BFL W4, D24

Wednesday

Diet
8:45 a.m. Special K Breakfast Bar
12:30 p.m. Lunch out - Chicken Fettucini Alfredo, 1 Roll, Salad w/Ranch, Diet Coke
4:00 p.m. Apple
8:30 p.m. 1 1/2 breadsticks (Pizza Hut)

Water - 3 bottles

Exercise
None. Head hurt too bad.

Comments Meeting in Louisville, ate breakfast on the run, no chance for a snack. Was starving at dinner and didn't think a salad would cut it. Had a migraine on the way home, but no meds with me. (3 1/2 hour drive). Came home and took meds, but still took 2 hours at home to kick in. No desire for dinner.

BFL W4, D23

Thursday

Diet
8:00 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
9:30 a.m. Detour Bar
12:00 p.m. Lunch w/Boss - Chargrilled Chicken Salad
3:30 p.m. Detour Bar
7:00 p.m. Client Dinner - 1 glass White Zinfindel, some French Onion Soup, House Salad, 3 Crackers, Ribeye Special w/mixed veggies and whipped potatos, Berries Jubilee

Exercise
6:10 a.m. BFL Cardio

Comments
Dinner was out of control, but fancy places are very difficult to watch myself. At least I did good at lunch.

BFL W4, D22

Diet
8:00 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:15 a.m. FF Cottage Cheese & FF Yogurt
12:00 p.m. Potbelly's Skinny Roast Beef (darn that restaurant!) & Diet Coke
4:30 p.m. Protein Shake & Apple
6:15 p.m. Flank Steak packet - few bites of Red potatos and Green Beans (Grace didn't think I needed to eat and ignore her!)
9:45 p.m. String Cheese & LF Popcorn

Water - 5 bottles

Exercise
Lower Body - Not sure why, but felt a little sexy working out today. I should do that more often!

Comments
Don't know how, but weighed in at 157.5. I'll take it and get back on track.

Very good water intake today.

Must do cardio in the AM tomorrow, as I'm leaving for a client dinner/meeting at 2:00 p.m. and spending the night in Louisville, KY. Planning ahead with bars and will make a concious effort at all of my meals out tomorrow and Wednesday.

BFL W3, D17

Diet
7:45 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:00 a.m. FF Cottage Cheese & FF Yogurt
12:00 p.m. Potbelly (I'm weak) Turkey on "Skinny" Wheat no mayo or oil
4:00 p.m. Protein Shake & Apple
6:00 p.m. South Beach Diet Southwestern Chicken Wraps w/Sugar Free Jello

Water - 3 bottles

Exercise
Planned - Lower Body
Just can't bring myself to do it. No excuses, just don't feel like it.

Comments
Baby steps. Baby steps.

BFL W3, D16?

Ok, So I was busted. Here's a hint. If I'm not posting, it's usually not a good sign. That's all I think you need to know about what has happened since Thursday evening. In summary, I haven't been eating great, and haven't exercised since Wednesday.

BUT...I'm not quitting. Even though tomorrow is Wednesday, I'm back on the horse. Tonight I'm going to actually cook tomorrow's dinner, so I won't have an excuse and I'll even restart exercising. That will give me a half week to get my butt back in gear and then start with a goal for a 100% week next week.

Here's what I learned. I'm a routine girl. Screw up my routine and I'm done. Friday I went to the grocery store right after work and thus, screwed up my dinner routine(meaning eating before 6:15 p.m.) plus I was hungry, so I saw all kinds of stuff I wanted that wasn't on the plan. I also need to do some planning in advance for Sunday. If we are going to eat lunch out, I need to think in advance of what I'm going to order. Monday this week I had good intentions, but I was working in Cincinnati (thus out of my routine), I brought some snacks that didn't need refrigeration, but I left them plus my extra water in the car. Nice. Then we ate lunch out and even the salads didn't sound healthy, so I ordered pasta. It was so good, but covered in olive oil, so very fatty. Tuesday (today) I should have been in good shape, but I caved and ate out with my friend LeAnn. They just opened a Potbelly's sandwich place next door and I had to try it out with her. Then, I thought I was going to have an issue as one of the CE's and I were meeting with some clients for an early happy hour today. We ended up not ordering food (I did get a Diet Coke) and it wasn't a big deal, but after picking Grace up I decided to pick up fast food since we were going to get home after 6. Long story short. I need to stick to my routine as much as possible or do some real heavy duty planning. As for exercise? No excuse, just been really tired and haven't felt like it.

