Staying on Track[ing]

So, one of the things that has worked really well for me in the past is tracking - tracking my calories, tracking my workouts, and tracking my weight. Now, I have a FitBit and will be tracking my steps too. So, I'll tell you what has worked for me and if you have any recommendations, you can share with me too!

Calorie tracking: I use a food scale and SparkPeople to track my calories. I weigh out most of my food and then log it online (with my computer or using the SP app on my phone). It was recommended to me to get a food scale because you'd be shocked at how off the measured foods are compared to the weighed out food - try it on cereal - that's the most alarming difference. And, if you're a cereal person (I'm not), you'll be sad at how little one serving size of cereal really is.

I recently tried the FitBit Dashboard to track my calories because their food library seemed larger. However, I found that a lot of the fruit wouldn't let you track by weight. And since I'd been using SparkPeople for so long, a lot of the food that wasn't already in the food library was already in my SparkPeople personalized library. I think the FitBit app for tracking is a little more user friendly and prettier to look at, but I'll be sticking with Spark People - it lets you put food in by weight.

Workout tracking: I also will be sticking with my heart rate monitor for calorie tracking during workouts instead of my FitBit - I have the Charge HR, which can supposedly take your heart rate. I have been using the same heart rate monitor since 2010. Unfortunately, they don't make that heart rate monitor anymore and I kinda sorta killed it by wearing it when snorkeling in Lake Malawi. Every time I try putting in a new battery, it dies again within a day. So, I forked over another $60 and bought a new one, which is better because it's green ;-)

When you first get the heart rate monitor, you input all your settings: age, weight, height, and sex. Then it calculates a target HR zone for you and you turn it on during your workout. Otherwise, it functions as a watch when you're not using it. You also have to wear a heart rate strap thingy ma jiggy. It's a chest strap and mine goes right under my tatas. Unlike my previous strap, this one is very thin and allows you to take the heart rate monitor part off to throw the strap in the wash. I couldn't do that with my last heart rate monitor, so I'm a big fan of this one.

The FitBit Charge HR claims that it tracks your heart rate so when my first heart rate monitor died, I almost didn't replace it. However, after wearing the FitBit to the gym a few times and putting my hands on the heart rate monitor hand grips, I found that my FitBit was anywhere from 20-40 beats per minute off. So, the heart rate monitor was a must - I really rely on it to make sure the intensity of my workouts are high enough.

Weight tracking: I have a Taylor brand scale to track my weight. I've had it for about 5 years and it's usually pretty close to the weights I get at the gym or the doctor's office. I weigh myself in the morning right after my morning pee to get myself at my lowest weight and will be doing so tomorrow so I can start my 2 week, 6 pound/get new shoes challenge! Starting tomorrow, I'm going to to try to lose 6 pounds. If I do, I'm going to order some brand new shoes - something I haven't done in a loooong time! Stay tuned!

Do you use anything to track? Or does getting caught up in the details stress you out?

Let's get real.

Okay. Let's get real for a bit. 

No, morning workouts did not happen. I know that I could do it if I really wanted to, but I'd really rather sleep. So, workouts will continue to be after work. It kind of sucks because it's hard to get room in the weights area when you go after work, but I can look intimidating enough to get a bench when I need to. That, and I can rearrange my workout if necessary as well. So, yeah. Not going to happen.

On Friday, I had two moles removed...from my groin. One of which was rather large, dark, and had irregular borders (which are, you know, all bad things...) and the other that was just bothersome. It was probably dumb to have them both done at once considering they were on opposite thighs so both thighs hurt, but I'm all about efficiency. I'm anxiously awaiting the pathology report because once upon a time, I went tanning, which has, you know, been linked to increased incidences of skin cancer like a bajillion times. YOLO...?

