have already made it to that weight and want to do it again, then maintain there. I felt better about myself and was receiving compliments on losing weight. I hadn't received many compliments until I got to that weight, so I think it will be very rewarding. I am thinking that my weight range will need to be from 114-119 lbs. to maintain at 117. This is an achieveable goal for me.

I'm not going to eat a strict low carb diet. I have decided to have a calorie goal between 1200-1350 calories. I started that yesterday. It was a start in the right direction. I didn't make my workout yesterday, but I know that will get easier as the weight starts to come down and my commitment goes up. I'm not even thinking about cardio at this point. One step at a time. I do want to acknowledge myself for not letting missing my workout ruin the rest of my day. I stood strong, kept going and did well in my eating. My food intake plays about 85-90% in my weight loss, so I'm starting there. I don't feel like my workouts are a big help at this point, but I need to remember that Dick's support and encouragement keeps me on track. If nothing else I need to show up to secure my workout time slot, I like 12:30.

I have felt so out of control with the eating that it will be a relief to start eating better foods. I also look forward to feeling better in my clothes.

A New Start

I'm back on the bandwagon. After what feels like a long time of eating pretty much whatever I wanted & missing workouts, I have put 6 lbs. back on. I visited with my good friend Kathi and talked about what we both wanted to achieve moving forward. It was a great visit. Thanks Kathi. I love you too! I think we both came away with new insight. I knew what "things" I needed to do to bring the weight down. But what I was able to talk through was how to solve some of the situations that trip me up.

One area in particular was lunches. I found that I don't prepare for lunch early enough so that when I get hungry I can eat right away. The other thing Kathi brought up was that it really didn't take that long to prepare some of these things and why wouldn't I want to do this for myself. When I first get fresh veggies home I need to plan to eat them within the first 2-3 days. Yes, that requires a plan and prep work. So, this morning I made my taragon chicken salad to take with me to the gym for lunch.

My goal is to keep my calories between 1200-1250. Although yesterday I had 1306 calories and still lost weight. So, if I go up to 1300 I'm not going to get twinked out. I think this broader range will enable me to include some very fun food and still lose weight. My first goal is 119. I have absolutely no deadline on my weight loss. Every time I do that I feel a sense of failure coming on and then eat because of it. I need this to be more of a lifestyle change.

One of the biggest things I needed to address was my need for accountability. I will be texting Kathi every day with my morning's weight and the total calories from the day before. I will also text her on my way to the gym for my workouts. I know when I go into hiding I'm eating. I need to keep up progress out in the open, being talked about.

Rachel will begin accountability with me on Friday mornings to ensure she's making her menu plans for the week. I'm also going to have my plan ready to ensure I'm doing the same thing.

Here's to moving forward!

Wardrobe Building

Last Saturday I met with Lynn at Nordstroms. She had everything set up for me and kept bringing armfuls of clothes for me to try on. She's very good at her job. I went from an empty closet to one that has choices and color. The capris and skirt I'm not certain about yet. I have a return to make today of a cardigan and pair of capris that are a duplicate for me. I have been writing about what I have in my closet and what new things are coming in to be sure the new clothes fit into the color schemes I already have. I really enjoy doing that. I've also written out my dress wardrobe, my black and brown color capsules. I have a lot more clothing in the black matching outfits, but brown is my color palette. I tried to buy tops that would mostly go with brown and then some to match black to finish out outfits that weren't complete. I'm pleased with the result.

After the capris are decided on (I'm going to put them on for Robert and see which one's he likes too, I'm having problems deciding which look better on me) I'm going to need to look at shoes and sandals for the summer next. I want to try to stay with flats, 1" heels and 2" heels that way they'll be able to work with the pants lengths I have in my closet now. Not the easiest things to do, but it really saves on the number of pants and shoes you need to own. It's definitely worth the effort.

To get the color capsules to work you need to be able to match your 3 chosen colors in both bottoms and tops. It is much easier to find black and white tops and bottoms than it is to find brown or tan. I thought I'd add french blue to go with the brown scheme, I found a top but no matching pants, capris or anything for that matter. So, what's the catch here? Do you have to buy mix and match geranimals to get this to work?

I think I'll be easing into the brown, beige and french blue color palette over time and see if I can get it to work. The process continues...

The Plan

I'm falling behind due to these allergies. I need to look at what needs to be done, so I can come up with a plan on how to keep moving forward. Robert could help this weekend perhaps.

-Budget withdrawal for next week
-Bank: budget envelopes
-Max's birthday card & gift: over to their house
-Groceries: WalMart/pharmacy, Trader Joe's, possibly Whole Foods
-CostCo: next week, Tuesday maybe? (check with Kathi)
-Budget

It looks like the areas to address are budget/money and groceries to fill up the fridge. The groceries also allow me to continue eating well, so this is critical.