Ok, so tomorrow, expect a post. And I'll plan ahead for Thursday when I will have to leave work early to take Grace to her 6-month check-up.

BFL W2, D11

Diet
7:50 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:00 a.m. FF Cottage Cheese & FF Yogurt
12:00 p.m. Flank Steak, Noodles, Peas
7:15 p.m. Applebees Fiesta Lime Chicken & Steamed Veggies

Water - 3 bottles

Exercise
Last night planned to get up at 6 a.m. for cardio, but didn't even remember I was going to get up early until the 6:20 a.m. alarm went off. By that time, it's too late to do cardio before I need to get Grace up, so I will have to do it tonight.

8:30 p.m. 2 min BFL Cardio. That's not a typo, I was on the treadmill and Eric camed down and handed me the phone. It was Samara and I hadn't talked to her since Monday, so I got off the treadmill. 45 minutes later I got off the phone. It was 9:15 p.m. so I decided not to do cardio. Another reminder of why morning exercise is best.

Comments
Major goal for today is planning next week's meals. I'm getting low on grocercies and probably need to go to the store tomorrow night. Grace only has 1 jar of fruit left (for day-care tomorrow), so I have to go shopping before noon on Saturday.

I should stay away from the scale except for my weekly weigh-ins. It was up to 158.0 today, but I was perfect yesterday, so I'm not going to let me effect me. I'll just keep going and see what Monday's official number brings.

Skipped my afternoon snack. Shouldn't do that. I was starving by the time I got home and decided I wanted Applebees. Eric agreed and after we fed Grace we left. I did choose chicken and I asked them to substitute veggies for the rice that came with the dish. Ate too large of a portion, so I skipped my evening snack too. Did exert extreme willpower when Eric ordered dessert and I didn't even steal a single bite!

BFL W2, D10

Diet
8:00 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:00 a.m. Detour Bar
12:10 p.m. Chicken Burrito (Chicken, Tortilla, Lettuce, RF Cheddar, dab FF Sour Cream, and Taco Sauce)
4:00 p.m. Protein Shake & Orange
5:50 p.m. Flank Steak (small portion), Noodles, Peas
9:40 p.m. String Cheese & Popcorn

Water - 5 Bottles

Exercise
8:00 p.m. BFL Upper Body - Heavier weights started feeling good.

Comments
Stepped on the scale this morning (156.5). Yeah, that's motivation to keep this up for the rest of the week.

While it's still early, I think I'm starting to "feel" changes already. My legs feel a bit tighter and my belly flab doesn't feel quite as bouncy. I can't really see a difference yet, but hopefully soon!

BFL W2, D9

Diet
7:45 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:30 a.m. FF Cottage Cheese & FF Yogurt
12:30 p.m. Beef-K-Bob & Noodles
4:00 p.m. Protein Shake & Orange
6:10 p.m. Chicken Burritto (chicken, lettuce, tortilla, dab of hot sauce, dab of FF Sour cream, RF Cheddar cheese)
9:30 p.m. String Cheese & Popcorn

Water - 5 bottles

Exercise
6:10 a.m. 20 minutes cardio

Comments

BFL W2, D8

Monday Weigh In - 158.5 (-1.5 pounds)

