Weigh Too Less

5 minutes to fitness

2012-02-10T11:11:00.000+05:30

I was reading a post on a blog I follow, a real good one, called Snack girl. In one of her older posts she mentions about a great way to get fit and get a workout for beginners and for those who have a time crunch. Start with a exercise, any cardio exercise, for just 5 mins a day. Yes, thats all. 5 mins. Then go on increasing from there. Say 10 mins the next week, 15 mins the week after that and so on. This way you are more likely to stick to it. You will not feel guilty of not exercising at all either.

I loved the concept. Its what I need right now. To squeeze in some exercise, even if its only 5 mins will be a good idea. I can do it while my little man is sleeping. This will help me take care of my 'all or nothing attitude'. I make plan to workout 30-45 mins a day. When I don't get it done I give up on my eating as well. I think what the heck I didn't work out anyway so why bother with eating right.

But its far more easy to workout for 5 mins. And you can't really have an excuse for it. I mean you have 10 mins to poop but not 5 mins to exercise!! This is just what i need.

I am off to get my 5 mins in.

A bad day in general

2012-02-09T09:58:00.001+05:30

Yesterday was not so good. I still need to plan my day well or else everything goes for a toss. I need to plan and prepare for my meals in advance. My kiddo can cause major disruptions to my plan otherwise. Yesterday I had in mind what to eat for my meals but no time to prepare. And exactly during meal times little one would need me. For his meal, or because he pooped, needed to sleep.etc.

After attending to him I am so tired and hungry that grab whatever is ready to be eaten and get on with it. This is a serious problem. I have to keep my diet in control or I know I wont lose weight. Previous times I have failed because though I worked out well I did not concentrate on eating right.

I did not get my workout too yesterday. For this I have no excuse. I had time but I just spent it doing unnecessary things and then it was time go to bed. I really felt very guilty later on.

Last night my little man also seemed to be a little irritated and cranky. He did not sleep well in the evening. He woke up in middle of his sleep and got cranky. This mood carried on till late night. I had to really force him to sleep at night. He didn't want to, though he was very very sleepy. I don't know what got into him. He never has problem going to sleep at night! Then at around 1:00 am he woke up screaming his lungs out and could not stop crying later! Me and Hubs had to pick him and stroll around the room till he calmed down drifted to sleep again. I wonder what was wrong. :(

I hope today will be better than yesterday.

I am off now to prep my meals. Ciao peeps.

Walking towards weight loss.

2012-02-07T11:18:00.000+05:30

This week is getting along well. I am finding it easier to eat healthy this time around. Earlier, I would exercise well but would mess up in eating departments. I had hard time resisting junk like muffins, chips, fries etc. I would eat well until evening and suddenly blow it all out by eating such foods. I decided to tackle this problem this time. I have made some light and healthy snacks and stored them. So I will be able to much on them whenever I crave salty snacks without forgoing my diet.

I finally started with my exercise. I went for a walk yesterday for about 30 mins and also threw in stair climbing. I climbed up seven floors to our apartment. Not so good. I used to climb for 15 mins without break when I was in college. This time I had to stop on 4th and then 6th floor before hitting 7th floor. I seriously need to improve my stamina! It has totally gone off after pregnancy and delivery.

I did not weigh in this Monday as I had not exercised last week. SO my weight remains at 106 k this week too. Weigh ins will begin on 13th Feb onward. And so will weight loss hopefully ;)

Hope you have a good week ahead.
CJ

Starting February on a good note

2012-02-04T16:28:00.001+05:30

I cannot believe January is gone already! February is going to be an important month for me. I have to break some old habits and make some good ones. Research says that any activity that is done for 21 days straight becomes a habit. I am giving myself 29 days (its a leap year :D).

I have to incorporate three good habits
1. Eating Healthy: Which includes, eating fruits(i am not a fruit person), eating home cooked meals, cook healthier meals, ban take-outs and dining out, cut out junk and minimize sweets(I have a major sweet tooth)

2. Exercising: Now this is the toughest bit, especially with a baby. But I want to get at least 3 workouts every week.

3. Log and record the above: to help me be more accountable to myself.

Three days into Feb and I am making a good progress. I hope to see some loss at my weekly weigh-in (Mondays).

Hope you have a good month. Ta

CJ

Dieting ....and a baby

2012-01-31T12:24:00.002+05:30

I am serious about my dieting. I know its the 'other half', in the weight loss program. I made a very easy to follow diet plan. It basically consists of three steps. Eat home cooked food. Eat less. Eat healthy. Now the last two are seemingly easy to follow. But the first one is causing me a lot of effort to stick to. Courtesy; the baby.

Having a toddler in the house means not being able to stick to a schedule of your own. You have every honest intention to cook yourself a healthy meal when he throws a tantrum or decides to throw up all over the carpet and your 'honest intention' goes flying out of the window!.

On such days I end up eating whatever is ready to eat and edible. I just have to fill my stomach. I do try to stock up healthy stuff like instant oats etc but still dieting goes for a toss. How I wish I was served diet meals to me everyday like some celebs in Hollywood get served! Its so hassle free :(

There are times when I have missed lunches all together. Which I know isn't good for my metabolism either. Now I need to make a plan to stick to my diet plan. Frozen meals, pre-cooked meals, instant oats, diet cereals, yogurts. These are some of the things that come to my mind. What else could I do?

Second innings

2012-01-27T12:27:00.001+05:30

After nearly a year I am back to blogging and my weight loss journey. Pregnancy, delivery and then taking care of the baby left me with a ton of weight(literally) and no time for either weight loss nor blogging. I am hoping to renew my efforts to keep up both. Its linked anyway. I have noticed that before. When I blogged I ate better and exercised and on the days I didn't I let myself go without control.

Before my pregnancy was detected I weighed 90 kgs. I was asked by my doc to not gain more than 6-9kgs. At my last check before my delivery I weighed 100! not good at all! And post delivery my weight has ballooned to a never before high of 106 kgs! Yikes! I am so ashamed of myself. I knew I needed to do something to stop the weight gain and start losing but it seemed more difficult now then before.

Then I decided, I wont let my baby be an excuse for avoiding exercise and eating mindlessly. I decided to take things in control and discipline myself again. So this is my second chance and a sincere effort towards myself to be fit and healthy again. Period.

Hello to second trimester

2011-02-24T21:19:00.001+05:30

A post after nearly 3 weeks! Thats bad. But it has been a very very hectic 3 weeks here. With prep exams and all. I am allowed a little sigh of relief here.

The pregnancy is going great. Though I still forget sometimes that I am preggers! Second trimester is officially on. And its tad more better than first. No stomach problems an flatulence (sorry for TMI!). Nausea is out and so is fatigue. I feel much more refreshed in the mornings now. In a nutshell, I am lovin' it.

The baby is about the size of a lemon I guess. About 3 and half inches tall. Its kicking and turning inside its cocoon, though I can still feel nothing of it. The uterus is expanding rapidly and boy! How fast! My weight is still the same (surprise surprise) but all my dresses are tight at two places, Hips and Boobs!! I have no iea what to wear to work. Its a big question every morning. What will fit me today?! I only wonder what might happen when the belly actually begins to pop out!

I have finally begun some sort of exercise routine. It only consists of kegels and core strengthening as of now. But the plan is to add some aerobic activity to it. This is the trimester where I think the weight will begin its steady climb up and I don't want it to go overboard. In a week or two classes will get over at the college and I'll have more time on hand to workout and rest.

I am slightly bummed that I am not having any real cravings yet! I thought every pregnant lady has those! But the good news is I am getting to eat almost everything and most of it is healthy. I cannot tolerate outside food so its a boon.

By the next check up we will know the gender of the baby! But we wont. We have decided not to. We want it to be a surprise for us :) I sort of like the mystery :)

I have a major scan appointment next week. We may get to see the li'l one more clearly! Keeping fingers crossed that he/she doesn't reveal it all to us :D !!

Ciao.

Thank you for the wishes!!

2011-02-02T07:25:00.001+05:30

I was a bit overwhelmed with the response I got to my last post :). Thanks all of you for the wonderful comments. They made my day :)

I am still trying to soak in the feeling that I am pregnant. Sometimes I even forget it altogether! I hope that its normal!

Good thing is that my weight has stayed so far at 91 point something last 11 weeks. It even went to 90 point something once. As I said, the doc asked me to put on only 6 kilos through the pregnancy. I want to keep all that for the last 4 months. The time when you gain weight fast. I still haven't started exercising. (if you don't consider going frequently to bathroom as an exercise). There is so much on my plate right now!

We have Thesis submission in college. Prep exams coming up! Its really stressful. Add to it the constant fatigue and sleepiness I feel. Its a deadly combo! I am waiting for 1st trimester to end. The doc has promised me that fatigue and sleepiness will go. I am banking heavily on that.

The reason why my weight has been steady (for the first time in my life) is because in my 6th week I was diagnosed with gastritis. And the infection is still present as I cannot take any anti-biotics. This means I gotta eat extra carefully. I cannot eat anything spicy, hot, oily or fried and raw. So my diet is getting pretty restricted. I am eating only bland, homecooked food since last 6 weeks! Its like a mother of all diets. Only not in a good way. The infection has finally begun to go down. Now I am scared that if I start eating normal food I'll gain weight!

What do I do?

Any suggestions?

Also I would like to ask all mothers out there.

What kind of exercise did you do when you were pregnant?

I cannot go to a gym, nor go out for walks. I have to do all of the exercising at home. I just have exercycle some weights and a few workout videos. Any other suggestions to not make it boring?

I am back....with a surprise

2011-01-23T18:27:00.000+05:30

   After a long hiatus of more than a month....I am back. With a secret!! The reason for my absence is .....I am PREGNANT!! I have had a rather hectic, tiring days lately. But I could not share the news with you till my doc said it was all ok. And it is. The baby is 9 weeks old and kicking (i cant feel it though!). But I am suffering from bone weary fatigue. Which, I learnt from my doc, is absolutely normal in 1st trimester! Really! I can barely keep my self up vertically these days! Me and the couch are new BFF! Hopefully just another 3 weeks to go and I guess it will be better.

    Luckily for me, I don't seem to have any morning sickness (knock wood!). But dieting has effectively gone out of the window. I feel hungry like every 30 mins! If I don't eat then I get all nauseous! But the good thing is I cant eat anything more than a couple of bites. So I am making sure I eat healthy, home cooked food. Anyways since I am overweight my doc has suggested me not to gain more than 6 kilos (15 lbs) through entire pregnancy. So I have to be extra cautious. Until now I have managed to maintain the same weight I was when pregnancy was detected : 91 kilos.

   On the exercising front, its been really bad. I have no inclination to work out these days and I know I have to change that. With so much fatigue and rather hectic time at school (we have thesis submission deadline in school) exercising has taken a back seat. But I am trying to rectify that ASAP. Nothing much to share now but I'll keep the posts coming hopefully.

How is your weight loss journey going?

Weigh In Day

2010-12-14T07:03:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was my weigh in day. And for once I wasn't disappointed to see a gain. I 'll explain why.

Firstly its TOM week, secondly I had 2 heavy lunches, one on our anniversary and one on sunday. And I worked out just 3x/week. So inspite of all this I had a decent weigh in. Did not see the the scale throw some crazy number at me!

Start weight : 92.3 Kilos

Weight last week: 90.5 kilos

Weight this week: 91.1 kilos

loss/gain: 0.6 kilos.

I am totally ok with that, because I know that after TOM it will come down.

Now talking about those two lunches I mentioned before, I am so happy with my choices. For the anniversary dinner we went to this new place in the town. We ordered only small portions and guess what I could not eat the entire dinner! I felt stuffed after the starters itself! So we made a good decision and packed up the leftovers (which was the entire main course) and came home. And I gave it away to a poor guy on the street so that I don't eat it away next day!! We did not eat the desserts!! A major calorie-saving anniversary celebration.

For the Sunday lunch I served myself very small portions of everything, but could not eat it. So I just left it at that and got up. Again I eat smaller portions and listened to my body saying its full and stopped. I felt so great later. I did not feel like I missed anything.

The workouts however were slack. That's because I am having this overwhelming fatigue since Thursday which can't seem to go even if I rested well! I am sleepy and tired all the time. I wonder what it could be?

PMS? Does anyone else feel like this before TOM? Anyway the bottomline is I am just not feeling like working out! And I don't know what to do!

Do you guys have some suggestions?

Tagged!

2010-12-10T18:44:00.001+05:30

A post after almost a week! That's bad! There was a lot happening but I am so tired to sit, think at type it at the end of the day. So I end up just reading your blogs and commenting on it :)

Well its time to take action and get posting. First of, Andrea from Revealing the real me, tagged me :) So here is the much delayed tag post. Thanks Andrea :)

So here goes:

1. What would you say to someone just starting out on a weight loss journey?

Though I am not a pro or even got a hang of how to lose weight, all I would say would be," be honest to yourself and believe in yourself too". It does not matter how long it would take for you to lose 1 lb or 0.5 lb. What matters is that it should never come back up again! Make small changes that you can keep in your life forever. Its not easy but we all can do it!

2. What is your passion? The thing that you absolutely love doing, that is not necessarily, but can be, related to your job or role in a family?

I love learning new crafts, like knitting, embroidery etc. I have a list of crafts I want to learn in my lifetime and I am proud to say I have ticked off a few from the list already. I also love learning new languages. I am fascinated by them.

3. If money and time (or any other obstacles) were not an issue, how would you spend a week (or even a weekend) that you had to yourself (and who would you spend it with, if anyone)?

I would like to spend a weekend in a far off island, doing stuff like snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking etc. Or probably even go to a mountain for hiking :) Yeah I am adventurous!!

4. What has been your most satisfying moment so far on this journey?

Not satisfying! I am not where I wanted to be when I started my weight loss journey this year. But I have learnt a lot from my mistakes and I am sure that the next year will be a great year for me in terms of reaching my goal! I have all the new tools I learnt this year from my failures. I am an optimistic chick!!

Now I tag my friends to do the same! The Tag goes to..... drumroll

Mae Flowers @ A Journey to Thin

Ashley @ The Opposite of Thin

Debbie @ Becoming an Ex Yo-Yo Dieter

Tamzin @ One Inch At a Time.

Hope you have fun doing this interview :)

Weigh day, weigh day

2010-12-06T19:06:00.000+05:30

Whew what a week it was!! And even more weird weekend :)! First off I want to say that I am pushing my weigh in day from Saturday to Monday. For a simple reason that I never get time to blog on weekends! So for past two weigh ins I was weighing in on Saturday and posting on Monday!

Now I'll tell you why the weekend was weird.

On Saturday I weighed in and the scale showed 91.8 which was 0.1 kilo more than the last WI. I wanted to ~~crib~~ post about it here, barely got any time to sit down and write as I had to prepare for a seminar for today. The last week I had been pretty consistent with food. I made a food diary and religiously filled it up with each small bit and bite that entered my mouth. I increased my water intake till the city corp came calling to say I was depleting its water resources! But only blip was 3/5 workouts in the week!

But I was still expecting a loss not gain! Then Sunday I decided not to indulge as I usually do on weekends. I got my workout in and just kept my cool. Then when I weighed in this morning I got the shock of my life. The scale showed 90.5!!! That was more than a kilo less than Saturday WI!! 1.3 kilo to be exact! And not just that my hip measurement went down by whole of an inch! From 50" to 49". WTF? How did that happen?

Am I pleased. No! I am ecstatic!! It is so great! I still can't believe myself. I guess I should just accept the fact that our bodies work in most mysterious ways. There is no other explanation :D

I am feeling very good at the moment. My earlier goal was to reach 87 by 7th Dec (my anniversary). Though it did not work out I am pretty happy to back to 80s! So close now! I am so eager to enter the new decade. I hope it happens by my next weigh in.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

So far so good

2010-11-30T19:32:00.000+05:30

This week is turning out to be far better than the previous ones. (knock wood). So far I have eaten well. And worked out too. I don't know what happens later! Usually by mid week I start sliding down and by weekend I'll have blown it all! But this week on I want to break that trend.