Also, let's keep being real since I'm all into this oversharing thing right now. Today I read this article on SparkPeople. It's all about how to placate your sweet tooth without overdoing it. Essentially, it suggests 12 sweet snacks. But since we're being real with each other right now, I've gotta say, this is just stupid. Is anyone going to stop at half a cup of ice cream? Do you even know how little half a cup of ice cream is? Like, children typically have portion sizes larger than that when it comes to ice cream. It's just not realistic. And, okay, let's say you have the willpower of a superhuman and you do eat just 1/2 cup of ice cream. Are you feeling full and satisfied? No. Why? Because all you ate was 1/2 cup of ice cream. Okay. Perhaps you chose the 1/2 cup of grapes and 1 oz of walnuts. Do you know how much food that is? Not very much. I mean at least the walnuts have some protein, but c'mon. None of these snacks would satisfy me or my sweet tooth. So, though I appreciate the sentiment, I think this article is silly.

And since we're on this topic, while waiting for my doctor's appointment on Friday, I sat and read some magazine article about losing like 10 pounds in 2 weeks or something like that. It gave both workouts as well as meal plans. You were supposed to work out twice a day for about two hours in total and your meals were typically something like this: breakfast - smoothie. Morning snack - half an apple and a tiny bit of fat-free yogurt. Lunch - salad. Afternoon snack - one ounce of nuts. Dinner - chicken or lean turkey with some kind of green. First of all: riiiiight. Like I'm going to work out twice in one day. Second of all: the most important meal of the day is breakfast and I'm just supposed to have a smoothie? That's supposed to last me 4 hours until I can have half an apple with like a spoonful of yogurt? Um, no. That's not going to work. And let's just say [again] that you have superhuman willpower and you follow this. Then when you go back and eat like a normal person, you've regained that 10 pounds in like 10 seconds. It's just dumb. You're supposed to do something that's sustainable. And maybe I'm the crazy one because I can't see how a meal plan and workout plan like that would work, but I doubt it.

Moving on to a different topic: in the family practice office I'm at, I've been working with a doctor who mentions weight and BMI with almost every single patient. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - I mean, it stops some patients from being blissfully ignorant when they're told flat out, "Your BMI puts you in the obese category," but it's a bit disheartening when the patients are like 30 pounds lighter than me (and okay, a few inches shorter too) and someone makes a comment about how their weight is out of control. Um, excuse me, but my BMI is higher than theirs. Is my weight out of control? I would have said no. And then we had a patient who gained 30 pounds and was taking a short-acting appetite suppressant to help lose weight. Granted, they were also watching what they ate and exercising, but that brought up all types of weird feelings. Like, I'm kind of against using a drug and putting something in your system when you could technically do without. But then I'm all, maybe I would get better results if I tried something like that. But then I'm all, WHAT ABOUT SIDE EFFECTS?! I'LL GET CANCER! Well, I'm not usually that bad, but I did meet someone years ago who lost like 250 pounds with diet pills and then got cancer because of them...which you know, also helped with the weight loss, but probably not in the way he was anticipating. He beat it, by the way...

Apparently, I've been very triggered by weight things recently. I just think that as a society, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as well as others when their weight isn't what it should be. We make judgements right off the bat when we see someone who's overweight or obese. I don't think we should be defined by a number. That being said, I understand how weight can cause all types of health problems, so I'm glad that some of the doctors I'm working with are counseling people on how to be healthier, but until you've lived it, I have a hard time listening to what they're saying.

Moving on...here are some pics of some recent eats. Not pictured is the stupid pizza I ate last night. I had a groupon that cost me $10 and allowed me to have $20 of pizza, which is a lot of pizza for one person, but I figured I could freeze it or save it for later. So, I ordered two medium pizzas and went to pick it up and was told my groupon was for dine-in only. I was like "Oh. I didn't realize that. Can you tell me where it says that?" The cashier said, "Well, the groupon says at, not from." Oh. Now that's crystal clear. Ughs. So, basically I ended up paying full price for pizza that I wouldn't have ordered had I known I was going to be paying for in total. Duuuumb. But anywho, I didn't take a picture of it and as it's in the freezer right now, you won't be getting a picture of it until I take it out to eat again.