Diet
7:45 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:15 a.m. FF Yogurt & FF Cottage Cheese
1:00 p.m. Ham Sandwich (FF American & Wheat Bread), Carrots
4:00 p.m. Protein Shake & Orange
4:45 p.m. 1 glass White Zinfindel & 1 mozzerella stick (went with coworkers to watch the Michael Jackson verdict)
6:15 p.m. Beef-K-Bob (1/4 pound lean beef w/green peppers broiled) & egg noodles
9:30 p.m. String Cheese & LF Popcorn

Water - 4 bottles

Exercise
8:30 p.m. BFL Lower Body

Comments
Wish the weigh in was a little better, but at least I didn't sabatoge it. Was very bad at the water drinking at work. Will try to make most of it up in evening, but need to be more concious of that at work.

Really should have passed up the cheesestick at the bar, but I only had one and I didn't want to be rude while they were passing the basket around! (I know that's an excuse)

BFL W1, D7

Diet
8:30 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
11:30 a.m. Applebees - Fiesta Lime Chicken w/crunchy tortilla strips
6:00 p.m. left over fiesta lime chicken, then popcorn
9:30 p.m. FF Yogurt and String Cheese

Water - 5 1/2 bottles

Exercise
3:15 p.m. Church Softball game - 6 innings (catcher-2, right field-1, center field-1, second base-2)
8:00 p.m. 20 minutes on treadmill

Comments
Started the day right by choosing the protein shake rather than taking Eric up on his offer to go get McDonald's breakfast. Biggest downfall today is no in between snacks. I got to sleep in today, so I had breakfast later and we went to lunch right after church, so I didn't get a snack in. I made a decent choice at lunch. The chicken breast was huge, so I took 1/2 home for dinner. I didn't touch the rice that came with the meal and only ate the crispy strips. Should have had a bar before the softball game, but didn't think about it. Starving when I got home. Ate the chicken and was still hungry. Really considered cheating and looking for something bad, but decided to go with popcorn. That helped. Still feeling a little like cheating, but will try to hold out. I don't want to sabatoge what I've worked so hard at this week.

Reflections for the Week
Overall very proud of myself. Planning was key.
Positives: Didn't cheat on eating at all. Very good on water intake. Very good on keeping my blog updated.
Negatives: Skipped Friday's workout. Sometimes missed some snacks.
For Next Week: Will only prepare meals a day ahead. I had some extra meals I never got to this week, because I had more left overs than needed. Every evening, I'll prepare dinnder for the next day. This will also help keep things fresher. Don't wimp out on Friday's exercise. I won't feel like making it up on Saturday. Next Sunday eat a snack before the softball game. Any time eating out this week, I need to make good choices!

BFL W1, D6 - Free Day

Diet
8:00 a.m. 4 packets low sugar Apples & Cinamon Oatmeal
1:15 P.m. Chipotle Chicken Burito and Chips and Salsa, Large Coke
3:00 p.m. Reeses Peanut Butter Cup
8:00 p.m. Texas Roadhouse - handfull peanuts, 2 rolls with Cinnamon butter, Salad w/ranch, 6 oz. sirloin smothered with onions, mushrooms, and jack cheese, baked potato w/butter and sour cream, 2 Cokes

Exercise
None.

Comments
The Chipotle was good, but I ended up getting really stuffed. The Reeses cup wasn't worth it. I also got groceries and plan to be back "on" tomorrow. Tomorrow evening I'll cook for the next week again. That really helped out this week.

BFL W1, D5

Friday, June 10, 2005
Diet
7:45 Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:10 a.m. FF Cottage Cheese & FF Yogurt
11:30 a.m. Tuna Salad on Wheat Bread, Carrots
4:00 p.m. Detour Bar
6:00 p.m. Chinese Pepper Steak, Veggies, and Egg Noodles
9:15 p.m. String Cheese & Popcorn

Water - 4 1/2 bottles

Exercise
Planned - upper body. Actual - None.

Comments
Didn't get around to posting on the correct day. This is the worst day I've had (water and exercising), but I'm planning on making up the exercise on Saturday and will be back on track on Sunday!