Plan:
-Max's card/gift: Robert can drop off tomorrow morning
-Bank: Robert can go on his way home from the gym
-Budget: Saturday or Sunday
-Groceries: WalMart/pharmacy (meds before Sun)

This gives me a starting place. I'll move forward from here. Chow!

Great Clothes On A Budget

I feel so inspired this morning. And that's on a gloomy day with a migraine...so it had to be good. I found another learning tool from my fashion ebook series, this one was a teleseminar on great clothes at budget prices. So I ordered it. It wasn't a long read, but it was really interesting. It also has a taped version of the seminar that I can download onto my iPod. I truly learned new information on setting up a budget for clothing, what quality category and store category would be best to purchase different clothing & accessories. Fascinating. I'm much clearer about how to get the best clothing for the best price and rate it according to how often this item will be worn.

The department stores were rated at the highest cost, unless the products were purchased on sale. Which makes me think about how I shop. I use a personal shopper at Nordstroms. Now I know she tries to pull sale items for me and also work within my budget range. But I'm still paying the most for my clothing across the board going this way. I knew this on some level, but now I know some alternative places to shop. It's actually doing the legwork and trusting my own judgment as to how things feel and look on me. That's a little scary.

She strongly suggested shopping from a list, which I have already made. However, I also have an appointment with Lynn at Nordstroms on Saturday to shop for my spring/summer wardrobe, a white top for the wedding and possibly a swimsuit. I have to try mine on today. Argh... Since I have nothing to work with I just want to have Lynn put it together and then buy it. All ready to go. I'll have to stay very close to my list and budget while shopping with her.

Probably the best place to start is to determine my budget and what items are investments and which ones aren't. Then how much I can spend between clothing and accessories. Then what percentage of that can go towards trendier items to update my wardrobe.

Well, I'm off to do just that!

Looking For The Good Things

It has been a rough day. I've been fighting migraines this week. I had one on Tuesday and now again today. I'm sure it's allergy related due to the weather changes this week. I feel a bit down because of it. I don't feel like I'm moving ahead. So I'm going to look for the good things that happened today.

Jasmine has stayed close to me all day, it's as if she knows I could use it. I've been able to stay on my new lifestyle diet. I will end the day at 1219 calories. I enjoyed an cinnamon raisin english muffin at lunch with cheesy eggs, which was delicious and very filling. I talked to my sister Rachel for quite a long time this afternoon. We talked about the Twilight series and have plans to watch the movie together next Friday night. I think I'm going to go ahead and buy the movie. I'm also going to let my family know that I would love to have the books as a gift idea. I looked at my recipes and made a list of dinners that I feel would be low carb and within the 300 calorie range. It felt good to have a page full of dinner options. I even found a crustless quiche recipe that I had copied but never tried. I thought that sounded good. I was blessed that Robert had plans all day today so I didn't have to try to face the tv and noise. I'm making hamburgers on the grill for dinner with petite green beans. I may try to saute the green beans in olive oil and balsamic vinegrette. Now that my girlfriend Kathi is probably done with her workout, I'm going to text and see how she's doing today.

So, all in all, it's still been a very good day. I just needed to stop and look.

Moving Outside of the Box

After following what has been a very restrictive diet for the past 6 years. With dramatic highs and lows, I am now going to put together a lifestyle diet. I'll be keeping my calories at 1200 for the day. I'm a little nervous about this because I don't equate this with attaining weight loss. I am in the process of putting this plan together. I will leave my breakfast alone at this point. I don't seem to have a problem there and I'm at 330 calories. That includes my full cup of 2% milk for the day and I quite often only have 2 cups of coffee.

I've focused on lunch. I want to keep around 300 calories. I've come up with 11 different options which I'm happy about. I need to focus on stocking the pantry and refrigerator with the food I need to back this up. The thing that I'm a little concerned about at this point is the number of different places I need to go to get the groceries, and the whole point is to be prepared. No more one stop shopping, I see this as a potential snafu. I've got Walmart, Caputos, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco and Sam's on my list. I'm hoping I can eliminate Whole Foods and find what I need at Caputos. Oh, and Jewel, where I get my salmon.

My next focus will be dinner. I want to keep around 400 calories for the meal. My guess is that I'll be looking at protein, veggies and salads. I'll be focusing on fish, chicken and a little red meat.

I'm back to menu planning and getting the food I need in the house so I can be prepared. I'm also going to pick up the food planning diary at Barnes and Noble.