It’s Just Gen

Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been a bit down and depressed lately, for no good reason really.  I do great with my eating, I’ve been at this for almost 2 months straight, I continually lose weight, I got an A in my web programming class, life really is great!  We also got our tax return which was wonderful.   Well, in the time that I haven’t posted, I joined a gym - I mainly go to the women’s only one, but will go to the coed gym further away because the women’s facility isn’t open when I need it to be in the AM on Sat & Sun.   I also signed up to walk a 5K in April so that will be really fun.

About being down, Well I was having the really long period that was mostly just spotting but sometimes clots and it just didn’t want to go away, no matter what.  So finally it ended and guess what, I’m feeling better (Also I don’t like sex when I’m bleeding so ..  the lack of anything in that department was also relieved).  I also feel that havingt that lingering period kept my weight loss a bit stagnant which is depressing especially when I’m only nearing the end of the 2nd month on this multiple year long journey.  But, it appears to be over and I feel better so, let’s hope I continue to feel better, and accomplished.

I’m really excited for this week, on Wednesday I have my yearly with my doctor, most people would dread something like that, but I don’t, I look at it as a way to acknowledge what I’ve accomplished and help test to see if my goals are reasonable with a medical professional.  After that it’s my weekly weigh-in with weightwatchers which I joined because I like having others to chat with, and supporting my mother-in-law.  Plus she buys me lunch afterwards. :)  Then at the end of my wednesday I have a personal training session to go to, it’s supposed to be the orientation and other stuff to the gym.

I’m excited about wednesday, it has a lot of things I’ve been looking forward to all packed into one day.

±gen³

I’ve posted a new youtube vid of my progress plus a mini-goal (size 20) dress that I have. So head over to youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GensWeigh

Today’s weigh in saw me with almost 5 lbs lost in 1 week! Here’s the deets:

Last Weight: 331.4
Current Weight: 326.6

Woot! Go me!

±gen³

Short Version:

Start weight 12-28-2008: 352

Current weight 2-2-2009: 328.8

Calorie Range: 1200-1500 (1 day is 2000)

Long Version:

On December 28th, 2008 I got on the scale and I was just disgusted with what I saw.  I weighed 352 lbs, how in the world did I get to this point, why am I a scary statistic about morbidly obese Americans?  I’m one of those people that you see on TV lamenting about how they’ve tried every diet in the book and now are going under the knife to get control over portion size?  No, I’m not going to be one of those people.  I see how I eat and I see how it’s wrong, I can change this.

So I headed over to my friendly http://www.sparkpeople.com site and started logging my food. I went to the grocery store and bought salads, tons of fruits, veggies, total cereal, and looked for lower calorie alternatives, but mainly just stocked my house with good foods.   I also started taking my daily multivitamin (the prenatal version, you never know when it could happen and prenatals tend to be better in vitamin #’s anyways), I take 4×1gram CLA everyday, and I also have Fiber Choice Weight Management in the morning.

For breakfast I usually have a banana with my version of the McDonald’s mcmuffin but with FF chease, double fiber muffins, egglands best egg and veggie sausage; or 2 servings of bran flakes (store brand) cereal with 3/4 cup of FF milk, or a serving or two of oatmeal with maybe raisins (no added sugar) or another fruit added in.  These breakfasts net me about 300-400 calories, which is PERFECT for breakfast.

For lunch I usually will have a nice romaine salad (romaine, cabbage, carrots) with grape tomatoes, about 8 of them, and sometimes an avocado on the salad with a half serving of kraft zesty italian dressing (1 TBSP), plus a serving of pasta, soup, or a baked potato with a very small amount of a meat, beef, chicken, etc but the meat serving is no more than an oz.

For dinner, I have one day a week where it’s about 1000 calories for dinner and puts me at about  2000 calories for the day, otherwise I’ll stick to a 300-400 calorie dinner.  I have 2 servings of veggies, typically it’s brussels sprouts, broccoli, or a normandy mix, steamed. Then I’ll have a carefully measured amount of meat 3-4 oz, or a veggie burger, pastas, pot roast, etc..   whatever fits the bill for calories, I’m going by hungry girl and a better homes ‘n gardens cookbook so I try to fit in normal but healthy meals.

For Snacks I do a few of the following, a fruit such as an apple, or orange, a fruit with plain FF yogurt such as blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, even grapes! Cottage cheese with dices peaches, 100 calorie snack pages, sweet freedom ice cream from blue bunny, skinny cow ice cream dippers, The ice creams are all under 100 calories showing that you can have your treat and ENJOY IT, no need to feel guily! I have 2-3 snacks a day.