BFL W1, D4

Diet
7:45 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:00 a.m. Protein Shake & Apple
12:00 p.m. Lunch Out - Chicken Breast w/spinach, roasted red peppers, and mushrooms and swiss cheese, 1 slice cibata bread
6:00 p.m. Carribean Chicken Salad
9:30 p.m. String Cheese Popcorn

Exercise
8:10 p.m. 20 minutes on Treadmill. 1.18 miles.

Comments
Was very pround of myself for lunch today. I had a client meeting followed by lunch. I passed on bread and butter, soup, and the steak fries that actually came out on my plate. I also ordered a sandwich, but only ate 1/2 the bread. I probably still ate more than needed though because I didn't get hungry mid-afternoon and skipped that snack.

I also wanted to skip my cardio today. I didn't get up this morning like planned and this evening I knew I should be studying for my exam, but I made myself take 20 minutes for exercise (I think I really wanted to procrastinate on the studying).

Another good day. One more day before I can have a free day. I'm not really craving anything though. I'm not planning on pigging out, just going to go with the flow. I do think I'll have Chipotle for lunch though. That rice is so good.

BFL W1, D3

Diet
8:00 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:30 a.m. Detour Bar
12:30 p.m. Caribbean Chicken Salad
4:00 p.m. Protein Shake & Apple
6:40 p.m. Chinese Pepper Steak with Asian Veggies and Egg Noodles
9:15 p.m. LF Popcorn & String Cheese

Water - 4 bottles

Exercise
8:00 p.m. Lower Body. Is it bad if you are sore before your workout is over?

Comments
Spent the day with Samara and Ava. Did pretty good staying on track with eating (some times moved a little). Didn't drink as much water as I should have. Samara layed down for a nap around 4:45 p.m., so I didn't get home until 6:40 p.m. I was starving! Luckily Eric had already started feeding Grace, so I grabbed something while they were occupied. I had planned on the salad again for dinner, but was starving and wanted something more substantial, so I ate left over Pepper Steak. Now I have a headache and want to sit on the couch and do nothing, but I must do lower body first! I've had a perfect week so far and don't want to quit now. Will also try to get at least 2 more bottles of water down tonight, I don't know if I can get the full five.

BFL W1, D2

Diet
7:45 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
11:20 a.m. FF Cottage Cheese & FF Yogurt
1:00 p.m. Italian Season Chicken, Rice, Green Beans
4:00 p.m. Protein Shake & Apple
6:10 p.m. Chinese Pepper Steak with Asian Veggies, Egg Noodles (made at home)
9:15 p.m. LF Popcorn & String Cheese

Water - 5 1/2 bottles

Exercise
6:10 a.m. 20 Minute BFL Cardio on Treadmill. 1.18 miles. I'm starting slow, but will kick it up next week. I used to do 2 miles in 20 minutes.

Comments
I've been hungry today, but have stayed on track. I really think I could have a good week. Tomorrow I'm spending the day with Samara and Ava, but I'm bringing my snacks and a healthy lunch. I have a headache tonight, but think I'm freaking out a bit over a CPCU exam I have on Friday. I'm not prepared yet, but keep procrastinating on my studies. Better get to it.

BFL W1, D1 (GWO C2,W7,D2)

Ok, it's going to be too hard to keep up with days and weeks for both my BFL and GWO challenges. So, I'll post my final weight for the GWO challenge, but I'll count weeks and days for my new BFL challenge. For anyone unfamiliar with my acronyms: BFL=Body-For-Life, GWO=Girls Weekend Out, W=Week, D=Day, C=Challenge.

Anyway, started today and am still physched and motivated! No picture yet, but I'll try to get Eric to take it when he gets home from Bible Study.