I am trying not to step on the scale every other second. It takes some pressure off. When I do it like that, a tiny increase will put me in panic mode and then I give up everything and gorge on food. The underlying emotion is ' Forget it, It ain't gonna work so let me eat and enjoy'!!

Thankfully this time around I have never thought like that! The scale is still affecting me but I don't necessarily go off track with eating. Last couple of weeks the weigh in hasn't been good, but I was still conscious of my food choices and didn't once think like my old self. That's a start!! I was depressed but persevered. Makes me happy to thin about it now :) Can I call it my NSV?? (it still involves the scale though!!)

Last night there was a birthday party of a two year old we attended. I ate just one small piece of cake. Without the icing. And one puff pastry. Then I decided to skip the dinner. I felt really good about it. Today I will make a point to be aware of what I am eating and make choices consciously. That way mindless eating is reduced.

I finally bought a small book to track food.

These small changes will hopefully add up in a big way.

The scale will keep up :)

Weigh In day post and Self Discovery Series

2010-11-28T21:00:00.003+05:30

So I had a weigh in yesterday. Not so happy with the weigh in but at least it wasn't a gain! Phew!

Start weight : 92.3
last week : 91.9
This week : 91.7.

lost: just 0.2 kilos :(

Anyhoo..there is always another week to lose. I need to work on various issues that seen to jeopardize my weight loss (however non-existent it is!) Hence the second part of the title. Self discovery!

When I started reading other blogs on weight loss, I noticed that people were mostly successful if they recognized their weaknesses, acknowledged them and then worked around them. It takes lot of mental and physical workouts to lose weight and so far I have been only paying attention to the physical side. I recognized that its time to work from inside out rather than the other way. Hence self discovery series were born. I need to identify me problem areas, prioritize them, and find workable solutions too. And this should, hopefully, help me to permanently lose weight and keep it off.

First off, I need to look into problem areas. Now I don't have any emotional issues which could have led to my eating behaviour. I had a wonderful childhood and everything. I am also not an emotional eater. But my major problem is Boredom Eating. When there is nothing else to do, I EAT. When reading books I need some munchies, when watching TV I need some snacks. This kind of eating is one that is jeopardizing my efforts. I am a LAZY sloth (there, I've said it). I hate work. I tend to move around less if given an oppurtunity. I do keep myself on toes when in Hospital (my work place), but once I am back home I barely move my ass from the couch! This coupled with boredom eating is a double edged sword.

So to sum it all up my major issues are:
1. Boredom Eating

2. Slothfulness (or tendency to prove that Newton's first law actually works!)

How do I work around these issues?

This will be my Assignment for the week. To come up with ways to cut mindless eating and to make myself move more.

Can you suggest me some ideas and help me out?

One month plan

2010-11-24T07:30:00.000+05:30

Hello peeps how is the week going?

Its already mid week here and its crazy! Two days down and I am yet to get in my workout! Again crazy! But I'll catch up.

So getting down to the point.

DO you see my title? One Month Plan. That's right. See, next month is my second wedding anniversary (7th Dec.) And hence on 23rd Dec we are planning to go for a mini vacay Hubs and me. Sort of like a second honeymoon :). This gives me ONE month to plan, diet, workout to look and feel best for those 4 great days of vacay. I know that vacations are always about relaxing and EATING! So I want to be well prepared to deal with it in advance. And I want to lose some weight too.

I have four weeks to do it and I guess I need to make most of it. One thing I have planned to do is TRACK all my food. And DRINK minimum 8 glasses of water everyday. Also WORKOUT for 45 mins each day (5x a week).

I want to lose minimum of 5 kilos by then.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS TO HELP ME OUT??

I need to be accountable and stick to my plan. And so far the major hurdle is called the 'weekend'! I tend to eat a lot more on weekends or eat out more! This throws out all the good doing of the week!

SO ANY SUGGESTION IS WELCOME!

I need to lose 5 kilos and enter the 80's decade!

The plan starts today!

I am off to get my workout!

While you read this and leave me some good suggestions :)

Weigh in day post

2010-11-22T07:13:00.000+05:30

Weigh In was on Saturday. But the number was so bad I could not get myself to post it. I was so disappointed! I worked out 4 days last week and clocked in total of 145 mins of cycling. Yet The scale climbed up, way up to 91.9 again! 0.8 kilo gain! How can just two incidents of over indulgence lead to such a big gain? I felt really disappointed.

Then at the end of Saturday TOM arrived. I was partially relieved to know that 'this' could be a contributer in the gain. But I know that not all of 0.8 is due to TOM. I know that my erratic eating during the beginning of the last week was the main cause of weight gain. I have noticed that when I overeat the effect always shows up a week later.

It felt terrible to post my weight here. But then I realised, I wasn't trying to impress anyone here. I was trying to make myself accountable. I write on the blog so I can look back to see what I am doing right and what's wrong. So here is the post.

To put it in numbers:

Start weight : 92.3

last week : 91.1

this week : 91.9

loss/gain : +0.8

total lost : 0.4 k

This is a lesson learnt. I am going to correct the mistake and make sure I post a loss this week.

This week's goal is to track all the food I eat. And continue last week's goals.

Looking forward to a new week!

How has your week been?

Crazy. Stupid

2010-11-19T07:18:00.001+05:30

A week already went by!? Its Friday people! Where did it go? Where were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday? Oh and it is weigh in time already!

This week I floundered a little bit. At the beginning of the week Friends and I went for a impromptu ice-cream party. It cost me a lot of calories. Last Sunday I made whole-wheat crust pizza at home with lots of cheese :( Not good! Hubs and me ate 1 whole pizza each(It was delish!). These two incidents will probably cost me a good weigh in. But that's ok. I learnt a good lesson here.

Last week I lost almost 1 kilo by exercise only and no diet. This made me feel invincible. Like I could eat anything and just workout and melt away the weight :p . Isn't it my bloated head speaking! But this week's experiences brought me back to the earth. Now I realised how important its for me to pay attention to food too :(. I tried to be a good girl for the rest of the week. I have also planned a little for this weekend so that I don't over-indulge.

So the bottom line is I wont reach my goal of losing 1 kilo this weekend and I am still stuck in the 90s. Oh how I want to see an 8 on left side of the scale! I will have to do real good planning for next week so that I do not eat foods that make the scale sway in the wrong direction.

On an upside however, my water intake has been excellent so far! I have been eating lots and lots of fruits as well!

Hoping that these two good deeds will cancel out the effects of pizza and ice-cream! keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow!

How has your week been? Do you plan for the weekend?

Before

2010-11-17T07:28:00.000+05:30

I finally decided to overcome my shyness and post the before pics you all asked for! Drumroll please...

Forgive the sickly green background. Its our living room so decorated by the owner! He thinks its chic and I think it looks like shrek's goo :p.

I'll add it to my side bar as a reminder and a motivation.

Gotta go now and workout.

Have a good day peeps.

CJ

Its a brand new week

2010-11-15T20:16:00.001+05:30

After a really good weigh in my mood is up and motivation is sky high. I was surprised that I almost reached my weekly goal! It has never happened to me before. Fresh from the success, I decided to set goals for this week too. Here goes:

1. Eat my dinner before 8 pm everday.

2. Cycle for 180 minutes this week. (About 35 mins each day for 5 days.)

3. Add two upper body and core strengthening sessions.

I am aiming for 1 kilo loss again. I really want to break out of the 90s again. And reach 86 kilo for my anniversary. This is only possible if I lose I k/week.

On a totally other hand I took some 'before' pics today. I was planning to do it some time back and finally got to do it today. I dont know yet if I'll post it here. I may post it once I lose 5 kilo and compare. I am not sure. Keep watching this space. :)

What is your motivation?

Its weigh in day!

2010-11-13T07:18:00.001+05:30

Never in my weight loss journey I have been so excited about a weigh in!

This whole week has been great in terms of exercise and to some extent food. I got 4 workouts under the belt so far and one more is in the line today. I have been eating better than ever though I cannot give you exact numbers as I can't count calories. But the scale is showing me the results.

Two weeks back I bought the exercise cycle and started pedaling away. That week I went down from 92.3 kilo to 91.9 kilo. The next week was a little shaky as I did not get more than 1 workout. The weigh in showed 91.9 though. That weekend was festival time and unmonitored eating resulted in the scale going up again. SO on monday when I started this week my weight was 92.2 again.

All through the week I weighed in daily. I am happy that I have been consistently losing 200-300 gms each day! I am so happy with the result. My goal this week was to break into the 90s for this weigh in.

Did I acheive my goal? Lets find out!

Start weight: 92.3 kilo(203.4 lbs)
Last week: 91.9 k(202.6 lbs)
this week: 91.5 k(201.7 lbs)

Total loss: 0.8 k (1.7lbs)

So this week I lost only half a kilo! And I did not meet my goal.I was aiming for a kilo/week loss. I guess I should be happy with the loss. But I am feeling a bit deflated. On Wednesday when I weighed in I had reached 91.3k! Then i did not workout on Thursday and screwed up with eating badly at Friday's dinner.I know that I need to pay more attention to food that I eat.

The next week's goal is to enter the 90s. And try to lose 1kilo.

Do you have weekly goals?

ps: It turns out the scale goofed up! I normally weigh myself in underclothes only and I forgot I was wearing a rather big t-shirt today. My weigh in today morning was 91.1k and not as mentioned above! So I almost reached my goal weight today. YAY!

Total weight lost hence is- 1.2 k(2.6 lbs)
weight loss this week- 0.8k (1.7 lbs!!)

YAY!!

College sucks (right now)

2010-11-11T18:09:00.001+05:30

Well when things go well at one end they do go worse at the other! Here I was all happy that I was getting proper workouts each day . Happy that the scale was finally moving in right direction. Then came some pretty nasty blows from the college front.

Firstly they started with biometric sign-in and sign-out each morning and evening. So there is absolutely no way I can go late, even for few minutes. Though the official college timings are 9 am to 4 pm, we were allowed a lee way of 15-20 mins in the morning to sign in(in the register, no computed devices). Now they decided to install these biometric devices, which means we have to sign in using our fingerprint BEFORE 9 am! :p This sucks! I have to now get up an hour early to get my workout in :(

The other news is that our thesis submission date is Jan 15th! Oh dear god I haven't even thought about writing it yet! I have to make use of most of my evenings now and complete it by Dec end. Which means less blogger time :(

I am really in a anxious state right now. I haven't even done my workout yet. Phew Gotta get moving :(

See ya peeps

CJ

New discoveries about myself

2010-11-09T19:59:00.000+05:30

If you read my blog since the day it started you'll know I have been on and off on the weight loss journey. I tried, I lost weight, I gained it all back. And now I am trying yet again to lose. So what is the difference this time. Well, for one I am really motivated, more than I was the previous times. There are lot other discoveries I have made and a few I am yet to make.

One thing I discovered, I love cycling! I am getting addicted to it. Isn't that great? I never thought I would fall in love with something I would call hard work ;). I look forward to it every morning! This is a refreshing change for me! And I am lovin' it.

One thing I also noticed is nothing to do with physical aspect of exercise. On the days I workout I noticed a change in my body image perception. I begin to perceive myself a little thinner than usual. And on the days I don't workout I feel I have become a little fatter! How does this work? Anyone experience this kind of thing or am I the loony toon here?

Apart from craving exercise each day I have also noticed a perceptible increase in my energy, especially at the end of the day. I am more active even towards the night, when I would generally feel konked out.

Its too early to see any major changes yet as it is just 2 weeks since I started out. But this time I am really feeling like I am on the right track. Like I am in the zone finally. Let's hope the scale agrees with me!

Looking forward to the next weigh in!

CJ

Weekly log

2010-11-07T19:22:00.000+05:30

The last two weeks have been going so good! I worked out for 5 days last week and 1 day this week. I have lot of catching up to do this week! My target is 5 w/o each week. But the major victory for me is now I want to w/o rather then forcing myself to do so! I had a weekly weigh-in on Saturday. It is a first one in 2 months! After a good week of exercising my weighed slipped downward from 92.3 kg to 91.9 kg! I finally get to see 91 after 6 whole weeks! I am so happy.

The weekend was festival time here in India which resulted in a lot of festival food! Fried, greasy, sweet and much more sweet! I may have ruined all the good doing! This calls for some serious work this week. I am going all out on w/o's this week and have already stocked up on lot of fruits, sprouts, veggies and other good stuff. The week will be a detox week. I really want to break through the 90 barrier and re-enter the 80's. The lowest weight I had reached before I quit a few months back was 87.5. I want to see that number on my scale again real bad! My aim is to lose at least 1 kilo/week (about 2.2lbs). I hope to reach 85 by the time we go for our vacation in Dec to celebrate our second anniversary!

The good thing is that there are no more distractions in form of festivals now until new year! (we don't celebrate Christmas).So I will be staying on track. I still need to work on my diet. My strategy is simple.
1. To recognize and learn to differentiate between real hunger and cravings
2. Learn to appreciate when I am full and don't overeat.
3. Cook with less oil.
4. Eat at least 2 servings of fruits each day.

The last two points are the easiest to do. But I need to work a lot on the first two points. Especially since I was brought up with "clean your plate and don't waste food" principle. This means I cannot get up from the table until my plate is absolutely clean! Maybe taking smaller helpings will do the trick. Now is the time to get cracking. I hope to break into the 80's by my next weigh-in. Wish me luck ;-)

Updates

2010-10-27T09:12:00.000+05:30

More than a month of blogging! Sheesh! There is not much to tell you. In the past 1 month I exercised for like 1 day, and that was enough to give my bad knees a difficult time. I have been having a lot of trouble with my back and my knees since a couple of months now and I now for sure its related to my weight. So I know the solution is weight loss! That is why I bought the bike. It will help me lose weight yet be a little considerate on my knees.

Since sunday I have been working on it and it feels great to finally sweat a little! I had forgotten the feel of post workout tiredness! I really enjoy it! I have been pushing myself hard while working out and I really want to see the results.

My second anniversary is round the corner. Its just 1 and 1/2 months away and I am trying to lose 10 kilos by then. On my last weigh in on Sunday I weighed 92.3 k so I should be 82 or less by then. I really want it so bad. I know this will act as a strong motivator.

One thing I am proud of is that in last 1 month I have been taking care of what I eat. I have not over-indulged and kept a track of food I have been eating. I have been preparing meals at home most of the times and rarely have eaten outside! I am taking care of nutrition well.

I am aiming for a weight loss of 0.5 to 1 k every week so that I'll be able to achieve my goal.

In the meantime I need to update my blog and do some editing!

I am so glad to be back in the driver's seat!

CJ

Return of the prodigal daughter

2010-10-26T07:37:00.000+05:30

After more than a month of no activity, I am rearing to make a comeback. The last month was a whirlwind of activity. But on the down side I totally lost my track of exercise and food. And the result was 5 kilo gain! Yikes! When I started the journey I weighed 92 kilos. After a lot of hard work I had lost 5 kilos to reach 87 kilos. Now I am back to square one. I am feeling really let down but I fighting my way back. I bought a exercise bike last week and am hoping to do some serious workouts and start losing again.

I have nothing more to say now. And I am hoping my actions will speak louder than words this time

CJ

Shredding happy

2010-09-07T20:12:00.000+05:30

Here's my much delayed update on the 30 day shred challenge! The biggest scoop? I started the challenge 5 days later then everyone. I was down with fever, initially then we had a short weekend trip where we went to my in-laws place. So instead of starting on 1st of September , I started on 6th. So my challenge will end on 5th of October.

So far I have completed two straight days of workouts with no serious damage to my psych or body :). I found I could do most of the exercises well. When I first did the shred a few months ago, I would usually stop to catch my breath every now and then and most followed the modified versions of those moves. This time around I have been following Natalie! And I am pleased as a punch (beaming happily). Although I still cannot do those awful push-ups! I shudder to think of those walking push-ups in Level 2.

I am going to weigh myself on 15th when I complete the level 1. Along with taking measurements and posting my pics.

