Labor Day

Today's weight: 262.2, back to where I was 3 days ago, except this time I'm going in the right direction.  I'll feel like I've made real progress when I break the 260 pound barrier.

I've been following links and reading other weight loss blogs.  Really inspiring!  Multiple people that have lost 100+ pounds and are maintaining. 

I've tried a few new calorie counting programs, because FitDay is kinda annoying.  It's slow to load because ya have to wait for the ads to load first, and you can't just keep it open all day and add foods as you eat.  You get logged out after an hour or so and have to log back in, and you can't hit Enter to log in, you have to mouse click on the button.  Plus, you can't put in recipes by ingredient.  And - it doesn't have raw kale in it's dictionary, which is a major item in the juices I've been making.

So, I tried MyNetDiary and MyFitnessPal, and settled on MyFitnessPal.  Other peeps in this weight loss community use it, and it does seem nice.  And it has kale!  And I can put in recipes by ingredient!  And, I can friend others doing the challenge so we can share stuff.  I think that will help me lose my weight.  Being accountable to others.

Food-wise, yesterday was good, although it almost spiraled away from me.  I had 3 scrambled eggs and 2 hotdogs for breakfast, trying to up the protein, but when I put those into the calorie counter with the light cream I had in my tea, I realized that I'd already had over 700 calories, half of the entire day!

I stopped by Hennessy Homebrew to get items for the hard cider, and then went to Indian Ladder farms to get the apple juice.  I had brought Maggie with me, and she got out at the orchard!  Of course, she wouldn't come when I called, and chasing her is futile. So I walked away, which turned out to be the right thing to do, because she wanted attention and came towards people.  I asked someone to grab her collar and got her on the leash and back into the car.  But I was so flustered that I bought apple coffee cake with lots of yummy brown sugar on top and on the way home got popcorn, because I couldn't decide if I wanted sweet or salty.  Ate the popcorn on the way home and the coffee cake later in the afternoon.

But then I had a moment of sanity and entered what I'd eaten into the calorie counter and it was OK!  On an impulse, I went to the firehouse around 4  in the afternoon and did a week 1 C25K run/walk.  I don't know if I'm ready for that - my left knee hurts today.  I maybe should do the elliptical instead of C25K until I lose some weight.  I think I should plan on doing something physical every day.  Having days on and days off makes it too easy for me to put exercise off.

I saw a profile in the newspaper of a guy that rolls dice every morning to see what exercise he's going to do that day.  I've got so many exercise choices that I'd like to do something similar.  (Exercise DVD, take the dog for a walk, lift weights in my spare bedroom, band workout, ball workout, at the firehouse treadmill or  elliptical or weights).  I've made the list already and just need to get things a little organized, like hook up the DVD player and make sure I've got enough usable space in front of the TV (must take down the ceiling fan and put up one that I don't run into with my hands when I raise my arms!).  I'd love to have a trainer again, but I need to see how that fits in my finances.  In January I joined the Y, thinking that I'd go to exercise classes, but I didn't, so I cancelled the membership in May. 

I'll figure something out - what I'm doing differently this time than past times is giving myself permission to not be perfect about it, not have the entire thing work perfectly from the start.

For dinner I made Apple-Beet-Carrot juice:
1 apple
2 beets
3 large carrots
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
4 cups spinach/kale
352 calories, 2.4 g fat, 12.6 g protein, 20 g fiber, 79.9 g carbs.
I'm not sure how to interpret juice info, so I'm just using the info as if I'd eaten the whole food, which can't be right.  But it's conservative (ie, estimates high.  There's no way I had all that fiber and carbs, since all the solids are in my trash can) but I'll continue to do it this way until I figure out a more accurate way to calculate nutrition info.

BTW, I'm doing juices because I saw the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix about a month ago. Wow!  I went out right after that movie and got a juicer.  I do feel like a million bucks after having juice.  I can feel my face is warm - thermogenesis! and I have energy that I don't have after a normal meal and I feel like I'm taking care of myself in a positive way.  The juices are satisfying too!  I don't get hungry for like 4 hours after juice.  I don't plan on doing a juice fast, but I do want to have juice in my regular eating routine several times a week.

And lastly, here is my first candidate for the "dress."

This is me in January 2005 wearing a velvet jacket that I've gotten TONs of compliments on.  Only problem is that I was 220 then, and it's not likely that I'll lose 40 pounds and be able to fit in it again by January.  I'll mark this as "possibly" the goal, and keep looking.