My standard breakfast from last week

Tacos - such an easy meal. And I'm lazy. So I ate them like 3 times last week...

My go to breakfast when I want to sleep in for 15-20 minutes

Today's lunch after I botched making clam chowder...

Today's dinner: crab and dill shrimp (made by meijer, cooked by me) with some beans and potatoes

Fruit protein smoothie for dessert because dinner didn't fill me up

And for good measure, here's a picture of Bailers. He's 9 now. I'm not sure exactly when his birthday is since I adopted/inherited him when he was 6, but he got some wet cat food to celebrate. He has no idea why. It's mostly because it was on sale. And because occasionally I have a soft spot for the little guy.

So pensive

I'm doing a weigh-in tomorrow. My goal was 3 pounds this week. Not too sure I made it. But, we'll see!

A History of my Eating Habits

So though I've shared some of my story of how I got so fat, I wanted to talk a bit more about what makes losing weight such a difficult thing for me.


I've been overweight for as long as I can remember. Yes, I do have pictures when I was skinny, but that was so long ago that I'm not sure it counts.

My brother Tristan, sister Malena, our dog Tessa, and (skinny) me

So where does it begin? Well, in addition to living a pretty sedentary life, I don't remember a time when I ate healthily. I was pretty young when I was able to tuck away entire quarter pounder meals from McDonald's. I could easily eat an entire bag of popcorn as a snack before bed in elementary school. And polishing off a bowl of ice cream would only make me want more.


As the pound crept on, I began to hate anything that required physical activity because I simply couldn't compete. I remember being mortified when we had to run a timed mile in middle school. And in the eighth grade, I clearly recall not being able to do one sit-up during a fitness test. So, instead of trying to do a sit-up, I probably just ate more.


I think I picked up all my bad eating habits in my youth. Growing up, my dad was always sick with migraines, and so we couldn't have chocolate in the house (chocolate has caffeine in it, which exacerbates headaches). But, when he was gone on business trips, my mom got us oreos - a delicious and simple pleasure for a kid. My sister, brother, and I would instantly turn into vultures the second the oreo packaging was open - we needed to eat as many oreos as possible because soon they would be gone. So, I never learned portion size.


At dinner time, my mom was always the first to finish her dinner. She said she picked up eating quickly when she was in college because she was always on the go. Well, because I was a somewhat competitive child (I blame it on middle child syndrome), I used to eat as fast as possible to beat her. So, I never learned to eat slowly.


On top of that, dinner was typically always at 6:00 p.m. And if you didn't eat then, you typically didn't eat at all. It didn't matter if you were hungry or not. So, I never learned to eat only when I was hungry.


Now, I'm not trying to blame this on my parents (especially because I know my mom reads this - love you, Mom!). Really, their eating habits were quite healthy, but I guess I just picked up some bad habits along the way, and they stuck.


But my eating habits are what make this whole journey to health a lot harder. It's difficult trying to undo 23 years of damage. I still have a hard time eating just one cookie. I still have to put a lot of effort in my portion sizes. I still have to really think about how hungry I am. But I'm making a little bit of progress everyday, and I credit a lot of it to SparkPeople.


SparkPeople.com is the website I use to track my calories - both eaten and burned off. They help me shoot for healthy ranges in terms of what I need to eat and in terms of how many calories I should be burning everyday. In fact, they'll even set up meals and exercise plans for you if you want them to. However, I like to have a little more freedom than that.

My SparkPeople home page - click to make it bigger

Another thing I'm trying to do is eat less more often during the day. Mark (my personal trainer) has really encouraged me to eat every 2-3 hours so that my blood sugar stays up and so that my body doesn't try to store what I'm eating for fear of not getting fed again. I also drink a lot of water during the day so as to shed some of that water weight.


Anyway, back to today. I don't have many pics of my food, but here are some of my portion-controlled and calorie-logged meals!

And now I must go to bed so I can be up early for the gym!


How are your eating habits? Do you struggle with anything?