I am now off to read how others in the challenge are doing. To read about it go straight to Syl's blog @ LIVE, SMILE, RUN. Enjoy reading the posts and leave some encouraging comments too :)

LOVE
CJ

30 Day Shred challenge

2010-09-02T09:54:00.000+05:30

The 30 Day Shred challenge started yesterday! But I am a day behind the schedule. I am so sad. I have been sick since sunday, down with a bug :(. I was so eager to start with 'shredding' last night. But the moment the video started I could not even move a muscle. A wave of fatigue hit me. I had to shut it down and go to bed.

But some anti-biotics and paracetmol did the trick and I am back on my feet today. So today will be my official first day of shred. So without much ado, here's my measurements and my gross-est 'before' pics :p

Measurements:

Chest : 41 inches
Waist : 41 inches
Hips : 49 inches
Thighs : 25 inches

And the before pics:
FRONT:

SIDE:

I am so embarrassed with my pics! I hope the challenge will help me get some shape. I am really excited about the challenge. We have to post our pics at the end of level 1, level 2 and at the end of the challenge. I am sure there will be some changes and I'll finally get down to weighing 85 kilos and break out of the nineties which have been haunting me since 2 months.

Best of luck to all the 'little victims' :)

Random notes

2010-08-26T20:40:00.001+05:30

Its been more than a week since I wrote a post! Its was busy here. I have a cousin in the city who's preggie first time. So invited the happy couple for a dinner and over night stay last weekend. Since then eating has taken a nose dive :( I have been eating badly since. I am craving a lot of spicy, salty snacks! What could be the reason?. I have stopped eating Lays and stuff like that since more than a month. But I eat a lot of unhealthy stuff still. I am still unable to set portions right.

But one thing that's going on track is exercise. My strength training is showing its effects. My knees are getting stronger. I feel more flexible and nimble. I can do lot more work through the day without feeling tired. I can climb more number of stairs. I feel more light. So many good points. But there is still a big room for improvement. I have to push myself harder and challenge myself more.

Speaking of challenges, I entered the 30 Day Shred challenge which is hosted by Syl @ LIVE SMILE RUN. This includes doing the 30 day shred for 30 days (so obvious!), posting your photo on your blog at the beginning of the challenge and also at the end of each level. I am very excited about this challenge! Can't wait for September. (Did I mention it starts on 1st of Sept?)

There is this new feature on blogger to help reduce spam comments. I was fiddling with it and accidently deleted almost 25 comments from all my older posts! :( :( I am feeling so stupid and sad! I loved all the comments ever written to me and re-read them when I felt low :( Please write more comments and make me feel better peeps ;)

Writing totally off-hand, I wanted to mention that this Dec 7th Hubs and me will complete 2 years of awesome time together. I am really excited and want to use this date as a motivation to lose at least 10 kilos by then. I know 10 kilos is too big a number but it will keep me on my toes. And after 2 months of no loss, only gain, even if I reach half that number I'll be happy. If I reach my goal I'll gift myself some nice lingerie! Its called hitting two birds with one stone :) Both of us will be happy :D

This is as random I could get :)

Until next time
Ciao

Scale Slave

2010-08-19T11:14:00.000+05:30

Are you slave to the scale? Does your scale rule your life? Do you let the scale affect you? I did! For almost 8 months, I let the scale take control of me. I weighed in everyday and each little high and low affected me greatly. If the scale showed an increase, I would flip out, get annoyed with the scale, (instead of thinking what would have led to an increase), and perversely pig out! If the scale showed a smaller number, I would relax and not concentrate on my eating that day. So basically I was pigging out no matter what! But I still weighed myself everyday. Sometimes multiple times in a day!!

Now, I know most people weigh in everyday and use the information wisely. The plan well and use the number on their scale to their advantage. But lots of them are not like that. They often turn slaves to their scale. The scale dictates their mood and reflects on their diet and exercise. I am a lot like that. I have tried staying away from the scale but I invariably get drawn to it :(

This is exactly why I have stopped weighing in. As a part of new resolve, I started workouts with strengthening first. I am only doing weights right now. So it makes no sense to weigh. As it is a well know fact that first few weeks of weight training lead to slight increase in weight and then significant loss. This helped me to finally stop weighing myself zillion times a day. Instead of weighing I decided to use other ways of measurements to track weight loss and fat loss. One simple way was switching to tape measurements. I took first measurements the first week of weight training and will repeat it every 4 weeks.

Having said this, I am not totally going to quit weighing! After all my ultimate goal is to lose 20 kilos! But I will weigh only once a month for first two months, one at the end of August and one at the end of September. After that I am going to incorporate cardio in my workouts so I'll start weekly weigh-ins then.

I am sure this is not going to be easy. Even as I write this I am having a very strong urge to get up and weigh! :D. But I have had an important relevation. Weight loss is can be simplified to three things,

1. Will power

2. Restraint

3. Patience

Now I need to figure out how to get this in me and I am done ;)

Have a great day :)

Finding my Mojo ; notes in retrospection

2010-08-16T19:21:00.000+05:30

As I have said it before, I have been fat since my childhood. I first decided to lose weight when I was a teenager. Until then it was my mother who pushed me to be active. To exercise and eat less. Since then and now I have made myriad ~~attempts~~ half-hearted attempts to lose weight. Some times I was successful. Losing 10 - 15 kilos. But then I would invariably gain all of it back along with some more.This led to the scary 95 kilos that the scale showed in Jan 2010. Then I knew, its now or never. If I ignored my weight and effects it would have on my mind and body, it would be too late. I still had age on my side. If I did not lose now, once age would run out of my hands it would be very very difficult to lose then. So I began my journey of weight loss and started this blog.

Initially the weight came of fast and by March I had lost 5 kilos and then I got stuck. Unable to control my eating, not being serious about dietary control, lazy and making excuses instead of working out, all resulted in yet another failed attempt at weight loss. In the following months, I weighed myself everyday. And I noticed that despite lack of dieting and exercise, I did not lose those 5 kilos back! maybe my body was telling me something! I decided to re-start again. After all, if at once you don't succeed try try again!

Before starting out again, I did something I should have done the first time around. Analyze myself. Why was I not losing any weight. Why was I sabotaging my own efforts. What was the story behind my eating habits. Where was I going wrong. All these questions were very helpful. I still don't have answers to most of them. But now I know where my problem lies.

Firstly, I always tend to get carried away, whenever I start out with something. This time too I did so. I made all the changes at once. I shifted to a 1200 cal diet. Cut down all the junk and sweets and fried food. Cooked all meals without oil etc. Till one day it all became too overwhelming and I gave up. Secondly, I tried to follow others, whether it was foods or exercise. Everyone was then doing C25k so I started with that too. While all these months I had not done even an iota of exercise, one day suddenly I went out to jog! Within just 2-3 weeks I ended up with a bad knee pain!

This time I learnt from my mistakes. I am not expecting to see any results for a few weeks. That is why I am holding back my weigh ins. I decided to take it slowly. Very slowly. I don't mind if it takes weeks or months for me to make exercises a part of my routine, but I wont give up. I started slowly with exercises too. Doing only strength and core to make my base strong so I can build up on it. Started to slowly cut back on junk first then moving to healthy low fat low cal home food later on. This has helped to make the changes less overwhelming. And more easily do-able!

This time I want it to be the final time. I want to finally get rid of the fat once and forever. Adopt a healthy lifestyle and be fit. This time around I wont give up! I am almost there. :)

CJ

Being Random Again

2010-08-12T11:58:00.000+05:30

This week has been going on quite well. I had 2 workouts done and have two more to go! YAY! The scale has been showing some really scary numbers but then its TOM :) Its timing is bad though. I was planning to strat my weigh ins this week. But TOM came and screwed up all the planning. Now I'll weigh in from next week :(.

I finally got down to the bottom of my knee problem. It was nothing serious, thankfully. Just a small inflammation in the bursa leading to bursitis. Some ice packs on it and less weight will do it good. So I am still holding squats and lunges. Only open chain exercises for my knees.

I got down to finally watching the documentary 'super size me'. And it had me think about all the junk I have eaten since moving to the city. In India, all the fast food chains have shops in big cities only. Since I grew up in a small town, we only saw the ads for burgers and pizzas and never ate them. Since coming to city after my marriage, I have been regularly eating this junk. And the movie made me really think how bad it was for my body. Its a movie worth watching! It shows how the junk can be addictive. Did you know that these processed foods contain natural derivatives of opium, caffeine and morphine which make it addictive!Something to chew on (pun intended!)

My goal of cooking at home is also going well. So far I have cooked most meals home except 2 lunches. I am working on that too :)

Hope the rest of the week goes well.
I can't believe its Thursday already !

CJ

An award and a weekly review

2010-08-09T19:07:00.000+05:30

A recent blogger friend Juli @ Juli's Journey gave me a blog award! Thanks Juli.

I'm supposed to thank the person who gave me the award, tell 7 things about myself and nominate 5 newly discovered blogs and tell them about it.

So here's 7 things about me.

1. I love bread, I can eat it for BF lunch and dinner!
2. I love dogs, huge ones!
3. I hate cleaning and doing laundry! who doesn't?
4. I love having a garden but don't due to lack of space.
5. I am losing weight so that I have a healthy pregnancy. But I am not preggie right now.
6. I live in Bangalore, India
7. I am happily married for nearly 1 and half years :)

I pass on the award to
1. Andrea @ Revealing the real me
2. Ashley @ the Opposite of thin
3.Kyokocake@ like a fat kid loves cake
4.Keelie @ REAL FAT
5.Annie @ Annie weighs

Now for the last week review

The last week went by quickly and well. I managed to squeeze in three short workouts last week. Not bad at all! But nothing I would be proud of.. This week I will workout 4 times and do it properly. Food wise I haven't been doing so well. Though I pretty much ate home cooked food, I haven't been taking care of the portions at all! I need to start tracking the portions again. Since I dont count calories (its difficult to count calories in Indian food!), portions are my way of tracking my food intake. I was doing pretty well earlier but dropped off the bus.

Next important thing is water, which I have been guzzling down like there's no tomorrow. The peeing has gone down a bit due to TOM, PMS and water retention :). Talking of PMS, I had a really bad mood swing yesterday which was making me feel all crappy and angry. Poor Hubs was taking all the thrash and silently too :) He is a sweetheart.♥

I am finally going to re-start my weigh ins, which I had stopped some time back. I am still confused over the official weigh in day. Should it be Friday or Monday. Any suggestions?

I am hoping for a 1/2 kilo loss every week. Its not too much and comes to about 1.1 pound loss. So if I acheieve this I'll lose 2 kilos a month(short term goal). Not to shabby! This will also help me with my intermediate goal of weighing between 82 and 80 kilos by Dec 7th, my second wedding anniversary.

I made up some goals for this week.

1. track portions

2. workouts for 20 mins 4x a week

3. drink 8 glasses of water a day

4. cook all meals at home.

I'll review each goal at the end of the week and post my weigh in either Friday or Monday (help me out here)

CJ

A certain randomness.

2010-08-04T19:41:00.000+05:30

Things have been picking up here lately. I take it as a sign of good things to come. Firstly I finally began working out seriously and have been doing core strengthening like crazy! I love it! My stomach feels a wee bit firmer. I bought some therabands to start strengthening my legs. They have been giving me a lot of trouble lately. (more on that later)

While exercise is going on fine, I am slowly paying attention to what I put in my mouth. Trying to cook with a little less oil, changing the type of cooking oil etc. I was using peanut oil until recently. I know its unhealthy but we get it at a lesser cost in bulk because of my father-in-law who knows somebody who knows somebody. But anyway, we ran out of stock and to re-stock it we have to visit my in-laws, so I took the opportunity to buy a better oil. We ended with a mix of soy and rice bran. I am yet to try it out.

Water! Yes this department is going great. I am ~~drinking~~, consciously drinking more water now. But there's a catch. Its raining here like worlds gonna end and temps have dropped down like crazy. This makes me pee twice as much and is irritating me ! Also the fact that I have switched to low-sodium salt could be the reason for excessive peeing! Any solutions for this?

My knees are giving me trouble again. I have never spoken of this before but I have been having pain in my right knee since a couple of years now. I know its mainly because of my weight and I know losing weight is the solution for it. But some days it goes beyond what is bearable and makes it difficult for me to even bend it. Strengthening the muscles around the knee will help it too, but I can squat or lunge as it pains a lot. So I bought a theraband and am planning to work with that and strengthen it first. Because of the pain I cant to high impact cardio like jumping jacks, jogging or rope jumping! Though I love jogging :(. Its time to get this problem under control.

Now I am off to do my workout and cook dinner.

Stay fit peeps

CJ

Everything you need to know about 'Core Strengthening'

2010-08-02T22:13:00.000+05:30

Everyone talks of just how important core strengthening is. Its the hottest fitness mantra around now. We all know that core is good for us, it prevents backaches, etc. But what is core? And what is the right way of doing it? Well here are some of the answers.

Firstly, to begin with the most basic question. What is 'Core'? Core; implies the core muscles around the lower spine. Both in front and behind it.It consists of two muscles, transverse abdominis in the front, which is part of the abdominal muscles and multifidus, small muscles between vertebrae.

Transverse abdominis (TA)is deepest of all the muscles of the abdomen. And the most important of them all! And hardest to train. Dis you know that doing crunches without first strengthening core can be really bad for your back? Yes, it can lead to lot of stress on the spine. So how does core actually work?

Both the muscle, TA and multifidus act like a corset around the lower spine and help in dissipating stress and weight off it. When only the external abdominal muscles ( obliques and rectus- the one that form the six packs) are trained without strengthening core the resultant stress due to crunches can lead to your spine crying out in pain! Ouch very bad!

So now that we know how core strengthening is important, how is it done?

The exercise itself is very simple, yet very hard to master. So here's a video to make it a little easier.

disclaimer: it is best to do this exercise in presence of a trained professional like, certified gym trainer or a physical therapist. They will show the proper techniques and prevent bad postures while performing the exercise

This was the only video I found on the net, showing the right way of doing it.

Here's the steps to do it.

1. Lie down on your back and with knees bent.

2. Find your neutral spine, by arching back and front, like the model does it in the video.

3. Place your fingers as she places it. Just below your belly button on either sides.

4. Now try to tighten the belly in between your fingers, while breathing normally. (the easiest way to know how the TA muscle feels while tight is to cough and feel it)

5. Hold the muscle tight for 3- 5 secs and release. Do it for 10 times.

6.As your muscle strengthens, you can do it while sitting also. But ideally for beginners lying down is the best.

7. You have strengthened it well, when you can hold a fairly strong muscle contraction for at least 15 sec at a stretch.

The steps sound really simple but its very difficult to get it right first couple of times. Do it well and see your back pains disappear! But do it with proper guidance.

CJ

p.s; I am a qualified therapist and what I have written is properly researched. Please do the exercises only after consulting a physical therapist near you.

What Happened to the Resolve?

2010-07-29T10:16:00.000+05:30

The title says it all! No resolve, none..zilch! I did not do a single workout so far! And its already 3 days down the week! I can cut me some slack and say I had a 9:00 am to 8:00 pm shift at work. But that's just an excuse. Isn't it? What should I do to rectify the situation? I guess I know the answer! Get up and get going!

I am trying to do this lifestyle change and all but it seems a little too hard right now. Too demanding. How do I undo the habits of 26 years in one single week? A little overwhelming when I think this way. I need to change so many things, how do I do that? Will I ever be successful? Ohh! So many questions, and where are the answers?

Within me. I know the answers. But they are tough answers, need hard work. And I am a lazy sloth :)

I have been trying, but not enough to make a difference. I need to raise the bar one notch higher. Put in more effort and do it consciously. I know then, it'll make a difference. One step at a time, I'll try moving towards the goal.

I'll workout for next 3 days straight. Eat better. Drink more water. And get the hell out of 90's which has been troubling me since 1 month now. Its time to tighten the belt and race forward.