Diet
7:45 a.m. Protein Shake & Oatmeal
10:30 a.m. FF Cottage Cheese & FF Yogurt
12:40 p.m. Tuna w/light mayo, wheat bread, carrots
3:45 p.m. Protein Shake & Apple
6:10 p.m. Chicken Breast w/Italian seasoning, Rice, and Green Beans
9:40 p.m. Low-fat popcorn & String Cheese

Water - 5 1/2 bottles

Exercise
7:40 p.m. Upper body BFL style. It felt really good. I actually started dancing to my workout music between sets.

Comments
I was ready to start today. Beginning weight 160 pounds. Ten pounds to pre-baby weight, but my goal is 15 to 20 pounds. After my first successful BFL I was down to 136 pounds. I doubt I can get there again with my equipment at home, but I'd be really happy at 140 pounds.

I resisted a tootsie roll today. I was chatting at work and a girl offered me a tootsie roll. I said, "Sure" and started to unwrap it. I realized what I was doing and then walked away and gave it to someone else. No cheating on day 1! I also told my lunch buddy at work that I am definately back on the diet. She asked if I can find stuff on the menu if we go out, but I told her I'd do a better job if I just bring my lunch. Sad, but maybe she'll decide to do the same.

Last night I pre-cooked lots of meals, so I'm in good shape this week. Grace just needs to move back her dinner. I had dinner made by 6:10 tonight and she was already crying for her dinner. They are supposed to give her a bottle between 4 and 4:30, but it keeps getting earlier (3:30 today) and then she's hungry earlier in the evening. Once we get that fixed, my schedule should be good.

Blah

I feel really bad about my body right now. I think it's starting to affect parts of my life. I hate walking by a mirror for the off chance I'll catch a side angle. It's affecting my "romantic" life because I never feel attractive. And unfortunately, when I feel this way, I'm indulging more in bad food rather than doing something about it. I've actually restarted my "diet" several times, but then something happens and I stop.

I know it's possible to do something about it. In 2003 I did Body-For-Life. It was great! I felt awesome. I only lost 9 pounds, but I got fit and dropped from a size 10 to a size 6. I looked great too! I did the 12 week program from February to May and kept it up for the most part until I got pregnant in July 2003. After I lost the baby, I got depressed and didn't do anything to lose the 10 pounds I gained during those 10 weeks. After that I was consumed with trying to get pregnant and by the time I got pregnant with Grace, I had gained another 5 pounds. Now, I'm still 10 pounds heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight.

Here's my motivation. I want to look and feel better about myself. I know once I get going I'll have more energy and feel better in general. I'm running out of time. Once I get pregnant again, I can't call these 10 pounds "baby weight." It's entirely possible that I'll be pregnant again in a year or less (we're planning on starting again next spring), so I want to be sure I get back to where I want to be before that happens. I want to make it a lifestyle so Grace will be used to eating healthy. I don't want to make it hard for her to stay at a reasonable weight growing up or as an adult. Maybe if I start losing, Eric will decide to join me. Sounds like I'm motivated right?

Here's the challenge...time. I definately can find time to exercise, but it will involve either getting up early (5:30 a.m.) which I'm not great at or giving up part of my evenings after Grace is in bed (after 8 p.m.). We have DVR now, so I can't use TV as an excuse. Dinners are hard too, because Grace starts dinner (and the rest of her nighttime routine) at around 6:30 p.m. The key will be to have a plan and start dinner as soon as I get home from work, so we can eat before she does.

Tonight I'm going to plan for next week, so I can get groceries tomorrow evening. We are going to Indiana Saturday and coming back Sunday afternoon, so I won't have time to shop then. I am planning on cooking what I can (chicken, etc) on Sunday's so I'll have less prep time in the evenings. I will keep track of diet and exercise. I'll update my diet blog, but I also bought the Body-For-Life journal and will keep it up daily. It was $25, so that in itself will make me not want to quit. I don't want to waste my money, by stopping on Day 3 and not being able to use it.

So, the diet starts Monday. I'll be taking "before" pictures, weighing and measuring with updates every 4 weeks. Feel free to follow along in my diet blog if you want, but wish me luck and I'll really try to stay on track this time.