Accountability

Well, I wanted accountability. Now I've got accountability.

In the last couple of years, when I've tried to lose weight, I mostly did it silently. I didn't talk about my weight much. I didn't want others to know what I was doing, because what if I failed? I didn't want to be embarrassed. I didn't want everyone to know what a failure I was.

So this time around, I thought I needed more accountability. I needed more support for my weight loss battle. So I've been telling everyone!! I'm sure people are sick of me talking about it!

Here is some of the accountability I have right now:

1. I have my own accountability group of 7 awesome women!! We are all working on our own goals, but my biggest one is "extreme self care" and becoming healthy. We meet once a month and talk about the progress we've made on our goals.

2. I joined a "First Place" weight loss group. We meet every Thursday and weigh in and share our struggles and victories with each other. It is also very new.

3. I joined a much smaller gym in town and got to know the owner/personal trainer there. That keeps me more accountable because the gym is small enough that she easily knows who is there and who is not! Again---a new thing for me.

4. I signed up for a "Biggest Loser" fundraiser for my favorite non-profit--- http://www.discovery-training.com/ . I ask people to "sponsor" me and for each pound I lose by Jan. 16th, they donate a certain amount to the non-profit. For example, ifi someone sponsors me for $2 a pound and I lose 20 pounds during that time, the person donates $40. I have about 15 people signed up to sponsor me so far and I don't want to have to tell them, "Uhmmm...I owe you money. I gained 5 pounds." People are asking me all the time how I'm doing! (It just started Oct. 10th.)

5. Not to mention, this blog. This blog itself is giving me accountability because I'm putting all this out into the world and being incredibly honest. I'm still struggling to make lasting progress, but I haven't given up and I won't until I'm healthy. I will get there.

The accountability is really kicking in. That's a very good thing.

I miss diet coke!!

I'm definitely cutting down on aspartame. I'm down to about two diet cokes a week. That is a big improvement! By the end of the month, I hope to have Diet Coke out of my diet for good.

But I've cut out everything else with aspartame---it's amazing how many products have it! The rest were relatively easy to cut out. The Diet Coke is the toughest one.

I think about having one every single day!

Another positive---when I used to order diet coke, I now order water. So I'm not only getting less aspartame, but I'm getting more water!

Aspartame

The road to health and fitness isn't just about losing weight and counting calories. I want to be HEALTHY. I want to take care of my body and fuel it with good things---not a bunch of crap and chemicals, like I've been doing the last few years.

So in addition to working out and eating better overall, I'm choosing one bad thing at a time to stop digesting. The first one I'm working on is ASPARTAME and all other chemically-produced sugar substitutes.

When I first started using sugar substitutes many years ago, like most people, I thought I was doing a good thing. I was cutting calories, right? That's good for me, right? Wrong.

According to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aspartame (in products like Equal and most "sugar-free" or "light" food items) has 92 listed side effects including memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, mental confusion, brain lesions, joint pain, Alzheimer's, bloating, nervous system disorders, hair loss, food cravings and weight gain.

I have been FILLING myself with Aspartame the last few years. Again, I thought I was doing something good. I switched from:

• Pepsi/Coke to Diet Pepsi/Coke
• Yogurt to "Light" Yogurt
• Jello Pudding to "Sugar-Free" Jello Pudding
• Putting sugar in my iced tea to putting "Equal" (aspartame) in my iced tea
• Putting sugar in my coffee to putting "Equal" (aspartame) in my coffee
• Putting sugar in my oatmeal to putting "Equal" (aspartame) in my oatmeal

And the list goes on. I used to buy a 200-pack box of Equal every 3-4 weeks. Used every bit of it each time and would panic when I ran out. I made this total switch about 7 years ago.

Have I lost weight during that time? No. I've gained weight. A lot of it.

Another thing that's happened to me during that time span is that I've been losing my hair. It started in a big way about 2002. I used to have the thickest, most beautiful hair. Suddenly, it was just everywhere. Every time I brushed my hair, it was just all over the place.

I asked my hair stylist about it in 2002, and she said women go thru periods of "shedding" their hair and it would probably stop soon. Well, it didn't. For 7 years, I've been losing hair and couldn't figure out why.

Now, I don't know for sure if the large amounts of aspartame have caused this, but it seems like there could be a correlation there. I'm anxious to see if my hair continues to fall out after a few months of my aspartame-ban.

So yesterday, for the first time, I bought regular yogurt, instead of light yogurt. The regular yogurt is 170 calories, while the light yogurt is around 100 calories.

It seems counter-intuitive to go UP in calories to be more healthy, but it's not just about weight loss. It's about my overall health and TAKING CARE of my body.

The diet pepsi/coke is going to be the hardest one to get rid of. It may take me a few weeks. But I can do it.

So my October challenge---GET RID OF ASPARTAME!!

Good month

Well, I went through the whole month of September without a post here! However, that doesn't mean I haven't been making progress in my health and fitness journey. I made sooooo much progress in September!!

I started doing 6:30 a.m. workouts at a local gym---that has been going GREAT. As much as I would like to workout at ANY OTHER TIME besides 6:30 a.m., it's just not practical. Getting up earlier to work out is just the ONLY time I know nothing else will get in the way. So it's the only time of the day I've been able to be consistent.

I just have to accept that I will be starting every weekday (unless I'm sick or on vacation) with a workout for the rest of my life. It needs to be a lifelong habit, if I'm going to be healthy and fit. Once I accept this fact and stop moaning and groaning about it, the better off I will be.

Also in the month of September: I joined a new weight loss group that I'm very excited about, I am working with a personal trainer who is really helping to keep me accountable (and makes sure I show up for those 6:30 a.m. workouts!), I started walking my dog to get some extra exercise in and I am filling my mind with healthy thoughts by reading books on health and fitness.