CJ

The week in review

2010-07-26T08:19:00.000+05:30

One week is up, since the whole lifestyle change! And where do I stand? Well, I am taking it slowly as you all know, so I wasn't expecting a lot of difference to happen. Accordingly my weight dropped down by a whole of 300 grams ;) chuckle! So my weight this week is 90.5 kilos against 90.8 kilos of last week! Not too shabby eh?

I consciously made decisions regarding my food choices. I ate far less junk than before, only 3 times this week. And I reduced my consumption of tea and coffee, my main source of sugar. I tried to make all the meals at home, but failed at this one because I am having a late evening shift at work. But for the meals I prepared at home, I used lesser oil than before. Increased fruits consumption was yet another positive point this week. Exercise department was seriously lacking this week. I did not do a single workout! I am ashamed. I am tempted to give time, or the lack of it, as an excuse. But I know that is not really true :(. So negative points for this.

Planning ahead this week, I am going to incorporate at least 3 workouts. All strength training workouts. This week will only focus at getting workouts in routine. And keep my food goals at mininmum. That is, no junk, more home meals and less oil.

This week I'll also write one blog post a day, listing all the exrcises I've done. To keep myself more accountable.

Thats all for now,
See ya later folks

CJ

Making a lifestyle change

2010-07-22T11:21:00.000+05:30

Such a simple statement! But I know its not as simple as it sounds. It is a big change and comes with lot of sacrifices and tough decisions. It scares me and makes me wonder if it is absolutely necessary? I know it is, but doubts and second thoughts are common. I have lived like this for most of my 26 years, except for occasional bouts of dieting. And now for the rest of my life I have to live differently? IT IS TOUGH!

Sometimes I think, why not just diet till I lose all the excess weight and then get over with it. It would be so great! But I know me well. I know that once the diet is over I'll probably not even take a fortnight to reach my start weight! I have no control over food. My taste buds get better of my brain and common sense just flies out the window! So I need a makeover. In my brain. I need to discipline myself. Teach me self-control. Build some will power. And make a lifestyle change.

Here's how I propose to do it. Taking one week at a time. Make one small change over a week and stick with it. And then next week make one more change. It sounds simple but will need a lot of commitment from me. but I know I'll do it. I made a list of changes I want to do based on my problem areas. My problem areas being this;Food and eating habits, exercise (or lack of it), time management. 3 things that require most immediate attention!

I am starting with exercise. Because, over the past few weeks I noticed that despite my bad eating, I have managed to weigh nearly same, in the range of 90-91 kilos. So I figured that before tackling my eating habits I'll incorporate some exercise to give a push to weight loss. Once my metabolism goes up, I figure that dieting will give an added result. I read somewhere on the internet that dieting actually slows your metabolism, because your body starts adjusting to lesser calories by slowing down. While exercise does the opposite! Time to test the theory!

Exercise will be a major change in my lifestyle. I have always noticed that I lost weight when I workout rather then just dieting. I need more physical activities. And I am a sloth who does not like moving! Making workouts a part of my lifestyle forever will be the healthiest decision. Because more than just losing weight, its being fit that matters.

At the end of the week I'll review how the week was and make a plan for the next change. The review will be next Sunday. So watch this space!

CJ

To start again

2010-07-19T07:43:00.000+05:30

The weekend went good. I tried not to overeat and was partly successful. I learned a great thing recently. Its not new, but I only realized its worth now. Its simple. You see a food, and before you pop it in your mouth think this. Is it a 'need' or a 'want'? If its a need, you eat it. And if its a want, hold yourself for 20 mins. Still want it? Then eat half of what you would normally eat. Simple isn't it? Yeah right!

This leads us to a second question. What is a need and what is a want? I decided to answer it this way. A need is something you body wants, requires and a want is all in your mind! Gotcha? I implemented this yesterday when we went to a park for walk. Outside the park gates there were many food stalls. Some selling healthy stuff too. But I had already eaten an early dinner so eating out again was not an option. But the stalls were tempting! So I played this 'need or want' game, and surprisingly I stopped my cravings! I felt so great later on in the evening! Imagine if I had given in and eaten some of that crap. I would have felt all bloated up and miserable in the head for giving in to the cravings. Not such a nice feeling, that guilt.

Today is a new beginning for me. I am in now. But I wont take it too fast like last time. I realized that I wanted to tr out everything at once and it left me feeling overwhelmed. If you want to make a lifestyle change then it has to happen slowly and over a period of time. It should become a habit. And as I read somewhere, anything you do for 21 days straight becomes a habit! So over the next one month I'll slowly start changing small things that affect my health and weight. taking one day at a time.

My first change will be my eating habits.My eating habits are a mess and I know it. There are a lot of things I want to change. But slowly. Firstly I am going to start by trimming away all extra junk I eat. And number of times I drink tea or coffee. I will try to make all my meals at home and keep tracking it. For now I'm doing just this. Once this is achieved I'll look over my meals and think of how to improve them.

Planning all this has made me feel positive. And I know I can expect to see some results, albeit slowly. Hence I decided not to set any time frame for my goal (of reaching 70 kilos). I'll take each day as it comes and try to improve on it.

Here's for the new beginning!

CJ

The Perspective of Time

2010-07-18T09:22:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I read a very profound post at one of my fave blogs by Lyn @ Escapefromobesity, about how it took her nearly three years to go from 278 pounds to 193 pounds. It set me thinking about my own weight loss journey. It is no surprise that I have been very impatient and eager to lose my 20 kilos. And while I was impatient , I did not really put in my 100% ever. It was only after a hard contemplation I could own up to this confession! Now when I read about Lyn and her hard journey to success I know where I was wrong.

I always thought it was easy. Other people's success stories make it seem easy. Reading about people losing 100 lbs in 8 months, losing 7 lbs a week, reaching their goal weight etc makes it looks like a piece of cake. But the reality is very very far from the truth. It takes perseverance, commitment and a really strong yearning to do it. And it took me almost 7 months to realize this!

All this while I was placing the blame elsewhere for my failure, when the fault lies in me! And reading the post had me realising my mistake. Weight loss is not about just dieting and exercising. If it was, then everyone would have a textbook journey to their goal. Weight loss is about having to make really tough decisions like, cooking a healthy meal, instead of ordering a pizza after a gruelling day at work. Or getting up at 6:00 am to workout even when you haven't slept well at night. Such small decisions are the 'secrets' of weight loss. The secrets which no dietitian, weight loss books ever tell us!

How I wish I had not wasted 7 months. But where do I go from here? Forward! Yes, armed with this newfound realization I will set forth to make the second innings of my weight loss journey a success. I know it will be hard, tough. I know I'll need gallons of patience and will power to make it happen. Loads of discipline! But I know that in me I have the strength required and I know I'll win! Its just the matter of Time!

I will win the fight to Weigh Too Less!

CJ

Coming back out of the shell

2010-07-16T07:56:00.000+05:30

Right now I feel like a turtle shyly poking his head out of the shell to see if danger's gone!

Past couple of weeks have been very rough on me. What with some bad news, a robbery and all.My mind has been in a mush lately. So is it any surprise that weight loss and blogging too a back seat? I guess not. Now I feel like I am coming out of it all, like the fog's been clearing a bit. And I am again desperate to get back on track.

This coming week I re-start my journey to weigh less with a new vigor and hope.So don't be surprised to see some changes. The changes have already begun. Another important news is I stopped my OCP's ! I had guessed a few months back that my slow loss may partly be attributed to the fact that I was on birth control pills. So since I have stopped them I am hoping to see a little faster loss. Another reason for stopping the pills is because I am eager to start a family. Which gives me another big dose of motivation to work on my weight faster!

I am so happy to be blogging again! I missed some of my fave blogs!

I am planning to be regular now! Both with blogging and with weight loss. Hoping to make it this time around :)

LOVE

Life's like that.

2010-06-24T20:49:00.000+05:30

I am being so irregular at blogging lately. Because there is nothing much to write about. Until today! Today I got the results of my first year annual exams. Not good :( I failed to clear by just 20 marks! And its even worse than that. Out of 9 of us who gave this exam only one has cleared! What sh** is that? We will be challenging the evaluation and asking for re-valuation of the papers. I am feeling a little deflated due to this disastrous news.

On other side, my sister is here after writing her second semester finals last week. Suffice it to say that eating has been ...ahem, not good at all! Take today for example, there's pizza for dinner tonight. I guess I'll indulge a little bit today, considering the deflating news (excuses, excuses!). Tomorrow we are planning a little shopping excursion in the afternoon, which means we will walk around quite a lot. So a good opportunity for me to burn the calories I am consuming tonight.

Workouts and me are having a real rocky relationship nowadays. I haven't had a single workout since ...umm..man invented wheel! I need to set it right. I have made a little tracker (on the right side) which will count the number of workouts I'll do. Right now the goal is a total of 36 30minute workouts 3x a week. This is a first positive step in the right direction.

I'll be skipping my weigh in this Monday due to the obvious reason. I know I'll see a gain! No surprise there! So I'll hold it for this week.

Nothing much to write today.

Catch ya later

CJ

Wonky compie!

2010-06-21T07:54:00.001+05:30

I have been MIA this last week because of my comp! There was some problem with the keypad of the laptop which prevented us from even logging in! I could not open blogger, could not post, could not even read all your wonderful posts! But the problem has been solved now and I am catching up on all the missed posts. Most of you had a wonderful week and have posted good weigh-ins! Way to go people! Here's my recap of the week.

The last week went off in such a hurry! Blink and it was gone. I had my late evening shift till thursday and hence could not squeeze in any workouts. Food was not that great either. Somehow I feel this is becoming a regular story :( I finally got my food journal ready to be used and I start today. However I gained all the weight I lost in the previous weigh in! So I start from the start again :( I am feeling very demotivated right now.

I feel I really need to sit down and rethink why I am sabotaging my own efforts. I feel all pepped up in the morning but as the day goes by I start slipping slowly and by the end of the day I will have binged and eaten really awfully. I dont know what to do! Here's this week's weigh in report.

Start weight - 199.2
Last week: 198.6
this week 199.2 (+0.6) :(

Way downhill

2010-06-15T07:52:00.001+05:30

Last week was week 2 of 'the plan'. While I did not really do well with anything. I still managed to lose 0.6 lbs, which came as a bit of a shocker! Last week the eating was BAD, and I had managed to get only 3 short workouts in the whole week. Frankly I wasn't expecting a loss! The weekend was even more worse. I baked a cake on Sunday, and though I did not eat it then, I ate a little too much of it yesterday! Weekend was filled with eating all possible junk I could think of. So you know how amazed I was with 0.6 lb off my body?

The loss really motivated me to be on track on Monday. I did well too, at least initially. I had a good breakfast. Packed my lunch. And then it went downhill from that point. I ate 2 biscuits, 1 black forest pastry, 1 veggie grilled sandwich 9w/o cheese) and few potato chips all between 4pm-8pm. Then came back home and ate dinner as well! I felt really guilty, stuffed and pukish.

Today I will try real hard to stay on track and not eat beyond my limit of 1300 cals. Getting a proper workout is not possible until thursday because I am working from 8 am- 8pm until then. But I did climb 6 floors yesterday, instead of using the elevator. I will do the same today.

I have stopped weighing everyday since I have been on the plan. I used to do it daily so that I could be more accountable but that was not the case. A higher number would put me in a bad mood and I would end up super-binge(y) that day. So I decided to do away with daily weigh ins and stick to weekly weigh in.

I am hoping that the rest of the week goes better than Monday!

Weigh in report:
Start weight: 199.2
Last week: 199.2
This week: 198.6
Total lost this week: 0.6lbs

CJ

p,s: How do you like my new blog design?

Report

2010-06-10T07:17:00.000+05:30

So far I have been quite on the plan! And I am beginning to feel more energized! this whole week I packed lunch to college, and ate it!(which is more important!). Started with low-cal cooking again. I am searching on the net for some nice low-cal Indian dishes. Water consumption has been up to the mark. And most importantly I am getting my work outs!! In last 3 days I did 2 strength training sessions- one upper body and one lower body and one cardio session. After work outs I felt so so great that I was wondering why I stopped them in first place!

At work too I am on my feet most of the time. Though I feel tired at the end of the day, its good tired. My 4-8 pm binging is still a problem. I am not sure what to do with that! Any suggestions how to control it?

This monday will be my second weigh in on the 'PLAN'. And I am pretty excited to see the results. I am hoping for my 1 lb loss.

Nothing much to share right now.
Catch ya later!
Ta.

CJ

Week one's up

2010-06-08T07:22:00.001+05:30

This will be a short post.

One week into my 4-month plan and I haven't been doing anything about it :( That's my bad. But I'll change it this week definitely.. Here's what I did last week to set a track to the plan.

1. Weighed myself and took all the measurements

2. joined sparkpeople in order to track better.

3. started packing lunch to college.

4. found an ideal way to stop my 4-8 pm binges. (cleaning the house, preparing for dinner etc. Keep myself busy for those 4 hours!)

5. made a workout schedule for cardio and strength.

These few things made some real difference! Though this week's weight stayed the same as last week 199.2 lbs (eeks how did it get there?!) I am sure it will change from this week on. The motivation I had lost is now in place and I am seriously trying to stick to my plan. I will be tracking food from today and know that this will make a difference too. By next monday(weigh in day) I hope to post a lesser number. I don't want to see the other side of 199 again!!

Be strong. Be healthy

♥ CJ

PLAN begins!

2010-06-01T19:41:00.001+05:30

Today I official begin my 4 months plan with a official weigh in and measurements being taken. I am pretty excited about the plan and hoping really hard that it will be successful. I am confident too about this because I know what I can expect from myself. I had been preparing myself for this since last couple of weeks by setting my eating habits right again. Which had gone all askew during the finals and the vacation afterward. Now all I need to do is include a good workout 4-5 days/week. I have Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred and Bootcamp workout dvds. Any other good exercise dvd suggestions?

------------♥♥♥------------

River from Losing on Purpose bestowed a beautiful award! Thanks River!

Rule: Pass the award to 7 bloggers and write 7 things about yourself, no one knows

Here's my list;
1. I ride a bike to college everyday to a total of 14 kms.

2. My dream destination is Bali, Indonesia.

3. I really really want to have a baby by next year!

4. I am a pediatric physiotherapist in training.

5. I met my hubby through internet.

6. I am a vegetarian due to my religion (Hindu), but I have eaten meat and chicken.

7. I learnt Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam for a year.

I want to pass this award to 7 bloggers who inspired me to start my own weight loss journey on blogger.And who continue to motivate me all the time!!

Jenn from Watch my butt shrink
Learning to be Less
Mae Flowers from A Journey to Thin
Trina from Me so Hongry!
Lynn from Escape from Obesity
Skinny me...coming soon
266

Please accept the award!

♥ CJ

Post mini-vacation blues!

2010-05-28T07:38:00.000+05:30

Is there any way of losing weight without exercising?? OK no need to answer that really! I already know the answer. But putting it into practice is becoming one tough job! Ever since I am back from my mini-vacay of 5 days (that's all it takes guys!) I am finding it hard to get down to the floor and work-out, like I used to. I need motivation guys! Big time! What do you suggest I do to re-motivate myself to exercise?

Now for some good news! I was recently and for the first time ever, given a blog award by a great lady over at 266. She has successfully lost over a 100 lbs and still going strong! Visit her for some robust inspiration :)
She gave out the award to recent bloggers like me to inspire them! How cool is that!

The award comes with some really cool rules! Here they are,
1. Get really excited that you got the coolest award ever!
2. Choose one of the following options of accepting the Oh My Blog! award:
(a) Get really drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus.
(b) Write about your most embarrassing moment.
(c) Write a “soundtrack of your childhood” post.
(d) Make your next blog a ‘vlog’/video blog where you’re basically talking to the camera about whatever.
(e) Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, make up, etc) and post it.
3. Pass the award onto at least three, but preferably more, awesome bloggers and let them know.

I am passing this award to
River at Losing on Purpose
Steph At Stefi's Weightloss Journey
Annie at The amazing shrinking girl - p90x style
Annalisa at Diary of Yo-Yo dieter

Well the first point is definitely checked. I am hugely excited right now and that's one reason why I can't take a pic of me to post. Don't want to scare you guys off! Since I don't drink, I'll stick around to recounting one of my embarrassing moments.

