Dagny

Achievements in 2008
*Stopped Drinking soda
*Began Drinking water 8+ cups per day
*Daily Vitamin
*Started doing Curves
*Went from 1 mile to the 4 mile (Walk away the pounds)
*Began watching my sodium intake
*Switched from 1 and 2% milk to skim milk!
*Ate new foods: Kiwi and clementine
*Started doing crunches, tried a Pilates workout dvd
*Tried new dvds, including kickboxing and Tai Fit
*Lost 50 pounds!

Goals for 2009
*Keep watching and managing sodium intake
*Keep working on my core with Pilates and yoga
*Increase my calcium intake (no idea how to do this)
*Try the 5 mile Walk away the pounds workout
*Buy and try a Tae Bo workout
*Try running in the summer (if possible)
*Use my pedometer more often, increase steps
*Make it to my goal weight (145-150)

One of my goals this month was to keep my sodium intake between 1500-2300 daily. Each day I succeeded, I placed a sticker on my calendar for that day. Including today, I’ve kept my sodium under 2300 for 14 days this month! I had even went a whole week straight once!
The lowest I’ve managed to keep my sodium was 1,044. The highest this month was 3419, a day I think I ate out and therefore had higher sodium than wanted. That might seem high, but since I began December, that was the only day that it was over 3,000 mg.
Also, I had been watching it many months before and when I first started it was some days way over 5,000 mg. So 3,000 is an improvement!

However, I have not lost any more weight since the end of November, so it seems. I had figured that this would help me lose weight, but it didn’t seem to work this month.
But, my plan had been to keep doing this each month! So this month I managed 14 days…so I plan to have at least 15 low sodium days in January!

I have this new pair of workout pants, they are like sweat pants. Well for whatever reason, when I wear them the inside stuffing falls out all over the floor. So my dad has been saying that I am like a stuffed toy, and I am losing my stuffing. Hahah, if he only knew!

Today was weigh and measure for Curves, and the last one for the year. I joined the end of June, beginning of July and am happy to say that to date I have lost 35.60 inches and 48.25 pounds! That is almost 50 pounds!

These are my results for this month (Since the 20th of last month)

Bust -.50
Waist -.50
Abdomen -.25
Hips -.75
Thighs -.50
Arms -.30
Weight -9 pounds
Body Fat 39% (-4%)

I keep thinking that I am on a plateau because my scale barely moves. In fact, my scale this morning had me at 234 right because I got ready for Curves. Curves scale says I weigh 232. I usually always weigh more on the Curves scale, probably due to wearing shows, pants, shirt and so on. So I don’t know which one to believe…

Alright, so I don’t know how long this blog will live, so if you see it and want to blog, do so before I send it to blog heaven!

Today my mom was cleaning and found my prom dress. I wore the dress when I was about 16 in the year 2003 (or close, junior prom) and I never went to my Senior prom. Well I had wanted a purple dress, but really none of the dresses fit me because of my size. So I picked this one, it went nice with my complexion and looked nice on me. Today I tried it on and my mom told me it looked ugly on me. It is loose in the stomach area, the hips and the back! I don’t know how much I weighed when I got the dress, and went to prom, but apparently I am smaller now than I was back then!

I took some pictures and my mom took some pictures of me as well. Can you tell it is loose on me? (though some of the pics we took came out blurry, I don’t know why) Sorry they are not the clearest.

The Idea:

A month or so ago I had tried to do a low sodium diet. I believe it helped me lose weight, and I know it helped my overall health. However, I got off track and never got back to it. But in December, I want to try to do this again and so I have made this “plan”. I don’t want to remove sodium totally from my diet, and I do not expect perfection. 1500-2300 mg is good for me. I also want it to fit into my lifestyle, and something I will stick to, so I don’t plan on cutting out any foods from my diet-like tuna or eggs.

The Plan:

Planning my meals, or most of the day’s meals the day before really helped me before. I think I will stick to that this time too. I am also going to do some research, maybe even look for books at the library. I am going to make a list of healthy, “free” foods. These foods will not be “free” of course, and I will count them in my calories but I just want a list of foods that are low in sodium that I can count on to eat everyday and use in my meals and snacks. Like apples, kiwi, baked potatoes and so on are some of the “free” foods I am thinking of.

The Attitude and Motivational Tools:

Before when I tried low sodium, it was very difficult. Many days I went over my range, and did not feel very successful. Instead of saying to myself, “Wow, my sodium is already 3,000mg, why don’t I just have chips since I am already beyond the range” I am going to avoid that! It is just like with calories, being over your goal doesn’t mean you should binge and get back on track next week.
Instead of focusing on the days I do not make my goal, I will celebrate the days I do meet it! I am going to put a sticker on the calender for each day that I stay in my sodium goals. Then at the end of the month (each month assuming I continue with this) I will count these days up. Then I will try to beat that score the next month, and do better if I can!
So even if I only succeeded for like 7 days…instead of feeling like a failure, I will try to do better than that 7 the next month, maybe going 8 or 10 days the next month!