The one I've read the most is "Skinny B*tch". Yes, the name of the book has an obscenity in it, which I don't like because it makes it more difficult to talk about or recommend to anyone! And the book itself is filled with profanity, which makes it even harder!

But it is one of the best health books I've ever read. It is real and very straight-forward and also quite entertaining to read (if you can get past the profanity), while still being incredibly informative.

I'll talk more about this book in future posts, but it is really having a positive effect on me.

September has been a GREAT month for me. I'm really on the right track---food and exercise both---and it will just get better in October!

No excuses

You know that little voice inside of you that stops you from trying to do the thing you know you need to do? I call it the "excuses" voice. It comes up EVERY TIME I am planning to do something I need to do. And I have to learn to recognize it and FIGHT it.

For example, say it is almost lunchtime. Here is the conversation in my head.

Me: "Maybe I'll have a spinach salad with grilled chicken."
Excuses voice: "But wouldn't a trip to the drive-thru at Jack In the Box be so much easier?"
Excuses voice continues: "You can have a salad tonight. One drive-thru meal isn't going to hurt you."
Excuses voice keeps going: "Besides, you have so much work to do. It would take much less time to drive thru Jack In the Box."
Excuses voice keeps going: "Plus, the salad would only keep you full for an hour or maybe two hours at the most. You'll just have to stop again and fix something else. You are just too busy for that. You need to get filled up enough to work for the next 4-5 hours."
Excuses voice keeps going: "You can have the salad another time. It's just one meal."

Notice the "me" voice never comes back. I almost always let the excuses voice keep going and talk me into doing what I really shouldn't do. It just keeps going and going until it convinces me. This happens with what I eat, exercising, cleaning house and every other thing I know I need to do (and sometimes even WANT to do), but I let that stupid voice win too many times.

It reared it's ugly head again tonight. But I won. The trick is recognizing it immediately and shutting it OFF.

I was planning to go to my exercise Zumba class tonight at the gym. My son was going to go to the gym with me, however, he came home from school with a headache and took some Advil and laid down.

The excuses voice started in immediately.

Excuses voice: "Well, since Blake isn't going, you really don't need to waste the gas...." I shut it down and completely put it out of mind.
As I'm putting on my workout clothes, it comes back.
Excuses voice: "You really don't have time to do this. You are on deadline and you have so much work...." I shut it down again, literally shook my head and kept moving forward.
On the WAY to the gym:
Excuses voice: "You know you don't even really have to go to the class. You can just walk around a store for a little bit and......" Shut it down again. Shook it out of my head.

The more I shut it down, the less the voice was able to get out. All the way to the class it kept trying to come up but I shut it down immediately, made it to my Zumba class, did the full hour (excuses voice was even trying to justify leaving early!!!!) and felt GREAT afterwards.

Not just from the exercising, but I felt victorious over that excuses voice that has mostly succeeded in keeping me from the life and health I deserve!!!

I think if I can remain aware of that voice and recognize it when it comes up, it could really make a HUGE impact on reaching my health and fitness goals.

Putting it all together

Well, I had my exercise going GREAT in July. But my food was very bad.

In August, I really improved a LOT in my food, but with my new job I didn't make the time for exercise. Then towards the end of the month when I corrected the "time" problem and MADE the time for exercise, I just flat out didn't do it.

Is September the month I finally put it all together?

I'm feeling pretty good about it!

Favorite meals

Here are some of my favorite meals that are helping me eat more nutritious!

Favorite Breakfast:

• 2 veggie sausage patties (Morningstar) and a fat-free Yoplait yogurt----LOVE this breakfast and it keeps me full for hours!!
• Small bowl of oatmeal with a little bit of honey for sweetness, with fruit such as strawberries or an apple
• Fat-free Yoplait yogurt with fruit---love to put blueberries in the Strawberry/Banana flavored one---and a Fiber One granola bar
• Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal with Light Vanilla Soy milk and fruit

With most breakfast meals, I have a 16 ounce bottle of water with the Lipton Green Tea "Energize" packet---blueberry/pomegranate flavor. (This is like my "coffee", since I don't do coffee!)

Favorite Lunch/Dinner:

• Sliced Chicken Breast on top of a HUGE pile of baby spinach leaves and tomatoes with just a touch of light ranch dressing---makes an enormous and wonderful salad
• 2 Wasa multi-grain crackers topped with turkey and half a slice of cheddar cheese
• Chicken breast with 2 vegetables---such as carrots, broccoli, black beans and big pile of baby spinach leaves
• Light, multi-grain Flat-Out wrap filled with salsa, black beans, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, low fat grated cheese and mushrooms----this is by far my FAVORITE!!! Sooooooo good!
• Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice meal--always an easy stand-by if needed for time and convenience!
• One slice of whole grain bread with peanut butter (spread lightly) and honey with a fat-free yogurt or fruit
• 2 Garden Veggie Burger patties (Morningstar) with a big pile of baby spinach leaves---LOVE this meal, too!! I also have a very small amount of light ranch I dip each bite of the patty in

Favorite Snacks:

• sliced green apple
• banana
• Fiber One granola bar
• Those little Del Monte cups of Pineapple slices you find in the produce section----LOVE these!!!!! So refreshing!!
• All-Bran garlic and herb crackers with hummus
• Fat-free Yoplait yogurt---favorite flavors are Orange, White Chocolate/Strawberry, Strawberry/Banana and Cinnamon Roll
• Handful of almonds
• Strawberries
• Orange
• Purple seedless grapes!

Yummy!