The event occurred during a class trip when I was in 10th grade. We were travelling around some hilly areas with waterfalls and steep hikes. On the first day of the trip we reached to this hill top where a beautiful waterfall exsisted. We all decided to enter into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, which meant having to climb around big rocks. Now I was wearing cotton pants and without giving much thoughts to it was jumping and climbing around like a monkey! And when I went to the loo, horror of horrors my pant had a big tear right across the middle! And there was no place to change! (there was no loo actually, we went in bushes!!!).
Thankfully I was wearing a longish top which came up to my mid thighs, but then I was suddenly not moving around much any longer! I had to wait until night when we went to the place where we were to sleep, so I could change out of those pants! Thankfully no one except my friends knew of the incident! But it was my most embarrassing moment to date :)

♥ CJ

A short vacation

2010-05-24T19:23:00.000+05:30

My finals got over on 18th May, and the college announced a short break of 5 days before the next term starts. So I took off to my Mom's place. The week went by great, as I got to spend some time with my parents, brother and sis after a long, long time! What fun we had, shopping, gossiping and catching up with some great news! It was a much needed break for me. But it also meant throwing diet to winds and hogging all the wonderful stuff Mom cooked for us. And gorging on a ton of mangoes!

I did try to keep an eye on portions and went for walks every morning. And I knew the scale would be punishing. Of course I haven't weighed in like ..about a month! Until yesterday that is! And surprise surprise, its not that bad. On my last official weigh in I was 195.5 and today I weighed 197.9! Only 2.4 lbs up! I m happy :)

From today I start with my Four Months plan. And I am slowly getting back on track with food and exercise. The plan is essential very simple, portion control and work outs 4-5 days/week. And though I mentioned that it would start on June 1st I figured the sooner the better. Hence It starts from today it self. I will post my weight, and measurements tomorrow and then compare it with the same taken 4 months later. Along with monthly comparisons. Weigh ins will be on Mondays of every week and on the last day of each month.

Wish me luck Fellas!

CJ ♥

Planning for next 4 months

2010-05-12T18:35:00.000+05:30

I had never set any time frame for my weight loss journey. One, because, it is not just a weight loss but a life style change. And two because, I want to lose weight at a steady rate and ensure I don't gain it back.

With these two reasons in mind, I decided to set a short term goal for myself for the next 4 months. I have been having pretty unrealistic goals up until now, based on what I read about others. Every individual has his/her own rate of losing weight. And I learned that mine is only 1- 1.5 lb per week. All this while I was expecting to see drastic results like a 3-4 lb loss each week. No wonder I was getting disappointed and binging in retaliation. It took me so many days to realise this! When it struck me I was so surprised!

My plan for next 3 months is simple. 1. Keep my calorie intake in the range of 1200-1300 cal. 2.Exercise for 30-40 mins each day. 3. try and maintain a steady loss of 1 lb per week. Sounds simple?

I know 1 lb is too low a loss, but since my trend shows this, I know its logical to expect it. I will be losing nearly 16 lbs at the end of 4 months at this rate! That is not bad at all! It will put me in the range of 180 lb and so much closer to my goal weight.

The goal is easy and extremely doable. So here's to the next 4 months!

CJ

Case of a disappearing blogger

2010-05-10T07:47:00.000+05:30

My last post was exactly 8 days ago! Sheesh! What a hectic week it has been! Firstly thank you all for the good luck you gave me. Finals went well without any major hiccups. Then on the weekend we went for a one day tour of a neighboring city on Saturday, and on Sunday we were so tired we just konked off the whole day! It was a great day for my Mom was with us!

I haven't worked out, dieted or checked my weight these past 8 days! Starting today I have to get back on track.

Nothing much to share. I gotta catch up on all the blogs. See you around. Ta.

CJ

A Really Short Post

2010-05-02T10:44:00.000+05:30

I cannot believe April is over! Its May! And my finals start 2 days from today. Eeks!

April has been a mixed bag for me. I reached my lowest weight so far at 195.5 lbs and then I have probably screwed it all up. Well, for one, I haven't exercised as much as moved a finger since last weigh in. And though I ate pretty well, the weekend has been a major binging party! So which means I am probably up a pound or two. I am pretty stressed about my finals which starts on 4th, and goes on till 7th. I will probably not be working out this week too! So as to not add any more stress, I am skipping two consecutive weigh ins. The next official weigh in will be on 16th May 2010.

I have some major plans for May, but I am a little wary of telling it out loud just now. In the past I haven't been able to work according to plans and failed miserably. I will probably do a review of the plan at the end of the month. Sorry if I am not making any sense right now.

My goal is to lose atleast 6-8 lbs by end of May. Lets hope it works out.

My next post will be after my finals are over. Till then keep going buddies, good luck with MAY!

♥ CJ

TAGGED and other bits.

2010-04-27T08:45:00.000+05:30

River at 'Losing On Purpose' tagged me with this game, where you answers a set of questions with just 'guilty' or 'innocent'. Check down for the game.

Now for some other bits first. I seem to have caught a stomach bug, which is causing me to go to the loo more often. (gross! I know). I am not feeling 100% OK. But don't know if something is wrong with me yet! Hoping it will pass soon. I have an exam to give next wednesday!

Speaking of exam, it is now giving me real stress ans anxiety. In fact I broke down yesterday over the phone, when I called hubs at work. He had tough time reassuring me that all will be good. I am going a bit loony! One good thing about stress is is has cut down my appetite. And my snacking has gone down to zilch. Since I am having tough time squeezing in workouts this week, it is a good news. I also need to give my tummy some rest and get well for the exam.

I may also go into hibernation this week and take off from blogging and commenting. I may read your posts(they are stress relievers) but may not comment. Sorry! Just a week or two then I'll be back.

Now for the tag.

The rules of the game:
RULE 1- You can only say Guilty or Innocent.
RULE 2- You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone messages you and asks!
RULE 3- Copy and paste this into your notes, delete my answers, type in your answers and tag to your friends to answer this.

The Questions:

1. Asked someone to marry you? INNOCENT
2. Ever kissed someone of the same sex?INNOCENT
3. Danced on a table in a bar? INNOCENT
4. Ever told a lie? GUILTY
5. Had feelings for someone whose feelings you can’t have back? GUILTY
6. Kissed a picture? GUILTY
7. Slept in until 5 PM? GUILTY
8. Fallen asleep at work/school? GUILTY
9. Held a snake? INNOCENT
10. Been suspended from school?GUILTY
11. Worked at a fast food restaurant? INNOCENT
12. Stolen from a store? GUILTY
13. Been fired from a job? INNOCENT
14. Done something you regret? GUILTY
15. Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? GUILTY
16. Caught a snowflake on your tongue? INNOCENT
17. Kissed in the rain? GUILTY
18. Sat on a roof top? GUILTY
19. Kissed someone you shouldn't? INNOCENT
20. Sang in the shower? GUILTY
21. Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? INNOCENT
22. Shaved your head? INNOCENT
23. Had a boxing membership? INNOCENT
24. Made a boyfriend/Girlfriend cry? GUILTY
25. Been in a band? INNOCENT
26. Shot a gun? INNOCENT
27. Donated blood?GUILTY
28. Eaten alligator meat? INNOCENT
29. Eaten cheesecake? GUILTY
30. Still love someone you shouldn’t? Hmmm. i"ll go for INNOCENT
31. Have/had a tattoo? INNOCENT
32. Liked someone, but will never tell who? GUILTY
33. Been too honest? GUILTY
34. Ruined a surprise? GUILTY(I ruin my own surprises)
35. Ate in a restaurant and got so bloated that you couldn’t walk afterward? INNOCENT
36. Erased someone in your friends list? GUILTY
37. Dressed in a woman’s clothes (if you’re a guy) or man’s clothes (if you’re a girl)? INNOCENT
38. Joined a pageant? INNOCENT
39. Been told that you’re handsome or beautiful by someone who really meant what they said? GUILTY
40. Had communication with your ex? INNOCENT
41.Got totally drunk on the night before exam? INNOCENT
42. Got so angry that you cried? GUILTY

OK, Now I am supposed to tag few others as well. Let's see! How about , Blubeari at Shrinking Blubeari and Mae flowers at A Journey To Thin
And anyone else interested in the game :)

CJ

Weigh in week-12

2010-04-26T07:43:00.000+05:30

START WEIGHT - 209 LBS
GOAL WEIGHT - 147 LBS

WT LAST WEEK - 197 LBS
WT THIS WEEK - 195.5 LBS

TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS FOR THE WEEK - 1.5 LBS!!

Finally a good scale show!

After pathetic weigh ins for last couple of weeks, I finally had a break through! All that peeing surely helped me! Also what helped me was good eating all this week. I did have the birthday cake for 3 consecutive days after my birthday. But the workout and smaller meals at dinner seems to have balanced it out pretty well!

There is nothing much to add today except for some random notes

My final exam is just a week away and I am now starting to feel the jitters.
I did not go for a jog today.
I am watching a recap of 'So you think you can dance' as I write this.
I'll be doing the 'Shred' today. I am beginning to find it quite easy now on the moves.
Its still kickass
I am going to make the all famous, green monster smoothie today. For the first time.
I need to shut down the comp and start studying. I spend way to much time on blogger :D
Will be reading all the blogs that I follow, now.

Nothing much to write.
Catch you guys later,

ciao
CJ

Of rain and thundershowers

2010-04-23T07:31:00.000+05:30

Wednesday and Thursday were spelt BAD! After two days of continuous jogging on Mon and Tue, I decided to take a break on wed andjust go for a walk in the evening. The weather gods weren't planning on co-operating with me however! By the time it was 4:00 pm dark clouds started gathering and wind speed picked up like crazy! All in a flash of 10 mins only! As I looked from my kitchen window, I saw a gaint tree waving and thrashing around like crazy in the wind. And next thing I know there was a hail storm! Oh god the sence was horrible! I kept praying that no tree should fall on our apartment! To be on the safer side the electricity board cut off the power supply. So I was sitting in the house with all the windows locked up (but still rattling due to the wind), no power, and listening to the howling wind and pelting hail and getting worried by the minute (hubby was still at work!)

By 5:30 however the hail had stopped, but it was still raining pretty hard. I went to the balcony outside our bedroom to scan the damage and the first thing I saw broke my heart! Now, there are like a zillion trees around my apartment! And at least a couple of them had fallen down. The worst was a tree right outside our bedrrom. All its branches had broken and one huge branch had fallen bang on top of a transformer, the source of power supply to our apartment! Which meant , until the branch was taken down the power could not be restored! The rain continued until late at night, but the damages had already occured. There was news of a lot of fallen trees all over our area.

The electricity company had a huge task on their hands, clearing all the trees off the cable wires across the city. When we finally got the power back it was 1:00 pm on thursday, 21 hours after it was shut down! Its so hard to live even a day without electricity! It was like the whole city was paralyzed!

So we could not go for our daily jog on thursday either. We heard that most of the city streets were still water logged. All the leaves and branches of fallen trees had clogged the drains! I haven't ventured too far even now, so I don't know if the situation has improved or not! We did not go for the jog today either.

I'll be working out at home itself today, though I am missing my jog! I can't believe I am actually saying it! I am definitely hooked to this thing! Hopefully we will be able to go out jogging by tomorrow. I am desperately hoping so.

On the whole another topic, I have been peeing like crazy since yesterday (sorry to gross you guys out, but I am curious!) I have no idea why? I think it could be because my periods just ended and I am losing all the water I had retained or could it be because I am drinking water like a fish(almost 2-2.5 liters a day!). I have no idea! I was having peeing urges for every 30-45 mins yesterday (sorry if its TMI)! Crazy!

I hope if all that water runs out I will be posting a good number for my next weigh in! Keeping my fingers crossed!

Until next time
Ciao

CJ

Birthday Recap!

2010-04-21T08:26:00.000+05:30

Firstly I want to say thank you to everyone of you for your wishes and sweet comments! You made my day even more sweeter :)

Since my final exam is just a week or so away (eeh gad!), we (Hubs and me) had decided to keep birthday celebrations low key. On Sunday evening we went shopping for some new clothes for both of us. I had thought I hadn't lost much in terms of inches, but I was in for a surprise! I was a XXL before, and when I tried those clothes they just hung on me!! Even the salesgirl was picking out XL's for me. I tried those tops and guess what? they fit, and they fit well! Ooh was I happy or what? So in happiness I picked up not one not two but 3 new tops. YAY!

On Monday, my birthday, we got up early as usual and went for jog. Hubs was supposed to go for an interview at 9:30. We had a good healthy breakfast and off he went. I sat down to study and then the bell rang. I opened the door and a surprise waited for me! A delivery boy stood outside with a cake and a beautiful bouquet of red roses! A surprise from Hubs! Oh, how I love that man! Here's the pic:


Aren't these roses lovely?

And then there was this amazing sinful cake! He had asked the bakers to write ' Happy Birthday To My Sweetheart' on the cake. They wrote it on a card and on the cake they just wrote happy birthday! How dumb, LOL! But the cake was so yum! the pic below shows the insides of the cake. Yum yum yum.

Leftovers are still in the refrigerator and I must say its quite tempting :D. Where's control when you need it? Oh and did I mention that Hubs didn't go to work that day? Yeah he took a day off to spend time with me! And since I was very very happy with that, I didn't read a lick! Bah! who reads on their birthday anyway?

So after a 'happy' birthday, it was back to the grind on Tuesday. And for the rest of the week too :(

Enjoy the rest of the week folks. I'll be back with some regular news tomorrow!

Ciao,
CJ

Weigh-in week 11 and turning 26

2010-04-19T10:12:00.001+05:30

Starting Weight = 209 lbs
Last week's wt = 197.5 lbs
This week's wt = 197 lbs

Total loss this week = 0.5 lbs
Total loss until now = 12 lbs

Last week was kind of a mixed bag. I had set goals for myself but did not meet any of them :-p. But that was because I was PMSing and had pretty bad cramps. I managed to jog 2 days and walk for 45 mins one day. Not bad! I'll take the half pound loss for now. I was hoping to reach 195 by today, as a b'day gift for myself (its my birthday today!) (and yes I revealed my age!) I did not reach 195 but I am not sad, read more to know why!

This week I am still in PMS mode but decided not to avoid jogging. This morning the alarm woke me up at 5:15 am and I had all the intention to shut it and flop back into the bed. I had to literally drag myself up again. It helped that I had a pee urge at the same time so I had to go to the loo. Then I decided to go for the jog. Good decision, because I jogged for 2k continuously today! All the time I was chanting this mantra "you can do it! Don't stop!". And guess what? I did it! I am so happy with myself for pushing through harder! At this rate I guess I'll be able to run a 5k in a week or two! YAY!

I have been pretty good on the eating front this week. I controlled the portions really well. I should have got a better number on scale this week had it not been PMS and water retention! I can feel my stomach and boobies all bloated up. Ergh! Hope to lose all the water soon!

I will try to cook something healthy and fancy for dinner tonight. Going out for dinner is out of question as I have my final exam in just short of 15 days and I need to read up a lot of stuff :(. Besides we already had a pizza dinner for Hubby's birthday on 13th last week (we both have our birthdays in the same month and just a week apart!)! I have decided to eat out only once a month, to keep a tab on calorie consumption. Anyhoo, a 0.5 lbs loss only has spurned me to go a little more stricter on my diet and eat more healthy.

Since I begin a new year of my life from today, I am making some resolutions to create a new , more healthy, more fitter and more leaner me! After jogging a 2k I realised a few things. While I have been able to lose the first 10 lbs quite easily without struggle, the next 2 lbs came down rather slowly. I was beginning to lose my patience and almost ready to throw in the towel! But today, 2 reasons reminded me why I should continue and not quit.
1. I realized though I may not be losing weight faster, I am becoming more fitter as days pass by! The fact that I could run a 2k in just 4 weeks of starting to jog outdoors and that too in just 15 mins is a big achievement fitness-wise!