This is my plan so far. I don’t know if it is a good one, but if you know any other advice or low sodium food ideas, please share them! Thanks.

I cannot find my other report, to compare my losses, so this is based on the last 2 months or so.

Bust–      -.25 inch

Waist–     -2 inches

Abdomen    -.75 inch

Hips            -1.75 inches

Thighs         -1.50 inches

Arm                -1 inch

Weight            -16.75 pounds

BMI                -2.60

Total Inches Lost -7.25 inches

Body Fat % -3%

And it says my strength went from 107 to 116 (I do Curves Smart)

After being weighed and measured, the manager asked if I could stay for the pictures. Apparently they were having photographs taken and she said since I was such a great member and lost so much weight, I should stay for that. However, the pictures were going in the paper…yikes, and I couldn’t do that or my dad would definitely find out I go to Curves! lol

But really for the one month I only lost 7  pounds…I wish I had lost more though. I seem to lose weight one week (like 1-3 pounds) then just gain it or most of it back the following week. I am still exercising at the same intensity, and the previous weeks I have been eating the same, and I even dropped my calories figuring that might be the answer. Might it be a plateau, or something? I would guess sodium, some days I do well but other days I am out of my range…

A few weeks ago I found a great pack of DVDs at a thrift shop for 3$! They are 10 of the best workouts, over 12 hours of video on 5 dvds! Today I found a workout dvd for….1 cent! haha. I was in the mall at FYE and was browsing their exercise videos (they are more expensive than Walmart!) But they have some of the Leslie Sansone walks that I can’t find at Walmart. So then I started looking at workouts I was unfamiliar with and found one that said it cost a penny! It is a ten minute solution, and it is a sampler. But it has 3 sampler workouts, 10 minutes each! I got that! I even asked the worker if it was a typo…he said even if it was he had to give me it at that price. So wow…watch out for great deals out there! You never know what you will find!

Back in July I found a denim skirt at a yard sale, and bought it. It was a size 20 and at around 275-280 pounds I could get the skirt up but was unable to zip it. A few weeks ago I realized that it actually fit me! So my legs are one part of my body which I hate, so I did try to find nylons or leg stockings that would hide them (and also keep my legs warm!) but the one pair I got that was 2x did not fit me, nor did the 4x (what is up with that?).

So despite not having anything covering my legs, I wore my skirt today! It was warm so at least I did not freeze.

This is from the 18 of September until now.

Waist  -1 inch

Abdomen same

Hips -.50 inch

Thighs -1 inch

Arms -.25 inch

Weight -9.75 pounds!

The body fat % thing says I gained body fat, but the Curves Trainer who weighed and measured me said that there are a list of reasons why that might be, like being close to TOM, salty foods and so on.

But the Scale showed almost a 10 pound loss! I am 248 according to their scale, I’m out of the 250s!

I also went shopping last night….in my closet! I cleaned it out and found my smaller sized shirts and some smaller sized sweatshirts for this winter. And then I sorted some of the summer clothes towards the back of the closet, along with some things that are too big. I need a bigger closet, a walk in closet is preferred! lol. But now I need to find some smaller sized pants…but I plan to go shopping Thursday so I will see if I can find any.

I have gym class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and then afterwards I go to Curves. The gym class is not tough, but it is walking, playing games and other things. But I have noticed that since I do my Curves workout in the evening, after a gym class that I don’t have as much energy as I had before. But there is really no way around that, I can’t skip gym class and I can’t skip a workout…

So I was wondering if anyone is sort of doing a workout back to back, or even multiple workouts in the same day, and how do you keep yourself from burning out?

I was weighed and measured today at Curves! It was in the afternoon, so I think that lunch made the scale ineffective but…I think the inches lost speak for themselves!

Inches lost

Bust –1.50

Waist –1.50

Abs–The measurements from the other month were off so no update on this

Hips –3

Thighs –1.75

Arms –1.50

Weight –7.25

Body Fat % –4.10 lost!

This was since last month, so in one month I have lost 9.25 inches! My scale at home though still says I’m at 250 this morning so I’m not going to change my ticker, plus some of that weight could have been what I had at lunch and even the water I’ve been drinking. The woman measuring me was very shocked!

Next month we are getting Curves Smart and I am signed up for that! And I also got some more workout videos today (2 Leslie Sansone’s and the Biggest Loser Workout.  I can’t wait until next month’s weight and measure report!