How am I Doing?

Meh. Pretty standard for me.

I did get to go to the community garden patch I got. It was so much fun. We had a sunny day in the 50's here. My partner and I got the whole patch weeded and part of the center walkway dug back up. We also trimmed back a kale that was left growing in the patch, and brought some home to eat. We are already eating from our garden and we didn't plant anything!

I am waiting for the soil to dry out a little more, so we can work in some fertilizer, before we start planting anything. I am so excited.

I know that walking over to my garden to work on it, water and weed it, will be so good for me. It will get me outside more often. It will remind me to keep eating well and focusing on delicious vegetables.

So far I have not been keeping up with my diet enough to lose weight. I think I lose a pound or two these last two weeks.

I will try to focus more.

I know, boring blog.

NOT staying on track

So I got a temp job.

This means commuting for an hour every day. It means being anxious, messing up a lot, feeling like I look terrible in my not so hot professional clothes (I do have a killer jacket though.) This also means learning a lot, meeting new people, feeling proud when I figure out things.

So my diet and exercise have not been happening, at all. I am frustrated. Packing lunches has been pretty successful  My partner and I both pack healthy snacks and lunches. Dinner has been alright. We haven't ordered out, or one day when we got something it was Subway sandwiches  But I have been stressed out and tired in the evenings, so I have been eating too much dinner.

I am going to promise myself that I will post more here, and on my healthy incentives for our insurance. I think a week adjusting to this new job is long enough. I will probably find out next week if I am going to get to keep this job or if they will hire someone else. Either way I need to focus on myself and being healthy. I am getting really really sick of being overweight and not fit.

I found some inspiration today in 344pounds.com, one of my favorite weight loss blogs. Here it is: http://www.344pounds.com/2013/02/joe-lost-160-pounds-by-counting-calories/

insurance

I am on my partner's insurance, which is great. It is that time again, time for healthy incentives! We signed up for a WebMD course, if we fill out three items a week for six weeks we get a break on our insurance.

I decided to go ahead and take it seriously. I will check in and use it to supplement the efforts I'm making already.

I haven't been focusing on my diet. I haven't really been keeping the house clean, or exercising either. I haven't gained any weight back either.

I have been applying for jobs though. I had one lined up for the next week or so, but found out at the last minute that it fell through! Frustrating.

I need to keep building on the motivation I have going now.

I will do a better check in tomorrow.

Mixed bag! or Meat Pizza Night

Well, I didn't lose weight this week. I maintained, which is okay. I did work out this morning. I walked with my mom. She is out of shape, so it's kind of funny. She will walk down the block, I will jog to the intersection and back every few minutes, so we can chat in between. That way we both get a workout.

I am taking the day off with my diet though. My partner wanted to make a dish in the cast iron skillet he inherited from his Grandma. The dish he was super excited to make is of course a deep dish meaty pizza. Oh well! It's worth it to take one night off to let him do something fun.

I have lobby day with Planned Parenthood on Monday at the state capital. This means getting dressed up, smoozing, rallying and other fun things. This kind of situation always reminds me that I want to be skinny. These women are great. But I know that most Americans hold a subconsciousness or conscious bias against people who are overweight. I could network more effectively if I were slimmer.

But I also can be confident that I speak well and am good at meeting new people. I will post about it when I get back. Volunteering and being politically active is so good for my mood. I know it helps improve my quality of life, which makes it easier to lose weight and feel balanced.

Yay!

Being social and still losing weight

My sister has lost over a 100 pounds. She did weight watchers for about two years. Now she is pretty much finishing up on her own. Over time she has gotten very good at eating out. She orders a salad with dressing on the side. Even if it's a fajita salad she asks what kinds of vinaigrette or diet salad dressing they have. She also gets a little normal dressing. I can't but help feeling like she is getting ripped off paying a restaurant to make a salad. She will order other things, but the point is, she makes good choices.

I got some practice doing that this weekend. Tanner and I saw his old college friend Jim on Friday night. We gave him our old TV and then went out to dinner. It was a great barbecue place. I ordered a whole meal, and ate it. It was great! I felt like it was worth it. But on Saturday night we went out with my sister and her boyfriend. Tanner and I knew we wanted to have a few beers each. So we split an entree. It was a good choice. I was full, and I knew I didn't overeat. It was also a good financial choice. Our budget can't afford to eat out a lot.

I obviously still have a long way to go. But at least I am thinking about it. I recognize that for my sister it has become a meaningful change. It will help her keep the weight off for the rest of her life.

Workout!

Today my partner and I did our usual workout. We went the to the little gym that is in our apartment complex. We used weights for 20 minutes or so. It takes more than twenty minutes so that each of us are actually lifting weights for the twenty minutes. Then we ran on the elliptical machine for twenty minutes. I like this workout. I get bored, so working out a few different ways keep me interested.

For dinner we are having chicken and mushrooms broiled in tomato sauce (all I did was add a can of low sodium tomato puree to low sodium diced tomatoes) over whole wheat hamburger buns I turned into garlic bread under the broiler.We only have a tiny amount of cheese too, so low cheese. Not really what we are supposed to be eating, we don't enough veggies in the house right now. But its almost the end of the week, and I will go shopping on Saturday or Sunday. Its a super fast, low fat dinner that we can both live with.

Yay for being on the right track.

I'm back!

I got a job for a month, and quit posting.

So I'm back!

While I working I lost 10 pounds. This was not really a success though. I was getting up at 4:00 am every day, and working at a job I didn't really like. So I often felt a little sick, and didn't feel hungry. So I don't think I lost weight in a healthy fashion. But! I've been out of work for a month, and basically doing nothing. Throughout this time I have only put back on two pounds. Honestly I have not been focusing on my diet or working out. So I am super happy that despite the holidays and being at home all the time, I'm not really gaining this weight back.

I am 222 right now.

Going to focus on doing a food journal for a week. Once that is successful I will start including calorie counts. My partner and I are also going to focus on working out more. The weather is pretty mild here, wet, but mild. So we need to get outside.

I have posts ready about cooking, a no sugar no refined carb cleanse, our community garden plot, and all kinds of other fun things!

So yay! Good blog!