For exercise, right now I just walk about 1 hr for 2.5 miles, and do some stretching plus strength training via resistance bands.  I’m looking into a gym right now so I can ramp up my strength training workout with a trainer, the one I’m looking at is an all woman’s gym though. Yay me!

So, today is Feb 2nd..  So what has happened during that time to my weight? Well, I’m now at 328.8 per my daily weigh-in this morning!!!!! I’ve lost 23.2 lbs!  OMG I CAN REALLY DO THIS!  The weight is just melting off my body and it’s so great. I’m feeling so much closer to being out of the 300’s and into the 200’s, a new weight century which I’ll be so proud of myself when I do it.

Well, if you’ve read this far in the book, I applaud you, I hope someday I can help someone the way I’ve helped myself.

±gen³

Yes, I live in Lubbock, TX, and yes it’s the desert, but, I have shade!  In the entry to our house there’s an area which gets only a slight amount of direct sunlight during the day and then on it’s shade, it’s not dark, obviously but the house and eaves kinda shield it from direct light.  In this area I dreamed of a mass of lily of the valley with their fragrant scents and cute little bells cheering me up and making me feel alive.  What happened though was disappointing.  Last year, we planted some, about 25.  They grew great, had their little show of bells and were getting on strong and healthy.  Then the caterpillars came.  And I think you know what happens from there.  No matter how many I attempted to dispose of, there were always more, making me cry.  And not to mention the constant weeding.

Weeding wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it was just weeding, but the bugs really destroyed my beautiful flowers.  This year, I’m planting more lily of the valley but I also have put in a raised bed, am pairing with with some bleeding hearts, cyclamen, viola’s and such.  No weeds for sure, and I’ve got a natural combatant against the caterpillars.  I WILL have my pretty shade garden this time.   Speaking of, I need to get to planting those little guys, they just came in yesterday!   I’ve also got a nice set of indoor pips for a pretty container indoors.  I will DEFINITELY have some lily of the valley no matter what!

In other news, Michael started school back after his spring break and mine starts back up on Thursday.  Also, I put in a resume for a job with a company where I can do tech support from home.  AWESOME!  Yay, they already contacted me about it and want to interview me.  It pays mores than my previous NTS job, which I’m glad I’m not at anymore, talk about the most morally bankrupt people in existence.   Those retards actually fired me for a Kidney Infection.  I could barely move and slept for 4 days straight and just barely stayed out of the hospital and all they cared about is getting people to show up, and I had a stellar review a month prior.  FUCK YOU BASTARDS.  The worst company ever.  STEER CLEAR!  Besides, my manager’s manager was racist against white people and overlooked his black brother’s and sister’s not doing their jobs.  And there’s some up there he wouldn’t fire even though they left when they wanted to, wouldn’t do shit for working and just basically flipped off the customers via the phone.

So if you think about doing business with NTS, DON’T!  STAY FAR FAR AWAY!

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So we just go back.

I had planted a bunch of new planters with seed, bulbs, cleaned up my front and bard yard a little bit of the trash and tumbleweeds (yes really) that just seem to roll in before we left and when you’re gone for a week, you really should get someone to water your stuff.. the heat must’ve gone up when we were gone because the Lubbock weather sure dried everything out, but they’re just seeds and bulbs, not delicate plants yet (not that I’d be silly enough to plant anything that can’t tolerate the heat here) so they’re fine, they just are starting to root and sprout later than I was planning.

The plants inside looked great, all growing and healthy, my little herb garden sprouted and looks good, just need to keep the kid and the cat away from it. I love going to places where you don’t live, you get to see this lush beautiful new environment with greenery everywhere and plants growing on rolling hills, tall trees and air so moist and loving to your skin and then get to go back to the dry flat windy desert where you live. Maybe we should move?

For something super cute, check out Ashlin on Vacation.

I have to admit, Lubbock is ok but it’s getting to me, it’s too dry too flat, too dusty dirty and boring. I need green life I don’t mind hot and humid as long as it isn’t Houston humid.

In other news, supposedly my mother-in-law wants to go on a diet and sounds determined (I hope) because I need motivation to get healthy too. She is set on weight watchers which is fine but thinks that I’m okay with my exercise just being walking.. no I need guidance there too, a nice health club with weight training equipment would be very nice so I’ve convinced her we can try out a monthly club to see what we like. I think most of my problem (and Michael’s) is that we don’t know how to eat healthy AND cheap and we really need to.

Anyhoo, wish me luck, I’ll need it.

±gen³