2. I realized that if I ever feel down and de-motivated, I just had to go through my blogroll and read amazing stories of great successes and find my motivation back. And I did just that.

So today on my 26th birthday, I made a vow to myself to reclaim my life back, to get out of the clutches of obesity, to find my fittest self, to live life fully and never QUIT!

Life is all about making the choices and I chose to WIN!

CJ

Feel Good Therapy

2010-04-16T08:24:00.000+05:30

Yes I found a feel good therapy that works amazingly for me! Want to know what it is? Jogging!!!

If you have been reading my blog for sometime now, you might remember THIS post, where I mentioned why I hate jogging and how petrified I am to jog outdoors. Somewhere between then and now, something clicked within me and next thing I know, I was nagging my Hubby to accompany me to jog outdoors (at like 5:15 am!). Its been 3 weeks since and I am hooked to Jogging outdoors. I am not scared of people laughing at me. I don't care if someone is making snide comments at me(thankfully it has never happened!), I am going to jog my way through the world! The feeling is indescribable! I love how I feel after completing my run. Granted I am barely running for 10 minutes yet, but I am progressing well. Here's how.

First week, I could barely even run for one complete minute, (and mind you I was on week 4 of c25k). I had to start the c25k from week 2 again!. The second week, I made myself run for 1 and 1/2 minute at a stretch. It felt like hell! Then this week the progress was almost magical! I ran for 3 minutes at a stretch!! Yipee! Who would have thought this would be possible? I am extremely proud of myself. If someone had told me I would be running 3 minutes I would have died laughing. I haven't run since I was probably two! I was a lazy kid. So you know how big this is for me? I have set myself a Non Scale Goal of running 30 mins at a stretch by the end of next 2 weeks!

Yesterday was a very good day. I jogged 30 minutes, did a Pilate workout for abs for 20 minutes and in the end burned nearly 600 cals! And I guzzled down almost 3 liters of water! No wonder I got up twice at night to pee ;-). Today is a off day, which means no jog but I cross train. So I will go for a walk today. along with this I strength train.

I am completing this week full of new motivation and vigour. Finally finding my grove. Thanks to all of you for leaving such sweet and motivating comments.

Love ya all
CJ

So far so not good!

2010-04-14T16:25:00.000+05:30

Its wednesday already! Oh the week is flying! Where did Monday and Tuesday go?!? Anyway time for a reality check mid-week. But before that, a BIG thank you to Mae, River And Trina for your motivating comments. What's life without support of your friends? Thank you Dears !!

How are the weekly goals going so far?
Monday- JOG- Did not go for jog on Monday :-( . Slept in late on Sunday is the excuse.I shouldn't be telling you this though!
               STRENGTH- No weight training either! No excuse for this.I was just feeling lazy
               FOOD- Well, at least this went good. I ate within my calorie limit and drank lotsa water. But forgot to journal it! How dumb!
               WEIGHT- was the same

Tuesday- JOG- did not go...(looking down on the carpet and twiddling thumbs in embarrassment)
               STRENGTH- huh???
               FOOD- Ate all healthy foods like...doughnut, 3 slices of pizza, 2 small slizes of chocolate pastry. But I wont feel bad for this as it was Hubby's Birthday yesterday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLING!
             WEIGHT- obviously did not check in the morning today! I knew I would be on a higher side!

Wednesday- JOG- YES!! and jogged for 30 minutes! Felt great!
                     STRENGTH- will do it right after blogging.I promise
                    FOOD- has been right on track.
                    WEIGHT- will update it after checking tomorrow morning.

Now only if I keep today's momentum going for the rest of the week, I will finally make the scale budge. This is important because it's my birthday on 19th and I really want to weigh in the vicinity of 195 lbs. Do you think its possible?

CJ

Weigh in week 10

2010-04-12T08:03:00.000+05:30

A week came and went by! And the scale did not budge at all! Well I know whom to blame, ME! I haven't eaten well at all. Mainly, I have been screwing up on portions again. Exercise wise too I was slacking a lot, with just 2 jogs in a week and no other workouts! Its a miracle that I maintained this week. I almost thought I would have to post a gain. I am not going to be happy about the maintain. I have been taking things a lot too lightly in recent times. I am not being serious about weight loss. Taking a lot of things for granted. This week on, I am going to change all that.

I am going to break my goals into weekly one's. I'll take each week as it comes and work on that. So here's the goals for this week.

This week I'll do,
4-5 jogs
6 sets of 10 lunges each leg
6 sets of 10 squats and plies
total of 45 mins of abs workout
6 sets of 10 military press
3 sets of 10 push ups
Upper body strength training 3 times this week.

Along with this maintain a food log and follow 1500cal diet plan to T.

Post daily updates on blog for a week and weigh in next Monday (4/19)

Until tomorrow
ciao.

CJ

I let myself down

2010-04-09T08:05:00.000+05:30

This week eating has not been optimal. Though I haven't eaten anything real bad, I haven't actually controlled the portions of healthy stuff either. Then to top it all off, after 9 weeks of avoiding fried packaged stuff, I gave in to Lays potato chips yesterday. It felt funny eating it. I did not enjoy the taste like I used to before. But I could not stop eating it either. One chip after another I dug in till the pack was empty. But I felt worse, worse than I have ever felt before! Guilty, sad and disappointed with myself. I have been walking past the little store in the hospital that sells fresh fruit juices and Lays. I avoided buying it, did not even want to buy it all these days. Then why did I want it yesterday? I don't know! My friend, who is dieting with me, said I should eat it so that the craving does not go on and on. I ate, now I am filled with terrible remorse! I should have controlled myself. I did not. I let the binge win without even giving it a fight! Which is why I am so disappointed with myself! I could not control my mind! I let it get hold of me. I feel terrible.

The Lays is not a the only causative factor. This feeling has been building on since a week now. I am realizing that I cannot say a strong NO to myself. Its like on one hand I am dieting, working out, trying to be healthy and on an alternative level I am mocking my own self knowing pretty well it wont last long! I don't want to feel like that! I want to, WANT TO lose weight. Then why am I jeopardizing my own efforts this way? Why am I not 100% truthful and committed? I know its anly me who can answer this. But I am lost! I don't know what to do. I know I have to, Want to lose weight. I am losing some weight too. But its not enough, I have to be more committed, more serious, more diligent and work hard towards my goal!

What should one do when feeling this way? I don't know! BUT....

I am not giving up. I am going to find the answers. Work on them and pull up my socks and get to work. I dont want to lose the steam. I am already 'in' there. I have taken the plunge. Now I am not quitting! The only thing I'll lose now is weight. Life is giving me lemons, I am getting a squeezer and making lemonade of it now.

Its time to get up and get going!

Thank you all for reading my rants and self piteous moans. I needed to acknowledge my weakness in open so that I work on it. Its my main weakness, the one thing that is hindering my weight loss. My mind set. I am working on changing that. NOW

This and that and an open challenge!

2010-04-07T07:50:00.000+05:30

A lot of random things to share!

Jogging is going great! I had to re-start with c25k week 2 again. I realised that jogging indoors and outdoors is way different! I never thought I would love running outdoors, but now I am enjoying it! Here's my pic after today's run

I have finally lost more than 10 pounds! I wanted to post a progress pic but I did not have a pic when I began the weight loss at 209 lbs. Even so, here is the pic at 195.9 lbs

At highest weight (unknown)

At 195.9

There is not much difference to see. But my dresses are fitting a bit loser! And my jeans doesn't feel like its going to pop! Another 10 lbs might make a difference. Though hips are my trouble spots. I always lose inches at hips the last.

I decided to give myself a non-scale goal. To fit into one of the tops I have. i was wearing it comfortably before my marriage. Then I gained lbs and it got shrunk! Making it doubly difficult for me to wear it. I tried it on couple of days ago and I could get into it, though it was really tight around my chest and arms! But I was happy nonetheless. So my goal is to fit into it within next 4 weeks. I'll post my pic of before and after tomorrow.

To make it more fun, I'll keep this challenge open to all my (2?) readers! Select a dress you really want to fit into. Maybe a peice of clothing you already have or a new one in a smaller size. Post a 'before' pic in the dress. Or just post a pic of the dress and then 4 weeks later post a new pic with you in the dress!

Any one care to join me?

You can also refine the challenge or tweak it according to your convenience!

Jogging Day-1

2010-04-05T07:40:00.000+05:30

So I started jogging outdoors today! It was tough to say the least. I could barely jog for 7 minutes and it wasn't at a stretch! My lungs, calves, thighs were on fire. I was sweating like crazy and gasping for breath. But it felt SO good! I felt like I had accomplished something significant.

My Non-Scale goal is to be able to jog 30 minutes at a stretch. And c25k will come to my rescue. I guess I have to start it all over again! I will probably start from week 2. I am pretty excited and motivated right now. Hope to continue this feeling for some more time. I now have to lose just 7.1 lbs in 2 weeks to win my self-challenge of 10 lbs in a month! YAY! Looks completely doable!

I always wanted to post some recipes on my blog and I finally found a great salad recipe recently which I thought was worth sharing with you.

Here's the recipe for - Spinach and Pear Salad

spinach and pear salad

Ingredients

1 bunch baby spinach

1 pear, peeled and cored

1 T nuts- pecans, almonds or walnuts

1 t lime juice

1 t orange juice (no added sugar)

1/2 t olive oil

salt to taste.

In a bowl arrange washed and dried spinach leaves. Add chopped nuts of your choice. (i preferred almonds). Thinly slice the pear and throw it in. Mix orange juice, lemon juice and olive oil. Add a sprinkle of salt and drizzle it over. Mix well, refrigerate preferably and serve!

Enjoy the week

See ya

A small quick update for the weekend. Weigh in week 9

2010-04-04T11:53:00.000+05:30

9 Weeks!! I have been working out and eating right this week. So my reward came in form of weight loss. My official weight for the week? 197.3!! A new low!

There is a big news I had to share with you, I am finally planning to go jogging outside! This is a big step for me. Remember my earlier post where I listed out reasons I could not jog out? Well I decided to not make excuses and work out all the problems and take help from Hubs. So now from Monday, Hubs and me will go jogging early in the morning! Wish me luck !!

See ya later,

CJ

How much does a donut cost!

2010-03-31T08:18:00.000+05:30

Sticking to a 1500 cal plan helped me reach 198.4 yesterday. But then a doughnut found me! It cost me 0.8 lb! That's the cost of a doughnut for me.

On to other news. I am now officially in week 3 day 2 of c25k. Yesterday's 3 min jog had me feeling euphoric! I love being able to jog for that long without thinking that I am going to die. Next week will be a 5 min run. I am waiting to conquer that. My legs felt like they were on fire, and I was out of breath, but it felt really good to complete the job! I took it a little further and upped the intensity too! I really want to breach the 190 lb mark!

This week's target is to reach 195 lb.

One big NSV for me is that since last three days I haven't snacked after coming home from work! I was so surprised when I noticed it yesterday! Its a major victory for me. I guess adding more proteins to my diet has made it work!

We had big thundershowers here yesterday! And it has cooled a bit here since. The summer was scorching, making me guzzle gallons of water. Which was good in a way too!

I am yet to find out a good yoga video. I really want to include yoga in the routine. Please help me out!!

How is your week going?

CJ

198.4 - And other happiness

2010-03-29T16:01:00.000+05:30

This week I started with daily weigh in, to be more accountable. And also continued on the 1500 cal diet plan. So I was rewarded with a new low today morning by the scale gods. 198.4! Its a significant milestone, because it is equal to 90 kgs in metric system! I am finally crossing over to the right side of 90!

Though this puts my total weight loss to a little more than 10 lbs, I am not seeing much change in my body size right now. The dresses are fitting way more loosely, and most importantly my assets have shrunken! YAY! (I am not a big fan of heavy bustline).

Other reason for my happiness is a certain swank new Sony Digital Camera which now belongs to me! YAY! Its a gift from Hubby dear to me on my upcoming b'day! Isn't that great! I am so in love with it right now!

Now to plan ahead for April.

I am just putting up a list of 5 most important things I want to do this month.

1. Continue weigh in daily

2. Stick to 1500 cal diet plan

3. Continue with C25K and HIIT training

4. Increase intensity of strength training,

5. Drink 2 liters of water everyday.

This translates to eat healthy and workout regularly!

Have you made up your goals for April?

Weigh in week - 8 :D

2010-03-28T15:29:00.001+05:30

Do you see the grin! Yeah thats right, my plan seems to be working or I am losing the periods water! Either way I am down to 198.8 from 199.9-200 lbs that I was stuck in since last 2 weeks! I could not be more happier. I am finally seeing a loss! This puts my final weight loss count to 10 lbs

I am following a very simple and easy 1500 cal diet which gives you outline of what to eat for each meal. An eg; for breakfast you should include 2 servings cereal, 1 serving veggies, 1 serving milk, 1 serving fat(optional.) and 1 serving fruit. It gives you various portion and serving sizes. You can use this list to make your own menu. So easy! It seems to be working, cause I am not hungry between meals anymore. Plus it also includes one seving cereal and 1 serving fruit as a mid-noon, early evening snack, the most vulnerable time for me when I binge. So this helps me curb my cravings.

Workout wise I am doing same thing what I did last week but am just pushing myself that extra bit. This is what I needed, an extra bit more effort. I guess I wasn't pushing myself hard! I am hoping to see more loss next week.

I found some great recipes for veggie-vegan salads on the net which I am going to try out this week.

Before leaving I wanted an opinion on this-
Does yoga help in weight loss? If so which videos would you suggest?

CJ

I am not a loser!

2010-03-26T07:12:00.000+05:30

Well, in literal sense of the word. (today is not the weigh-in day, I moved it to Sunday.)

I have not lost any weight since my last weigh in. And my weight has been yo-yo ing like crazy this week. One day it was 200 and next day it went down to 198, then zoomed back to 200 and has been going up and down between these 2 numbers! Its so frustrating! I could think this is happening because of my periods, but Its over now! If it was water retention, and there was some of that, shouldn't it have gone by now?

I have been working out all days this week, even during TOM, which is a first for me. I have been drinking a lot of water. Portions haven't been good this week though. I hope to see at least a one pound loss by sunday(weigh-in day). Anyhoo, this month has been a bad one for me. I lost almost 8 lbs in Feb and now in march it will just be 1lb lost in whole of the month!! Shame on me!

Next month I do want to see a substantial loss. So here are some plans and goals.

1. Weigh in everyday, every morning, for 1 month.

2. Prepare menu for the day and stick with it.

3. ~~Learn~~ Re-learn to cut out correct portions.

4. Eat one serving of fruit a day

5. Drink lots of water (its already summer here!!)

6. Stop snacking between lunch and dinner.

7. Up the intensity of workouts, especially strength section

8. try and lose 2 lbs min each week.

9. Be accountable and maintain food journal.

10. Pack lunch to college.

I am hoping these points will cover all my weak bases and bring out some good results. I am ~~weighting~~ waiting to see the results of this week's weigh in. Until then could you all help me with my problem and give me some suggestions! Thank you.

CJ

Fat that clings to our body

2010-03-24T19:09:00.000+05:30

Why is it so hard to lose weight? Even more so the fat? Why dont crash diets work? Why do we gain more weight with yo-yo dieting?

Who hasn't pondered on these questions?

But are there any answers to these questions at all! Now, there are many factors that cause us to gain weight. So, there are many factors that influence our weight loss as well. What I am going to say now is just one aspect of the whole weight issue.

To begin with, lets understand how our body controls or regulates our weight. Yes, you read it right, our body has mechanisms that help regulate our weight. Every person has a genetically pre-determined weight that is programmed into the brain. This weight is usually the 'ideal' weight of that person. Not only that, even the amount of fat to be stored is all fixed up. And this amount is usually within the healthy limit. Our body tries to maintain the this 'set' weight within healthy ranges all the time with the help of hormones.

Whenever there is a fall in the fat % in the body, an alarm is triggered within the brain and then motions are set to bring back the fat % to its 'set' level. In this case by triggering hunger, and then converting the ingested food into fat and then storing it. If the fat % level goes up, the opposite occurs. The fat is metabolized and used up as energy. But this is just in case of a couple of lbs going up or down. This way the body maintains our set weight all the time.

