Cracking the Fat Loss Code: Week 4

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything in a while.  On the plus side, I've actually been following the diet I wrote about in my last post - and have only made a couple of *oopses* - not too bad for someone that usually has less willpower than a kid in a candy store.

Add a few years of life to this chic, and basically you have
a pretty good picture of the extent of my willpower.

I usually have great ideas that I don't follow through on, and find all reasons in the world to blame my lack of committed-ness on.  General reasons include having other more pressing things to do (ie watching re-runs of Happy Days), washing my hair, and my general love of chocolate.  In short, my willpower essentially equals zero.  So, when I manage to stick to something for almost a full month, I am nothing short of shell shocked, amazed, and overly proud of myself.  Gooooo me!

Anyway, it's been successful thus far - I've lost approximately 7 pounds in those 4 weeks, and I've definitely noticed a change in my feelings about food and portion sizes and eating times.  The one down side to this whole lifestyle change is that I still haven't managed to convince myself to start exercising.  I don't know what the hang up is - it's not like I have lack of time as an excuse - I think it must be pure laziness.  Why would I exercise when I could simply sit on the couch and watch MORE Happy Days re-runs?  Or a few episodes of Kourtney and Kim take Miami (or is it Chloe?) - they're all interchangeable to me.  And equally ridiculous.  I repeat, there's NO EXCUSE for me not to exercise, I just don't.  I'll get to it, I swear!

Greg has also lost weight as he's been participating in this program with me.  It's been great to have him supporting me while also making changes to live healthier - and, again - having friends at work who are also following the same plan helps on those days when I can't remember why I started this mess in the first place.

Here's hoping the good work keeps up!  I'm nervous about the SuperBowl on Sunday - watching it in the absence of chips and salsa, wings, and beer seems JUST WRONG on many levels.  I've been trying to think of low carb snacks I can eat instead - maybe something like cucumber slices with some kind of cheese and protein topping (maybe shredded chicken in buffalo sauce with blue cheese).  Hmmm...that could be interesting.  We'll see.

Enjoy the SuperBowl everyone!  And, if you're trying to lose weight, I officially state that I endorse this Crack the Fat Loss Code book - it's reasonable to follow, doesn't require weird food combinations, and teaches you really great ways to change the way you eat.  So far, so good!

Happy New Year

This post is a little bit late, but, hey, better late than never, right?

This year I have several resolutions - all of which are pretty intense to tackle:

1.  Get my financial life in order.
2.  Lose some weight
3.  Start exercising or at least moving around more regularly
4.  Pass my PE exam
5.  Create a Living Will

All of these are seriously daunting tasks for me - but I have had enough of my "just go with it" attitude.  Things need to change, and I'm the only person who can make the changes I need to make to be a better me.  Yeah, I just said that.

Thankfully, Greg has agreed to work on all of these with me - so I have a partner in crime.  Which is awesome.

So far, here's what I've accomplished for each goal:

1.  Greg and I re-looked at our budget, set up a LearnVest account that truthfully tracks the money we're spending, and are holding each other accountable for every single purchase we make.  We'll see how we fare at the end of the month when we look at totals of what we spent in January.

2.  I started a diet today.  Thankfully, Greg is on the same diet, as are two of my female co-workers - so I have lots of people to look to for support.  We're following the "Crack the Fat-Loss Code" book - which means that I can't eat any carbs this week at all.  Which is going to be interesting.  But I'm up for the challenge.  The good news is that the diet requires me to eat once every three to four hours, so hopefully I won't feel too hungry at any point in the day and lose my resolve to continue.  Today's menu:
6:30 AM - Egg McLehrer "Muffin" (mini egg/egg white crustless quiche made with turkey bacon and cheese)
9:30 AM - Cheese stick
12:30 PM - Salad with lettuce, cucumber, cabbage, grilled chicken, and dressing
3:30 PM - Tuna fish mixed with celery, onion, and a little bit of mayo
6:30 PM - Steak with steamed broccoli and salad with cucumber and dressing
9:30 PM - Protein shake (probably chocolate raspberry or something like that)

I know you're jealous!  Greg and I have both recorded our starting weights - I'd like to try to get starting pictures also - we'll see how that goes.

3.  I walked one day last week, and once over the weekend - not Great, but better than what I was doing before. This week I'll try to walk more - maybe like 3 times??

4.  The exam is in April - I will be paying for it today - and start studying soon.

5.  Living will documents filled out, just need to get some witnesses to sign off on them and make sure the people I've identified as proxies are OK with taking on that responsibility.

So far, not so bad, right?  Wish me luck!

And, good luck to all of you out there who have resolutions of your own.  You can do it!!!!