Now this would work well if we all ate healthy meals and exercised enough to maintain a right balance between uptake of calories and calorie expended. But this is not always the scenario isn't it! In such a case none of us would have been overweight or obese! But apart form genetic factors, there are other factors too that influence our weight. Emotions, environment, time.. to name a few. So what happens when we consume more calories? We all know the answer to this one! We gain weight. Which means our genetically determined 'set' weight is disturbed, and a new weight is identified as the 'set' weight. This one not being 'ideal'.

Once this weight is set by the body it becomes difficult to lose weight. Because every time you lose a couple of pounds the alarm is triggered and the whole cycle follows. This especially is the case when crash diets are begun. Crash diet employ starvation techniques to lose weight, where a daily calorie intake is as low as 800-900 cals only! With crash diets you lose enormous amounts of weight within a matter of weeks. Sometimes upto 15-20 lbs ! Once the diet is over,the alarm is already triggered in the body. Not just that, this time the brain decides to be on a safer side and store more weight than before in order to be ready to survive in starvation mode if necessary(or another bout of crash diet). So now the set weight, which was already high before the diet, is fixed at a new high post diet! Hence we usually see more weight piling on us after a bout of crash diet.

So how do we lose the weight and bring the set weight down? The easiest way is the hardest way! And we all know the answer! By eating healthy and proper portions and exercising regularly. And most importantly not losing more than 2- 4 lbs per week. This loss is considered healthy and does not trigger alarms in our brain. It makes weight loss journey a long one, but one with real good chance of getting success and also being able to maintain it!.

What I wrote here today is taken from books on exercise physiology. Most of us already know what I have written today, but if at least a couple of you are benefited with this I'll be happy.

Just two questions

2010-03-22T07:53:00.000+05:30

1. Why did I get bloated fingers after my jog?

2. Do you exercise during TOM?

Please help me with these questions. I have some answers myself, but I want to know what you think.

Love
CJ

Weekly weigh in 7. GAIN ALERT!!

2010-03-19T18:41:00.000+05:30

As you all know, last week I did not workout at all, and yet managed a maintain on last friday. But you don't know what happened on the weekend! I pigged out! And on Monday when I stepped on scale My weight was a ghastly 201.2!! Which meant an almost 2 lb gain EEKS!

This week I worked out, started with the C25K and strength training, and as of Friday morning my weight was 199.9....phew! Just managed to scrape pass the 200 mark again. It was a huge relief to re-enter the Onederland. But it was a huge wake up call. I now realise that on days that I do not exercise, my eating goes for a toss. While, funnily, on the days that I DO exercise, I am fairly restrained and do NOT self-sabotage my eating!!! Strange, when actually I should be doing otherwise, logically speaking! Not that I want to pig out on the days I exercise. But why do I feel this strange way?? No answers yet :-(.

So the bottom line is that I have effectively lost my self challenge of losing 5 K/11.25 lb by March end. I am really disappointed, because I wanted to lose at least 8-10 kilos (15-20 lbs) by April 19th (my b'day :D). So now I have changed the challenge. Now I'll give myself exactly one month starting from today until April 18th to lose 10 lbs or 5 kilos, whichever comes first :-D. I am keeping my fingers crossed this time around. I really want to work this out and want to be in 180's when I become 26( so soon? ). I'll be weighing lesser than what I weighed when I met my Husband and probably when I got married (never got around to check my weight then). So 10 lbs will be a huge deal for me!

Keeping my fingers crossed!

CJ

5 Things I would like to change about my body.

2010-03-18T19:17:00.001+05:30

A fellow blogger, Debbie did a post about 10 ways in which her body had changed over the course of her weight loss journey. And she left with a question in the end about what changes ' you' would like to see in your body. It left wondering. What changes would I like to see in my body by the time I reach my goal? Apart from just being thinner, what else do I want to work on? After much thought, here is my list of 5 things I want to change in my body. My Non Scale goals.

1. Hips don't lie :
      Hips, my worst nightmare. They are the widest part of me :). I would definitely like to reduce my measurements here! Be able to wear low rise jeans without looking like a clown (I know low rise jeans are out of fashion). Wear skirts confidently! I have still a long way to go but definitely go the right way.

2. Thigh-land:
      Oh what I would give to get chiseled thighs! Infact I have made squats my best friends. Now that I am mentioning it, I would also like to have chiseled calves. I simply envy women with gorgeous calves! I am sometimes obsessed with looking at women's calves! I know so crazy!

3. Strength my core:
With years of fat around my lower belly, my core has gotten really weak, affecting my back,causing back pains and affecting my posture. Did you know that wrong posture is a major cause of musculo-skeletal problems post menopause? That's right. Better late than never. So Abs they way!

4. Show my clavicles:
     I mean collar bones. I really love those models showing those pretty collarbones! They look so great. I think its a must have :D. I would buy it if it were sold in stores ..grin!

5. Endurance:
     This is something not related to looks but physical. I would like to climb stairs, jog, work out, without sounding like a out of tune bagpiper. I really would like to improve on my endurance. So right now its a major part of my workout.

These are some of the changes I would like to see in my body.

What are your goals? what changes would you like to see, or have seen in your body?

C25K and me?

2010-03-16T20:39:00.000+05:30

Hello folks, how is the week coming up? With totally no exercise last week and an almost one pound gain (yikes, when did that happen!!), I am ready to rock this week. I asked you a question and thank you all for giving me some great tips! Now I am putting the plan in action and guess how I am doing it! C25K !! That's right, I finally decided to take a plunge.

Now just you give you some history, I hate jogging, hate as in with capital h! I never run, period! Even as a kid I would find ways to avoid running. One more thing I can't do is run outdoors. I would die of embarrassment before trying it out! I see all people looking at me, my fat tyres jumping around me, my face all red and sweaty, nostrils beating like a whale's gills,huffing puffing...ooh! How bad this image plays around in my head! I even hate running on a treadmill in a gym. So C25K is a major challenge for me.

Since running outdoors and on treadmill is out, and since I don't own a treadmill, I decided to modifiy it a bit. I am jogging in place, in my home, instead of running outside. Now before I recieve any comments on that I want to tell you two more things. 1. I have a major exam coming up next month and I can't waste an iota of time with going outside unless I do it early in the morning like say 6 o' clock. 2. The place where I stay is not a safe place for women to go jogging at such un-earthly hours. So I resorted to this modification. I will know if it works as weeks progress. Since today was W1D1 I am not going to comment much. I am also going to add a little bit more calisthenics on days I am not doing C25K. I am really looking forward to lose 4 lbs this week.

I dont mind your comments on this :)

Love
CJ

p.s: I did a little research on this on the net and here is what I found. While actual jogging makes you lose 170 cals for 20 min, Jogging in place can make you lose 121 cals for the same amount of time! Not that bad eh?
(Depends on your weight and age.)

Some good things and some not so good.

2010-03-14T20:41:00.000+05:30

Hello everyone,

How has your week been?

I had an absolutely great week including the weekend. My mom came over on wednesday to help with cooking and took over the house so that I could study for the exam. (Btw it starts tomorrow!Yikes). I studied less than we gossiped ..;-D We had tons and tons of goss to share and not much time. We had some great mama and daughter bonding time though! She also did all the cooking this week. Though she tried to keep it as healthy as poss, she negated it by feeding me bigger portions! And its really hard to say no to a Mom on a mission. Some how she got the idea that I wasn't eating enough. It was hard to convince her that it took me 5 weeks to get the portions right! What irony :D. I already gained almost a pound over the weekend!

Over to other things. There is lot of great stuff happening over here in the bloggieland. Two very wonderful bloggers are going the mama-way. Jenn from watch my butt shrink and Learning to be less. Do stop over to congratulate them!

This week I did not exercise at all, but did manage a maintain.(at least till friday!) I plan to start exercise again on Monday so that next weigh in will see some substantial loss. Keeping my fingers crossed! Mom went back home today, which means portions will be in control again. This experience really surprised me! Just a little bit change in portion size was enough to derail my losing streak. This shows the importance of portion control! With this new found knowledge deeply ingrained in my brain, all I now need to learn is how to tell a mom to stop! Any ideas anyone?

I read a really informative article today on one of the blogs about body fat %. The best way to lose body fat is to build up muscle. I have been trying to incorporate strength training in my workout schedule but haven't been so successful. I am doing the 30 day shred right now and it does include strength in the circuit, but I don't think that is enough. Is it enough or should I include a different routine of strength?

Now to the last bit of help from all of you. Is it possible to lose 4 lbs in a week? What should be the amount of calorie deficit for that?

Please help

CJ

Weigh In - week 6

2010-03-12T07:53:00.002+05:30

Hello,
Today is weigh in week 6. This whole week has been pretty rough for me at work. And with exams coming up on Monday, there was no time to exercise :( The stress was high and I did not really pay attention to food. I did try to stay within the limits and did not let the stress induced eating pattern get me.But even then I knew I could not share a major loss with you this time around.

So with all this history when I stepped on scale this morning I was surprised to see a maintain! That's right, no gain at all! Do you know how happy this makes me? LOL! I am goin' loony :). So the official weight this week is 199.3 lb (no loss-no gain) Status quo.Sadly, I did not reach the magical figure of 10 lbs lost!

Coming week, I'll start working out again and hope to see a big loss to counter no loss this week. Since I'll have more time on hand, as I attend college for only about 3 hours, I'll spend more time working out. YAY!
I am also going to go a bit strict on the diet as well. I don't want to lose the march weight loss challenge! (see the left sidebar).

More on that later, gotta go now

Have a happy weigh in folks!

Changes and challenges

2010-03-09T18:48:00.001+05:30

Hello everyone,
As you would have obviously noticed, I tweaked my blog a little. A new template and a lot more space. I had so many gadgets on the page that two column blog template was looking cramped, or that is what I thought! I hope you like it, cuz after all its for you guys to see :).

Now coming to the main announcement, I will be ~~more~~ bit irregular in blogging this week and next. This will be cuz starting from next Monday I have my prep test coming up. So this week will see me studying for the test and next week I'll be giving the test. The sad part is my exercise has taken a beating because of this. I am trying to squeeze in as much time as possible to study in my day where 8 hours are spent working like ~~donkey~~ good therapist. (If you did not know I am a physiotherapist, trying hard to obtain Masters title in physiotherapy). I am sacrificing my work out time for studying, not a good idea I know. Hopefully I'll resume exercise next week. And also I'm keeping crossed about the weight loss challenge for the month. (My self challenge to lose 5 K/ 11 lbs in a month). I am trying to incorporate more exercise in my work by walking around the hospital as much, as many times as possible, taking stairs every time I have to go to visit the patients (around 3-4 times a day). But so far now I am only maintaining. Which is better than a gain.

Also, I'll be visiting all my fave blogs a li'l less and comment a li'l less too. Sorry :( . I love your blogs and hate to miss your wonderful posts, but college beacons. I'll try to visit everyone as much as poss, All work and no play will definitely make me a dull gal ;-).

So, I'll see ya when I see ya.
Muah everyone.

Happy Losing!

CJ

What happens when you LOSE?

2010-03-07T13:55:00.000+05:30

Five weeks into the journey of weight loss, I have seen some major changes happening to me. I would like to tell you that this is not my first time. I have been overweight ever since I can remember. Slowly piling on weight each passing year. Once in a while I would say, thats it now I have to lose weight. I would be successful in losing 10-12 lbs . Everyone would comment on how well I am looking with just 10 lbs off. I would get complacent, stop trying any longer and before I could even blink those 10 lbs would creep back on me along with some of their friends and relatives putting me to a higher weight each time. This is how I ended up being 209 lbs!

This time around I wanted to lose weight the proper way. Slowly but surely. Doing it right and not stopping till I reached my ultimate goal of 147 lbs. I did not have any plans, but I had a few concepts in mind. But what helped me most were all the wonderful blogs I read! They were inspirational! I made use of their experience and mistakes and realized, I am not alone!. This helped me tremendously.

Last friday when I weighed below 200, something I have not done since probably 3 years (I never stepped on scales before, I believed in ignorance being bliss!). I realized that this time around I had changed. I was excited to reach the milestone, but I was not resting on the laurels! I knew I had to move on, to the next goal. This was change number one.

Yesterday we went to a dinner at a relative's place. I could have eaten like a glutton, normally. Especially since no one was watching, and it was weekend. But no sir! I made healthier choices, ate more salad, avoided fried stuff, controlled my portions, avoided seconds, and slipped off the dessert into hubby's plate when an aunt forcibly served me one! I was shocked with myself. I was restrained and avoided being overwhelmed by food. Change number two!

Change number three is the fact that I have now begun to make life long changes in my eating habits and slowly begun to accept the fact that what I doing right now is for life and not just a few month effort to lose weight. This is not how I looked at it in the beginning. I started it as a 6 month project, Jan-June ! But then I wondered, what would happen after June? Assuming I reached my goal in June, what would I do next. I knew I would go back to the old ways and end like before! Then I sat down thinking that first I had to change the way I think. I knew then that just 6 months is not enough I had to make it a life style change to lose weight and never get it back! That was a huge effort for me, as I kept resisting it initially. Nobody wants to change the way they live, overnight, even though they know its for their own good! I am slowly learning to accept this and work on it now, but its easier said than done.

I know I'll need to keep finding motivation to continue this. There will be days when I'll still want to stop all this and go back to being my old self. But the journey has brought me so far now that it'll be a challenge to go backwards. I now have a stronger mind and will power than I did at the start. I'll die before I quit! For sure!

Love
CJ

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Weigh in - week 5

2010-03-05T07:37:00.002+05:30

Starting weight - 209lbs / 95 kgs

Weight at the last weigh in - 201.7 (1st March)

Current weight - 199.3

Bye bye 200s and Hello Onederland!

A milestone achieved, many more to come! Last week when I weighed at 201 something, I set myself a mini goal of crossing the 200lb mark by next weigh in. I almost thought I would not make it when for 3 consecutive days the scale did not budge. I know I should not weigh myself everyday, but I became sorta obsessed with it :(. But this morning when I weighed in, the scale gods suddenly decided to be kind and then rest is history! Alright I'll stop acting lunatic . But then you cant see me grinning !

Now to plan ahead. As you can see, my sidebar at the top, my goal this month is to lose 5 k's by the end of this month. (Which is equal to 11 lbs.) One K down 4 more to go. Not easy, as you would know. But a challenge will motivate me for sure.

My NSV this week was a loss of 1/2 inch around my hips. Not a great loss, but significant one as this means a total of 2" off! So i am down to 48" from 50" at the start. I am only measuring my hips because that is my problem area. I am very typical pear shaped, with narrower waist and very very broad hips. Hence the loss of 2" is a major victory for me. I am hoping to lose a toatl of 5" by the end of this month.

My treat this week for reaching the milestone? Trip to a parlor. :)

So long for now.
Ciao.

CJ

Ramdom Notes

2010-03-03T08:47:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I binged again. I cannot believe I am still not able to prevent myself from snacking! The worst time is from when I return back home from college up until dinner. From 5 pm to 7pm. That is when I am the weakest, when I feel the cravings, when I want to eat like there is no tomorrow. Yesterday I ate some real bad junk food till I was so stuffed I had to throw out some remaining food in the bin. Then after about half an hour I ate 2 slices of bread with sugar in it! Thats right! So crazy! I did try to eat less at dinner time, but when I was in bed I started to feel acidic in the stomach and was uncomfortable for at least an hour, bah! Serves me right I guess.

I am compensating today by going totally light. I had oatmeal with banana and milk for breakfast and have packed fruits for lunch. I'll only have a proper meal at dinner time today.

Snacking pre-dinner is becoming one of my major issues. I am so tired and drained when I am back from college that I have no, absolutely no control on myself. And I end up eating bad stuff. I dont stock them at home. But that is still not curbing it. Like yesterday, I went and bought a pack of ready to make bhel puri. BAD Choice!

On the other hand, my goal of doing 5x workouts a week is going great with 2 workouts done in 3 days, Monday and today, discounting the w/o on sunday. So far so good. I have 3 more w/o's to do by this weekend. I want to really lose upto 4 lbs by this weekend. But I am not sure if that is going to happen. Lets hope for the best! Friday is my next weigh in, and it will all be out in the open then. maybe this will motivate me to stop snacking before dinner.

How has your week been so far?

Goals For March

2010-03-01T17:20:00.000+05:30

Feb is gone! And here comes March, with a spring in its step. Ok ok I am not writing poetry here ;-), I am not a poetry kinda person :). Feb has been quite a good month for me. Its been only 3 weeks since I started with my weight loss journey and I have already lost nearly 4 Kilos/ 7 lbs! That is not too bad right? I know they say that the first few pounds are the easiest to lose. So, I don't want to take any chances. I still need to work on my food habits, still need to work on exercising more. Lotsa issues still to be handled. Hence, goals for March.

Firstly I want to mention the positives and negatives of the last month,

-Positives-
First would obviously be the 4 kilo loss.

Being able to resist junk food . period.

I also have noticed a drastic reduction in cravings!

Changing some of my food habits, like, I have now begun eating a lot of fruits! This, for someone who did not like any fruits except mango and tomato, is a big change!

Being able to climb flight of stairs, twice a day without even a groan from the knees!

Drinking almost 6-8 glasses of water a day!

Now for some negatives-

Not exercising 5 times/week. I have not been able to work out more than twice a week.

Not learning to control portions well yet.

Not eating salads more often.

Cheating on diet more often than not :(

Still unable to drink sugarless tea! (just hate it!)

So the goals for March will be.

1. Work out 5 times/week.

2. Make a salad for dinner everyday.

3. Try even harder to portion well.

4. Lose 5 kilos by the end of this month.

5. Study for the exams.

Ok the last one has nothing to do with weight loss, but I thought I would add it to get a whole number to the list :D .

Do you have any goals for this month?

CJ

A few changes here and there and some loss!

2010-02-26T18:03:00.000+05:30

I finally got my new digital weighing scale! And what a good news it brought! According to the new scale I am down by 7 pounds! My official weight is 201.7. This is for week 3. I had expected to see a bigger number but I am very happy with my new scale ;). Also I will be weighing on Fridays from today.

Now coming to the workouts. Yesterday was strength for the upper body, so today will be cardio for 30 mins. I am planning to do the Shred itself today. But I am planning to design my own cardio workout plan.

Today's food log has been quite good expect for the honey crusted doughnut I ate in the noon :( Bad me! I am sure it will show on my scale next week ..sigh! Only redemption will be to workout twice as hard. Jillian here I come!

How has your day been today?

Bunny Challenge!

2010-02-25T08:46:00.000+05:30

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I had entered the 'Easter bunny Challenge' .The challenge is to lose one pound each week till Easter and also to have a mini goal every week. Well, my mini goal last week was workout 5 times/week. But as mentioned in yesterday's post, I failed to do so. But I still lost a pound. So I get this:

Isn't it cute?

So today I started workouts again after quite a long gap. I have decided to still work out 5 times a week. But the twist is, out of 5 days 2 days will be purely strength and 3 days will be pure cardio. So today I did strength for upper body and back. Tomorrow will be cardio.

I still have to design a proper work out plan. But if you have any suggestions please do tell me.

Love

Weekly weigh in

2010-02-23T08:19:00.001+05:30

So yesterday was my 3rd weigh in and I lost just one pound instead of 2 like the previous week :( But that would be normal since I was only dieting and exercised only 2 days in a week. And since I am having TOM I could have bloated up too. Actually I feel myself bloating still more. So in the end I was not disappointed with one pound loss. However, since I checked my weight this time too, on the konky college machine, I am not sure if I have lost anything at all! Like last night, when I first stepped on it it showed total of 3 lbs gone. On the second attempt it showed 2 lbs gone! And on the 3rd attempt it put me back to my starting weight!

But the good news is that the weighing scale that I was to buy, has been bought! It will arrive by 1st March, which will be the moment of truth! I am sure I'll be a bit ~~surprised~~ shocked at the first reading on the new scale.

Last week was pretty good as far as food went. I could not exercise well since my flu and cold weren't planning on leaving me! This week I have evening duty till thursday, which means I come home by 8:30 or 9:00 pm. I am so tired by then that all I think of is a dinner and then bed :( . I am planning to squeeze in a workout in the morning itself, but when the alarm rings I loathe getting out of bed. I am hoping to get at least 3 workouts this week.

How has your week been?

CJ

Up and about

2010-02-19T08:44:00.000+05:30

The cold and fever is gone, period. I am feeling much better. Isn't it yucky being sick? I could exercise only 2 days so far this week. Monday and today. That is bad, considering my mini goal of working out 5 times this week. :( . But on the up side food wise I have been pretty decent. So I may still hope to lose something this week!

The best news is this weekend I'll finally buy a scale! Yeah that's right, I don't have a weighing scale. Ignorance was bliss folks! So now, I'll finally go scale shopping on weekend and buy one.

Today has begun at a very good note. One workout done in the morning! YAY! A bowl of oats and banana for breakfast and I am ready to conquer the world.

Catch ya later!

Ciao.

A Challenge and some tricks!

2010-02-17T14:59:00.001+05:30

This is the cute as the bunny Easter challenge at MochaTrina. The challenge is to lose 7 pounds in 7 weeks till Easter! This is my first challenge and I am absolutely lookin forward to making a short work of it!

We are also supposed to have mini goals every week. My mini goal this week is to work out for 5 times/week. One down, 4 more to go!

Now to the second part of the title. The tricks. No I am not practicing magic, just some great tips I discovered this week that helped me lose weight. They might not be new, or unique but they did work,

1. Drinking a glass full of water just before a meal, makes you want to eat so much lesser.

2. Eating a fruit between your breakfast and lunch, reduces cravings for sweet stuff and helps you eat lighter meals at lunch time.

3. Working out in the evening will drastically reduce late night and mid night snacking!

4. Eating a fruit everyday reduces craving for desserts. I now don't crave for sweets at all. And always stock my pantry with fruits.

5. Buddy dieting makes you more accountable. I am buddy dieting with my friend right now and its so much better than doing it alone. Whenever one of us is slipping, like buying chocolates, eating junk, etc the other one immediately stops the sabotage. We discuss foods that we can eat, and try to help each other with dieting. Its a great way to diet at work, when the stress may try to get you!

Do you have any such tricks you use to help with weight loss?

A Quickie And A YAY!

2010-02-16T08:33:00.000+05:30

Ok I did weigh yesterday and here is the result - One KG down!! I am now only 94 kgs! And added surprise is that I have also lost another half an inch! So the grand total is - 1.5 inches and 1 KG lost!

YAY!!

Weekly Weigh In

2010-02-15T07:49:00.000+05:30

This is the weekly weigh in 2. If you remember last week I did not lose any weight. I am hoping I will this time though I am not sure. Why? Because in last whole week I have exercised only once. That's right only ONCE. One frickin' time! Then I fell sick with flu so the long weekend was spent taking meds and sleeping. Though I did managed to eat wisely. Here I must thank all of you who wrote comments on my last post, and said you watched what you eat on weekends. This motivated me a lot! Thank you. I therefore decided not to quit counting my cals on weekends. And the result? I am happy I did not go overboard! Though I did eat junk once on Sat night and once on Sunday night, I still made a choice of eating healthier junk than usual. (If there is anything as 'healthier junk'!!). So today is my moment of truth! I will know if there has been any loss at all.

I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Binge -Oh!

2010-02-12T08:56:00.000+05:30

I managed to control my diet well till evening, yesterday. In the evening it all started with itchy throat, body ache and head ache. Which meant I was coming down with cold and flu! Which also meant I could not exercise! That got me into a bit of a bad mood and I binged like crazy. Ate a lot of fried, oily stuff. I tried to compensate by skipping dinner, but I don't know if that will help.

On the up side I managed to drink almost 10 glasses of water and also did yoga in the morning. But I could not do much in the evening because of this stupid flu. I am still feeling a bit woozy right now. I hope I'll be ok by evening to do the Shred. I have to get to the next level by next week!

I'm going to be home for whole weekend starting from today. Yes! I am in for a long weekend. I have to be careful with food, as I tend to over eat when I dont have much work to do :( . I have prepared a menu for 3 days which i'll be sticking to like strong glue :D

Do you diet on weekends?

Success!

2010-02-10T19:18:00.003+05:30

With no wight loss seen in the last weigh in, I was trying very hard not to be disappointed. And then today morning when I measured my hips, TA DA! one inch lost! From 50 in to 49 in! I started dancing in the buff. I know I am a li'l loony :D

Today has been very good in terms of dieting. I even managed to drink 6 glasses of water. I have also kept my calorie count good. I also successfully curbed a very hard craving to eat potato chips! I feel great. This week I had planned to work out 6 times. But so far I have not worked out even once this week. Bad. Today I'll be doing the 30 day shred. And tomorrow morning I am planning to do some yoga.

It is very difficult to count calories while eating Indian food. I am trying hard to find a way to do that. I am trying to use very less oil in cooking, and stopped eating outside. But still it would be great to know how much calories I am consuming per day.

Does anyone know a good website where I can analyze the recipes to find out the calorie count?

CJ

Weigh in, Weigh out

2010-02-09T07:58:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was my first weigh- in. And I am not sure if I have lost any weight at all! Thats because, when I stepped on the weighing scale, it showed me a kilo less. 93 kgs. But after I stepped on it the next time to re-check, bang! it showed 94 again. I guess the scale is not accurately calibrated. So I decided to record this week's weigh in as 94 kgs itself. Which translates to no loss, no gain.

Last week I worked out only for 3 times a week. This week I am planning to increase it to 6 times/week. I want to know if it will be possible for me to work out 6 times or if I'll feel tired.Also I am hoping it will make a difference at the next weigh-in ;)

Food wise, I totally binged on food on the weekends. My days of no-dieting. Maybe that could explain the zero loss this week! I feel the no-dieting on weekends rule may actually make me eat lot more than what I normally eat on weekends. I will have to keep a track of calories even on weekends. How do I prevent myself from pigging out on weekends?

I am hoping that 6 days of workout and stricter diet on weekends may help me lose out atleast 2 kgs on my next weigh in. Watch this space for more drama ;)

catchya later
CJ

Week one is coming to an end

2010-02-05T17:37:00.000+05:30

Its been a successful week so far for me. I have managed to control my food intake well. I have managed to cook healthily and also avoided junk food completely! A teeny-weeny achievement. Exercise-wise, I have been a little slack. I only exercised 3 times a week instead of the proposed 5 times. I don't yet if that will have a negative impact. Tomorrow and day after will be diet- off days and I wont be able to exercise as well. With my weigh in posted on monday, I am wondering if weekend is going to buffer off my weight loss of the week if there was any?!

Today has been the most satisfying day as far as diet is considered. I have been very careful of what I eat and so far I am doing wonderfully! I still have not got around to logging my food, boo. I'll start it on from Monday. Today I also decided to fix a set menu for breakfast for the week, like bread toast for Mondays, oats on Tuesdays etc. This will help me in two ways. One, it will save me a lot of time as I don't have to think what to prepare every morning. Two, since I'll be incorporating only healthier options, I'll keep my diet on track! Great thinking isn't it?

The other thing I have not yet started is eating dinner before 8 pm. But then maybe I'll blame it on Hubby, who has been coming home late at night every day. Since it is the only meal in the day which we eat together I try not to eat it without him. I have coaxed him to try eating before 8 pm too, so maybe once he starts getting home early, we'll try it out.

So far so good. With Monday being my first weigh in, I am pretty excited as well as slightly nervous! Praying hard to see atleast some change!

Until Monday. Ciao

CJ

Updates

2010-02-04T07:35:00.000+05:30

So its day four of my weight loss program. I have been pretty disciplined about it until now. Here is how it goes.

Day 1(mon) : Diet on track until noon. Then binged. No exercise.

Day 2 (tue) : Diet on track. No binging. No over eating. First day of exercise. Jillian Micheals 30 day shred. Day 1 level 1

Day 3 (wed) : Diet slightly off track. May have cheated a bit. Day 2 level1 of the shred.

What I learned:
I need to be more firm when I refuse food that I have been served.

I need to learn and control my portion sizes.

I can control my cravings!

CJ

Relatives = diet killers

2010-02-03T19:18:00.000+05:30

Yeah thats right! Relatives are serious diet killers. Roadblocks.

Today I maintained my diet really well. That is until I visited a relative in the city. Here in India, guests are considered as god. You can't send away god with an empty stomach now, can you? Hmm. I was fed, nah. Force fed all the banned stuff! Though I managed to keep my wits and sternly avoid being fed sweets. This resulted in reprimands and talk about how a little bit of sweet will not cause any harm etc etc. (me rolling eyes at this point).

When I did tell them I was serious trying to lose weight, I was good naturedly told that there was nothing wrong with me. And that I was just a bit on the healthier side!! Really? Oof! I had a tough time trying to get out of there unscathed and traumatized!

God help! Here I was visiting them with fruits, and they were all but trying to sabotage my diet!

That is why I concluded

Relatives = Diet killers.

Goals for this month

2010-02-02T08:34:00.000+05:30

The goals for month. It is a good way of keeping in line with the big goal, of losing 20 kgs. These mini goals will be a sort of a motivation. So here they are.

1. Lose atleast 4 kgs this month. Minimum will be 2 kgs.

2. Lose atleast 2 inches off my hips.

3. Eat salads for minimum of 4 days in the week.

4. Eat one fruit for dinner everyday.

5. Drink atleast 4 glasses of water everyday.

6. Workout 5 times a week.

7. Cook with 1 tbsp oil/day.

8. Maintain food log.

At the end of the month I'll review my goals and see how I have worked. Also, I'll use the review as a way to make mini goals for the next month by improvising on my failures.

So here's to the Feb!
Happy losing everyone!

Stratergies

2010-02-01T19:32:00.000+05:30

One of the most important thing required in a weight loss program is coping strategy. This is something I learned in my past attempts at weight loss. Always, in a weight loss program, there will be days when the diet goes spiraling out of control, or there will be no time to exercise, or there is an emotional moment which will act like a roadblock. That is when the coping strategies will come into play.

I have identified certain behaviours of mine that cause me to ditch diet and exercise and behave in a very predictable manner.

1. When I realise I have eaten wrong foods, I don't try to correct my diet, instead I'll binge throughout the day thinking I have messed it anyway so why bother.

2. If I miss a workout, I binge. Same reason as above.

3. I make it through almost a third of the day without breaking my diet and then, wham! I go all crazy with food as a congratulatory dinner for making it through at least half a day. Which means the diet is a goner.

4. Some days I end up having, forget-diet-and-exercise-I-am-gonna-eat-anything-I-want, and I-dont-care-about-being-fat days.

5. Eating when I am bored, alone, stressed, happy. Basically emotional eating.

These are a few of my bad habits which I am trying to break. I am planning some coping strategies for the same. I think that identifying roadblocks is the first step in gaining control. Now that I know when I sway, I'll be able to identify the situation and try to control myself. or at least that is the idea.

What coping strategies should I incorporate?

The beginning of a journey

2010-01-28T18:54:00.000+05:30

Hi
I am 26 year old woman, happily married to a great guy for more than a year now. I have been overweight ever since I can remember. The first time I realised that I had to lose weight was when I entered Teenage. I tried to go on diets, joined gyms but was never serious in my efforts. Suffice it to say that I have never known what it feels like to be 'thin', ever, in my life!

The year before my wedding I dieted and exercised and managed to lose upto 10 kilos but it all came back with vengeance post marriage. I have now reached a peak. So I decided to lose it all and gift me a new self.

This year i made a resolution to lose nearly 20 kgs or 40 lbs by December 7th, our second anniversary. This blog will chronicle my journey of weight loss. Also I am hoping it will make me more accountable. So without much ado, lets begin the show!!

♥ CJ